In his speech after receiving the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award from President Draupadi Murmu in New Delhi on September 23, actor Mohanlal stated that he never “dared to dream” that one day he would win the country’s highest cinematic honour. But his artistic journey of close to five decades with over 400 films and five National Film Awards has been nothing short of a dream. At the age of 65 and still going strong, he remains arguably one of the most influential actors of Malayalam cinema. A cultural idol, he has inspired a generation of writers and filmmakers to craft stories around him.
Born in Elanthoor, Pathanamthitta district, Kerala, on May 21, 1960, to Viswanathan Nair, a former bureaucrat, and Santhakumari, he nurtured a passion for acting from his school days. In his sixth-grade at the Government Model Boys Higher Secondary School, Thiruvananthapuram, he played the character of a 90-year-old in the play Computer Boy and won the best actor award.
Mohanlal made his film debut in 1978 at the age of 18 as a mentally challenged servant in Thiranottam while pursuing his undergraduate programme at Mahatma Gandhi College in Thiruvananthapuram. An experiment by a group of his close friends and avid movie buffs that included its director Ashok Kumar, the film never had a full theatrical release after it was hit by censorship issues.
The turning point in his career came in 1980 when debutant director Fazil was searching for a new face to play the menacing villain in his movie Manjil Virinja Pookkal. With his overgrown, curly hair and a distinctive slanted shoulder, he brought a fresh perspective to the role of Narendran. Though the movie featured the debut of actors Shankar and Poornima Jayaram in lead roles, the antagonist emerged as the talk of the town.
There was no looking back since then as he catapulted into the big league. He went on to redefine stardom in the Malayalam film industry and dominated the landscape alongside Mammootty in the first two decades of his career.
He aligned with filmmakers who steered a new path in Malayalam cinema by combining commercial elements with unique story-telling perspectives.
At the age of 26 in 1986, Mohanlal won his maiden Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor for his outstanding portrayal of a struggling common man in filmmaker Sathyan Anthikad’s comedy drama T.P. Balagopalan M.A. Together, they made popular movies such as Sanmanassullavarkku Samadhanam, Gandhinagar 2nd Street (1986), Nadodikattu (1987), and Varavelpu (1989) that helped him seal a position as a man-next-door.
Rise of a star
The year 1986 was special as he rode into super-stardom after playing the role of an underworld don with characteristic ease in the box-office hit Rajavinte Makan directed by Thampi Kannanthanam. The high point in his career came in 1989 after he won the Special Mention at the National Film Award for “portraying a young man’s agony and pain marvellously and in unique style” as Sethumadhavan in filmmaker Sibi Malayil’s cult-classic Kireedam. In 1991, he elevated his mastery over the craft by coming out with a subtle, but captivating portrayal of a classical singer in Bharatham by Sibi Malayil for which he won his maiden National Film Award for Best Actor.
Despite having no formal training in Kathakali, Mohanlal’s character Kunjikuttan in acclaimed filmmaker Shaji N. Karun’s Vanaprastham, which mapped the identity struggle of an artiste, earned him his second National Film Award for Best Actor in 1999. The actor had often recalled in his interviews that Kathakali maestros, including Kalamandalam Gopi, who acted in the movie, helped him imbibe the nuances of the traditional art form.
Filmmakers have often termed his acting style “natural, spontaneous and intense”. “His process is much of an internalisation of the character’s emotional territory. Be it the trembling of his hands as he dips his face into the belongings of his brother, who is presumed dead in Bharatham or the climax scene of Dasaratham, both close-up shots, he brings in a magic that cannot be replicated by anyone. He never carries the weight of his characters on his shoulders,” says Sibi Malayil, who gave him another stellar role as Sathyanathan, a convict on death row in Sadayam, penned by the legendary author M.T. Vasudevan Nair in 1992. His impeccable comic timing encouraged Priyadarshan, his friend from his early career days, to bring laughter on the big screen as seen in movies such as Boeing Boeing (1985), Vellanakalude Naadu (1988), Kilukkam (1991), and Thenmavin Kombath (1994), to name a few. He crossed the borders to try his luck in other industries, though it was short-lived. He played the character of Anandan with aplomb in Mani Ratnam’s political drama Iruvar in 1997. In 2002, he joined hands with Ram Gopal Varma in the Hindi movie Company.
Though he was criticised for the poor selection of some scripts and repeated portrayal of larger-than-life roles after 2000, he bounced back to satisfy both the critics and his fans alike. Pulimurugan (2016) by Vysakh, and the Drishyam and Lucifer franchises, directed by Jeethu Joseph and Prithviraj Sukumaran, respectively, made it big in the box-office.
Success stories
The year 2025 seems to augur well for Mohanlal with the back-to-back successes of Tharun Moorthy’s Thudarum and Hridayapoorvam by Sathyan Anthikad. He ventured into producing movies much early in his career and tasted both success and failure in equal measure. Some of his productions included His Highness Abdullah, Bharatham, and Mithunam, among others. His love for the stage saw him acting in two Sanskrit plays, Karnabharam and Chayamukhi. He burnt his fingers after his directorial debut Barroz, a 3D fantasy drama, tanked.
Mohanlal courted controversies that included the legal wrangles pertaining to the alleged illegal possession of ivory artefacts and the dissolution of the executive committee of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) led by him on August 27, 2024 following the release of the K. Hema Committee report on the problems faced by women in the Malayalam film industry. He expressed regret for “some of the political and social themes” in his L2: Empuraan, the second part of the Lucifer franchise, following right-wing backlash.
Mohanlal’s rich repository of work has earned him several accolades. In 2009, he was given the honorary title of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Territorial Army. He was given the Padma Shri in 2001 and the Padma Bhushan in 2019 by the Union government. He holds the distinction of being the second film personality from Kerala, after filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, to be honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke award. An interesting mix of new projects awaits Mohanlal as he basks in the glory of the coveted recognition.
Published – September 28, 2025 01:00 am IST
