Mohanlal's Range of Frustrations

We have seen Mohanlal donning various avatars during his illustrious career. But the main reason why he attained such popularity is mainly due to his extraordinary ability to makethings look simple as far as acting is concerned. This simplicity helped him to portray common man in a manner which people could easily relate despite of his stardom. This isindeed a feat mainly because the image of star often affects the common man's image and affect the overall impression of the movie. This is where Mohanlal stood apart because he was able to to portray the common man along with characters demanding his star image with 100% perfection.

During the budding period of Mohanlal, Sathyan Anthikad teamed up with Sreenivasan to change the route of the actor who was rarely seen in a common man's role with a positive image. They started off with TP Balagopalan MA, which became the turning point of the careers of the trio and formed the famous team of Mohanlal-Sathyan Anthikad-Sreenivasan team. They followed it with films like Sanmanassullavarkku Samaadhanam, Gandhinagar IInd Street, Naadodikaattu, Pattanapravesham and finally ended up with Varavelppu. Despite of the 100% success at box office and critics alike, the team wasn't able to work for last 24 years.

Now a majority is quite aware about the brilliance of that film. The image of the Kerala Society in the field of Business/Industry/Union which was exhibited through this film is still relevant. But my focus is on that particular moment which played the crux of the whole film. Here Mohanlal as Murali was able to convey an ulterior image of the movie through that particular scene. Mohanlal was asked to convey Murali's "Frustration" in three different manners.

Anger with Frustration:- Murali, who was a novice in the field, was advised by Chathukutty (Innocent) to bribe the officer in order to tackle the situation. When it got backfired completely, Murali naturally showered his anger on Chathukutty.

Smile with Frustration:- Recalling his brother's advise on how to deal with the labours of Kerala. We can see Murali trying his level best to attain a smile on his face within his frustration. I am sure many of us had to go through similar situation in our life even if we are not in the business world. Check out the way his teeth gets revealed onto the screen and plays with Chathukutty's chin in order to convey that he is not angry with him.

Sadness/Helplessness with Frustration:- This might be the easiest expression out of the lot yet he had to convey with perfection. Murali's helplessness was clearly conveyed where he got tied completely without providing a space to let out his frustrations due to his current situation.
All this... Within 15 seconds... The Perfect Common Man.