Actor Mohanlal, one of the superstars of Malayalam cinema, is set to be conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the country’s highest award in the field of cinema, the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting announced on Saturday.
The award for the year 2023 will be presented to Mohanlal at the 71st National Film Awards ceremony on September 23. He will become the second film personality from Kerala, after filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, to be honoured with the award.
Known for his effortless style of acting and ability to portray the whole gamut of human emotions, Mohanlal has over a career spanning close to five decades, essayed some of the most memorable acting performances in Malayalam cinema.
Though he was supposed to begin his acting career with Thiranottam (1978), the film was never released. Fazil’s search for a villain with unique mannerisms for his film Manjil Virinja Pookkal (1980) ended in Mohanlal, who was at his menacing best in the role of Narendran.
Right from his early days, he showcased his versatility with a mix of roles, especially those which showed his mastery in handling humour. In the mid-1980s, he played roles of the struggling, everyday man in films such as T.P. Balagopalan MA, Nadodikkattu, Sanmanassullavarkku Samadhanam, and other films, characters which brought him closer to the masses.
His makeover into an action hero and superstar began with films such as Rajavinte Makan (1986) that had him playing an all-powerful underworld don.
Even in his 20s, Mohanlal had essayed characters such as Balan in Thazhvaram, Doctor Haridas in Amrutham Gamaya, Sethumadhavan in Kireedam and Rajiv in Dasharatham, which required him to draw from emotions and experiences well beyond his age.
In the first two decades of his career, he became a part of some of the landmark films of the Malayalam film industry. The high points of his career came in 1991 when he won the National Award for the Best Actor for Bharatham and later in 1999 for his performance as Kathakali artiste Kunjikuttan in Vanaprastham, for which he mastered the basics of the complicated art form
During this period, he also made his mark in other industries too, with acclaimed performances in Mani Ratnam’s Iruvar (1997) and Ram Gopal Varma’s Company (2002). Although his career took a slump in the early 2000s with a string of larger-than-life roles, he brought out his best in the occasional films like Thanmathra (2005) and Drishyam (2013). The highest cinema award comes to Mohanlal at a time when he is in the middle of a major revival, with box office successes including Thudarum and Hridayapoorvam.
