India's answer to Marlon Brando!!!

In Iruvar, Mohanlal played the entire lifetime of a character starting from the age of 30, going through 40, 50, finally reaching 60. He did the character very gracefully. In Iruvar, Mohanlal made physical transitions both in body and face, without any makeup (noted). Also as per many brilliant directors like Manirathnam, Hariharan, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, it is a very difficult role for any actor, since there are so many delicate situations for the character, which requires a great amount of subtlety. (Eg. When Mohanlal’s subordinate asks him to come out of a theatre where he was stunned to see a new face looked similar to his dead wife, see the body language and expression on his face. This is what we call real subtle acting.)

He explained on screen what is meant by "deliberate underplay of emotions" in the definition of acting, through the movie Iruvar. When the movie was screened in America, Times Magazine stated "Mohanlal : India’s answer to Marlon Brando."