Mohanlal - The Extremely Lucky Talent.

"Mohanlal - The Extremely Lucky Talent."

No matter how talented you are. Unless someone recognize it and use it on a canvas, the value of that talent may not be felt among the millions. I consider Mohanlal extremely lucky in that case. We used to say "Right Time, Right Place". I would like to add more "Right Time, Right Era, Right Place, Right Person". When 'Manjil Virinja Pookkal' happened, Malayalam Film Industry was awaiting for a change from usual style of commercial products. The era was early 80s which later became the foundation stone of the Golden Era of Malayalam Cinema.

Mohanlal may not have possessed the same confidence and the foundation was extremely important for the actor in him to be polished and refined and thus gain confidence to be the actor he was destined to be.

We call him the actor with born talent unlike Mammootty (for whom also I have great admiration) who was a trained method actor. But as he claimed many times during his interviews, "I never used to plan my life". So there should be a filmmaker or a group of film makers that have recognized the talent in Mohanlal and upgraded from playing mere negative characters to a lead actor capable enough to handle versatile roles. But that doesn't end over there. The group should be equally talented enough to come up with films that can provide a zone for Mohanlal the talent to exhibit his scintillating acting skills. When the group comprises of directors like Bharathan, Padmarajan, IV Sasi, Sasikumar, Joshiy, Fazil followed by then new generation directors like Sibi Malayil, Sathyan Anthikkad, Kamal, Priyadarshan, Thampy Kannanthanam, Venu Nagavally etc. etc. and writers like T Damodaran, MT Vasudevan Nair, John Paul, AK Lohitadas, SN Swamy, Sreenivasan, Dennis Joseph, Cherian Kalpakavaadi etc. etc. its nothing but a dream ride for an actor like Mohanlal to dominate in every kind of cinema, be it art, commercial or parallel.

Mohanlal himself has recognized the above during many moments, "Me and Mr Mammotty are still recognized or still considered by the audience because of the roles and movies we got during the 80s and 90s."

Regarding Mohanlal, there is a very special place as far as music is concerned. I believe this is one place where he raced way ahead of contemporaries. The songs played a big role in his movies. Again he was extremely lucky to be part of an era of some of the brilliant music directors of Malayalam Cinema consisting of Raveendran, Johnson, MG Radhakrishnan, SP Venkatesh, Shyam etc. etc. and lyricists like ONV Kurup, Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri, Gireesh Puthanchery, Bichu Thirumala etc. etc. where Mohanlal - Raveendran - Yesudas team was recognized as the best post Prem Nazeer - Yesudas team. The main reason why I wrote this write up is because of the song "Nirangale Paadu..." from Aham. I would like to end this write up by lending words from Fahad Fazil during the event, Devanganam - A tribute to Johnson.

"Whenever I hear songs of 80s and 90s by Johnson, Raveendran etc. etc. I always thought at least once... "Ithupole oru gaanathinu njangalkku cinemayil chundanakkaan bhagyam labhichirunnenkil..."

Just like that, many new actors would have wondered the same whenever they see old movies of Mohanlal and Mammootty. Maybe that is the reason why they are quenching thirst through remakes, rehashes and remixes. But classics always remain classics..!!