9 Remarkable Years That Defined Mohanlal’s Glittering Film Career

19th December 2013, Jeethu Joesph’s ‘Drishyam’ was released. Do I need to say anything more? Mohanlal’s character Gerogekutty is considered as his best performance in the fourth decade of his film career by both general audience and critics. The film also went on to become the first Malayalam movie to cross the Rs. 50 crore mark in theater collection. ‘Drishyam’ collected a total of Rs. 75 crores. Still you have any doubt why he is called ‘The Complete Actor’.

In this year, he completed 25 years of first appearing on the Silver Screen. Also, Mohanlal gave one of his most solid performance in this year and shutting down the criticism against him of becoming type-casted. He played the role of Rameshan, an Alzheimer patient in Blessy’s family-drama ‘Thanmatra’. His performance was so splendid and realistic that most people left the theaters with teary eyes. This the victory of an actor. The movie also helped in generating a lot of awareness about the disease in the common public. For this movie, Indian Medical Association felicitated him with an honorary award; indeed a rare honor.

Though this year didn’t produce much success for the actor on his home turf but gave him a remarkable entry into Bollywood, which only most can hope for. It was the golden period of Ram Gopal Varma and Mohanlal got the role of Mumbai city Police Commissioner Sreenivasan IPS in the underworld movie ‘Company’. The movie was both critical and commercial success and Mohanlal found himself to be the recipient of appreciation from all corners of the Indian film industry. The role also fetched him an IIFA and Star Screen award for best supporting actor.

The Millennium year was a fortune turner for him and re-enforced the point why he is rightfully called the ‘Box Office Record Maker’. In 2000, Malayalam cinema saw Mohanlal as Induchoodan in Shaji Kailas-Renjith team’s ‘Narasimham’. It was one of the most important films, not only in his career but also in the Malayalam cinema. The film broke all the collection records of any Malayalam film. It also established a typical character style and movie success formula which was tried by many in the later years but miserably failed; because Mohanlal and only Mohanlal can create such a visual experience through such a character.

Be it an actor from Bollywood or Malayalam or any other industry, they will consider it as their privilege and good fortune if and when a movie they acted becomes the nation’s official entry to the biggest film awards in the world, ‘The Academy Awards’. Mohanlal got this privilege for Rajiv Anchal directed spiritual-fantasy ‘Guru’. Though the movie flopped at box office, as an actor it was a proud movement for him when ‘Guru’ became India’s official nomination to the Best Foreign Film category in Oscars. The year was also the one which marked his proper entry to Tamil films with Mani Ratnam’s ‘Iruvar’. And Mohanlal was the first lead actor to romance Miss World Aishwarya Rai on the big screen.

It is the dream of any actor to be recognized nationally and be adjourned as the ‘Best Actor’ in the whole nation. And Mohanlal achieved this feat in 1991. He received the award for giving life to the character of Kalliyur Gopinathan in the movie ‘Bharatam’ directed by Sibi Malayil. As a cherry on the top, he also received that year’s Best Actor award in Kerala State Film awards for the same performance. This was the second film of his production company ‘Pranavam Arts’, named after his son Pranav Mohanlal.

In many ways, 1986 was the single most prominent year in Lalettan’s career so far. He had 34 films credited to him that year, which is his most releases in a calendar year. And these films were not belonging to a single genre but was spread across different genres, directed by almost all the legendary and hit-making directors of Malayalam at that time. This also set another example for his versatility. This was the year of Sathyan Anthikad’s ‘T.P. Balagopalan M.A.’ which fetched him his first Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor. Then came Thampi Kannamthanam’s ‘Rajavinte Makan’. The character of underworld don Vincent Gomez officially titled him as the ‘Super Star’ of Malayalam cinema.

How can any Malayalam film lover not remember this year? The year when Mohanlal first appeared on the big screen. It was in Fazil’s ‘Manjil Virinja Pookal’ which got released on 25th December 1980. We always have the tendency to dislike the villains. But Mohanlal was one of the few exception scenarios. He swept into the hearts of both critics and general audience through his portrayal of Narendran. Only a brilliant actor can make this happen and he did.

This year holds a lot of importance in his life and passion for acting. This was the year when the world came to know about his talent in acting, for the very first time. When he was in sixth grade, he competed against tenth-grade​ students and won the ‘Best Actor’ award in his school. His first award in acting! This victory reinforced his determination to choose the path of acting and motivated him to be more passionate about it.