Articles

MOHANLAL AND THE YEAR 1986

Mohanlal won state award and became Superstar in 1986

In 1986, Mohanlal wiped his tears and told his sister – ‘Inganeyonnumalla mole ninte kalyanam njan nadathaan agrahichirunnathu’ in ‘T.P Balagopalan M.A’. When he handled the emotional scenes in a beautifully restrained manner , he was rewarded with his first Kerala State Award and a record for the youngest actor to win the same at that time.

In 1986, Mohanlal bashed up the bad guys, carried off the underworld don with utmost conviction and delivered the dialogues with maturity and grace in the action thriller –‘Rajavinte Makan’. Both the media and audience found it more than enough to anoint him the next Superstar. As for the iconic “My number is 2255“, it lived on forever.

In 1986, Mohanlal told Shaari –‘Namuku gramangalil chennu rapaarkam‘ in Padmarajan’s romantic classic ‘Namuku Parkkan Munthiri Thoppukal’ and a proposal scene has never been so beautiful after.

In 1986, Mohanlal played characters who did not know English or Hindi in‘ Gandhinagar Second Street’ , ‘ Mazha Peyyunnu Madhalam Kottunnu’ and ‘Doore Doore Oru Koodu Koottam’. But years later, we still keep laughing to his ‘Hum ghoorka hoon, hain, hein’,  kilomoters and kilometers’ or ‘ Book is beautiful..’

In 1986, Mohanlal told Sreenivasan -‘Nee ithra bayankaranaaya vivaram njan arinjilla’ in ‘Sanmanasullavarku Samadhanam’ and his innocent tone and expression still stay with us.
 
In 1986, Mohanlal burned the evidence to save his brother in the climax of Padmarajan’s mystery thriller –‘Kariyila Kattu Pole’, an ending that still continues to haunt us. There is such a likable calmness when Mohanlal plays investigating officer in Cinema.
 
In 1986, Mohanlal left a lump in our throats when we saw the fate of his characters at the end of the Tragedies-‘Thalavattom’ and ‘Ninnishtam Ennishtam’.
 
In 1986, he played a strong supporting role to the female lead in M.T Vasudevan Nair’s drama – ‘Panchagni’.
 
In 1986, he also held our attention throughout a movie with only his voice and as the beloved Telephone Uncle in ‘Onnu Muthal Poojyam Vare’

 

In 1986, he also left us in shock when Sunny’s demise came at such an expected point in ‘Sukhamo Devi’

 
In 1986, he also continued his command over roles with grey shades as the guy with stammer in ‘Poomukapadiyil Ninneyum Kaathu’. His intro on a bike with sunglasses and headphones is still a popular image
 
Yes all this and much more happened in a single year – 1986. Mohanlal did a whopping 34 movies in this year. How an actor could do such a whole lot of movies back then and still get into the skin of each of those characters is still a mystery to me ! At the age of just 26, Mohanlal was living the dream of any actor.
 
Mohanlal made his debut as a villain in 1980’s Manjil Virinja Pookkal. Over the next 5 years, he got to mainly play only negative characters or supporting roles. By 1985, he had started showing a good flair for comedy in Priyadarshan movies – ‘Aram + Aram=Kinnaram’ and ‘Boeing Boeing’. But its 1986 where Mohanlal’s career took a complete U-turn. 

By the end of 1986 after the kind of characters Mohanlal had done, both audience and the filmmakers stood up and took notice of this talent. They now knew that he could carry an action movie entirely on his shoulders and so did he look original on-screen when romancing heroines. They were now aware of the impeccable comic timing of this actor and that he could also tug at your heartstrings in the emotional scenes. They also realized that there was no better person who could play ‘the guy next door’ roles so effortlessly.In 1986, the ‘Superstar’ was born and so was a talented actor.
 
It was in 1986 that the amazing journey of one of the nation’s finest actors actually shifted gears big time

 

Follow me on Twitter: