It is Mohanlal’s birthday today. It’s a herculean task to think of ways to show our love for this incredible actor. It’s going to take us hours and hours of work to do it. At least that’s what we told our editor. In reality, we knew all of this off the top of our heads, and spent 10 minutes writing it and the rest of the time playing all his movies in our heads. In repeat.
Apparently Mohanlal was a professional wrestler who was all set to participate in the Delhi National championship. The day he was supposed to leave, he got his first call to audition from Navodaya Studios for Fazil’s Manjil Virinja Pookkal. Only later did he come to know that his friends had sent his photographs to the studio. The rest of course is history.
Lalettan is a certified Taekwondo expert who also underwent 18 months of “escape artist” training under a famous magician in Kerala.
Photo on this page courtesy Wikipedia – the Mohanlal page.
The biggest irony about this uninhibited actor is that in person he is incredibly shy and is known to be nervous with interviews. You can’t see it, but he is totally shy behind those shades.
Also, Lalettan and Mohanlal are the same person.
Picture on this page courtesy Indiatimes.
He is the youngest actor to win a National Award.
Mohanlal’s devotion towards his craft is legendary- During the filming of Ram Gopal Varma’s Company, when the cinematographer requested the actor to sit inside the makeup room when they were setting up the lights, the actor reportedly said –“No this is my office, let me get used to this space.”
Photo courtesy The Hindu.
The Mammootty-Mohanlal rivalry is legendary, as the actors started their careers during the same time and are still revered as the only true blue superstars of Malayalam cinema. But in real life, they are good friends. During award functions, it is a common sight to see the actors fiddling with each other’s watches and mobile phones. “Lal is a born actor, I am a self-taught actor, someone who learned after coming to the industry,” says Mammootty.
It is said that he will leave no stone unturned to be with his friends: for a ceremony to felicitate director Priyadarshan, he reached Trivandrum in a helicopter from Palakkad to be on time.
It might be good to mention here that Priyadarshan and Mohanlal are friends.
We found this out, so might as well mention that the two were “arch enemies” in college.
He is a huge fan of antiques and his Egmore home is like a museum replete with priceless artefacts and paintings.
He has multiple business ventures, and is involved in pickles, pappads, seafood, construction, restaurants, a post-production film studio, trading stocks and a dubbing school.
It is said that he makes it a point to strike a rapport with his heroines so they look natural when together on screen.
Photo courtesy rediff.com
“Hereafter, I will never work with a man of whom I am a fan. I often forgot to say ‘Cut’ in Iruvar”- Mani Ratnam
“I feel sorry that he was not born to me. His acting is really interesting”- Sivaji Ganesan.
Photo courtesy NDTV.
And finally we love it every time he twirls his moustache , the way he ties up his mundu to pick up a fight, the way he walks with that swagger, with one shoulder slightly hunched, his mischievous smile and his never ending punchlines and… we could go on, but this article is due now.
Unattributed photos in this article were sourced from the actor’s Facebook page.
