Bhramaram is of Mohan Lal

What is common between Mohan Lal and Kamala Hassan? Both of them are amazing actors but fans and stardom destroy them quite often. You may agree or disagree, but they don’t want to discard the Macho Man image even for non-commercial flicks. They need fights (even in films which don’t need fight scenes) and want the younger women to love and want them (remember that scene from “Anbe Sivam” where Kiran licks in the water drop that drops off Kamal’s mouth?).

The reason I am mentioning this here is how the stardom effect has ruined the otherwise perfect character delivery of Mohan Lal as Sivan Kutty in the movie Bhramaram. The movie is okay, the script is not as crisp as Blessy’s first and it has too much melodrama towards the end. It is gripping in the first few minutes, then you can easily predict the story line. But still you would sit back on your seats for just one man’s performance – Mohan Lal. He immerses fully into the character of Sivan Kutty and delivers one of the best performances in his career. You would forget that you are watching a Mohan Lal movie.

But – then comes a fight scene at a roadside dhaba which reminds you that you are actually watching a Mohan Lal movie. For those who say that this fight scene was needed to project the complexity of the character, I would beg to differ. Sivan Kutty was a complex character for me until this fight scene happened. But that is not all – a lorry driver glances at Sivan Kutty’s penis and appreciatively comments on the size of his thing! Fans must have become happy by then, Mohan Lal must be glad that he kept the Macho Man image but those who love cinema get disappointed right there.

Mohan Lal used to be a director’s actor in his non-commercial, parallel cinemas and had not turned out to be a Kamal Hassan yet. The very recent example could be Paradesi, directed by P T Kunjumuhammed. So I would blame director Blessy for not having the balls to discard such scenes. Suresh Menon gives an aptly supporting role as Unni and Lakshmi Gopalaswami as Unni’s wife is also good. Cinematography by Ajayan Vincent is wonderful. The song “Annaarakkannaa” is an easily hummable tune with simple lyrics. But the background music is disappointing. I think people should learn something about how to do background score. Not all scenes need a melodramic tune to feel the scene. Sometimes you could just leave the background silent as the emptiness itself would speak to the audience.

Looking Back to 2008: Mammootty & Mohan Lal

[Today’s is a guest post by K K Moidu].
A look at the career graph of Mammootty and Mohanlal and their dominance at the box office. At the end of 2008, front line Malayalam superstars Mammootty and Mohanlal had reason to be happy — they remained in the top slot. Their box office successes with super hit films and success guaranteed projects in their hands show their strong presence in the industry.


Mammootty

He started 2008 with the hit film Roudram by playing a cop for the 25th time in his career. His double role in Anwar Rasheed’s superhit Annan Thampi was one of the biggest superhits of the year. Other films of Mammootty like Parunthu and Maya Bazaar didn’t do well at the box office. But the actor, who started the year by playing a cop ended it by shining in a lawyer’s role in the magnum opus Twenty 20.

Compared to the seven releases in 2007, Mammootty had only five films last year including Twenty 20. In 2007 the actor had two offbeat films like Ore Kadal and Kaiyoppu, which has screened in various film festivals and won few awards. But this year the actor didn’t have an art film.

The biggest achievement of the actor last year is not the released films, but his completed projects like Pazhassi Raja and Kuttishranku. The epic movie Pazhassi Raja, made on a big budget, reunites the literary genius MT Vasudevan Nair and Mammootty. The film, directed by Hariharan, also stars senior Tamil hero Sarath Kumar and veteran Ilayaraja scores music. Like Pazhassi Raja, Mammootty is playing a rare role in Kuttishranku directed by National Award winning director Shaji N Karun. Both the movies have a chance of benefiting him by winning accolades at the national and international levels.

Mammootty has already completed the shooting of few commercial entertainers and the first release of 2009 will be Love in Bangkok directed by Rafi-Mecartin. Telugu heroine Navneet Kaur is making her Malayalam debut as his love interest. His bilingual film Vandemataram titled in Tamil as Aruvadai has only few scenes left for completion. Tamil action hero Arjun plays an important role in the film. Mammootty romances Sneha and their pairing in Thuruppugulan was a hit at the box office.

According to reports, three times national award winners Mammootty and Kamal Hassan are expected to team up in a forthcoming film in different South Indian languages. The film will be a remake of Bollywood offbeat hit A Wednesday. If Kamal succeeds in buying the rights of the Hindi movie, he himself will act in the role of Naseerudheen Shah and Mammootty will once again fit the cops cap as a police officer, which was enacted by Anupam Kher in the original.

Mammootty will play the lead in director Jayaraj’s forthcoming film scripted by Renjith. The ace director’s earlier movie Johny Walker with Mammootty in the lead, released one-and-a-half decades earlier, was also scripted by Renjith. In the forthcoming film Thaappana, which means an elephant used to train wild elephants, Mammootty plays the proud owner of a famous elephant. The film will be the next directorial venture of Akku Akbar, after his runaway hit Veruthe Oru Bharya. It will also feature the elephant owned by actor Jayaram featured earlier in Rappakal.

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