Posted on December 17, 2021
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Sri Prabhuram
December 17, 2021
Can’t wait for the day when you interview his son!
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Ex Odiyan Hater - Now Tolerator
December 17, 2021
That friend who sent the application for audition is Sureshkumar who is a producer himself, husband of actress menaka and father of Keerthi Suresh
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JPhil
December 17, 2021
While on the topic of Marakkar , perhaps he should have been asked why – after all these years -it is still ok to blatantly lift scenes off other movies like Braveheart?It is lazy and dishonest and all this philosophy being spouted is therefore hypocritical…
His Trivandrum coterie is nepotistic and corrupt and behind a lot of what ails Malayalam cinema as an industry .
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ravenus1
December 18, 2021
As expected, Mohanlal is not an actor who really analyzes his craft or broods all that much over it. I did feel that BR could have quizzed him a little more on why he is not seen in the newer gen mallu movies if he is so open to them. Is it that they can’t afford him or is it that he doesn’t any more take on roles (at least in Malayalam) that don’t have ‘leading man’ characteristics?
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sai16vicky
December 18, 2021
What an interview man! And with what a man, what an actor!!
I would love to see an acting masterclass (maybe an acting school?) with the man. He mentioned a fan who watched ‘Thoovanathumbikal’ 500 times. Well, here’s one who has seen ‘Chithram’ 500 times (probably more, lost count), if only for this legendary ‘enna kollathirikkaan pattuvo’.
Let alone act. With this interview, I realized that I could just watch him talk about acting. And you know what? Looks like you weren’t able to stop blushing either.
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brangan
December 18, 2021
JPhil: What about the direct lift of the UNTOUCHABLES baseball bat scene? 🙂
But frankly, I don’t mind “lifting” (or if they intend it as “homage) as long as it works.
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vijay
December 18, 2021
Kamal, Monhanlal’s counterpart, is no stranger to lifting(and even more so, considering he pens screenplays or ghost-directs). Kindred spirits, I guess
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JPhil
December 18, 2021
@BR, at this stage of their careers , with all the talk about research into Marakkar and ‘ filling up the missing info with imagination’ ( as they stated in another interview ) ,clearly they dug out their old DVDs for research.And then to have the chutzpah to publicise it as the life of a great Indian warrior . They have done it for decades, the two of them.
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MANK
December 18, 2021
Lalettan looks unusually restless in this interview, and i don’t mean that in a negative way. Usually he’s very subdued and composed, here he looks very ‘busy’ and energetic, maybe it’s the effect of speaking in English 🙂
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MANK
December 18, 2021
As for Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian sea (the title itself is lifted from “Omar Mukthar: Lion of the Desert”), well what can one say: there have been several priyadarshan films in the past where, after i finished watching them, i really wanted to beat up priyan . On This one i wanted to murder him. How can someone – and such a technically accomplished filmmaker like him – make such a bland, listless, pointless and copycat film from such an eventful and rousing historical subject matter. It’s a great thing to aspire to make a big scale masala historical with a Muslim hero at the center, but to botch it up so badly by infecting the film with his trademark clichés, stereotypes and his propensity for copying from foreign films; it’s just horrible. The film has pretty much the same clichéd scenes of misunderstandings, romance and humor that one finds in typical Priyan-lal films like “Thenvamin Kombathu,” “Kilichundan Mambazham” and so on. As for those copycat sequences, well That “Untouchables” baseball scene was a total bummer, but one can forget that, but how about all those scenes copied from “Braveheart” and “Troy” almost shot by shot. Not to mention the dialogues from “Deewar” and “Sholay” that are copied verbatim- i laughed out loud when Hareesh Peradi as Mangattachan delivered A.K. Hangal’s famous dialogue “about the son’s corpse being the biggest burden on a father’s shoulders.” 🙂
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MANK
December 18, 2021
Homages and inspirations are fine, i like them too, but this is real copying. Is this the most expensively made Malayalam film that Priyan (& lal and his driver Antony Perumbavoor) wants to showcase on an international stage. he would be booed off the stage. the audiences have seen Braveheart, Troy, The Last Samurai, Pirates films etc. (all of from which this film has stolen) in their original spectacular glory. And to here him talk about so arrogantly about this film makes my skin crawl. Manoj Kumar’s “Kranti” made in the same mold – albeit a full on masala version filtered through Bharath Kumar’s unintentionally comic pulp patriotic lens – looks like a classic in comparison. at least, it provides some trashy pleasures; like the catfight between Hemaji and Parveen Babi, or Hemaji going for broke in ‘Zindagi ka na tote ladi” song with all that wriggling in the rain, which one acerbic critic described as being so hot that it forced the British muskets to fire prematurely, resulting in Indians winning the battle; and of course Manoj Kumar and everyone else in the cast hamming it up to so seriously that it’s camp heaven. Priyan’s film doesn’t even make the cut for being so bad it’s good.
On top of all that, Mohanlal is terribly miscast, struggling with his dialogue delivery, body language and accent. Only Mammootty could have pulled off a role of this nature. But with such a terrible script and direction, even he couldn’t have saved this.
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Aman Basha
December 18, 2021
@MANK: Although I got most of the copied scenes, especially the Deewar and Braveheart ones. I must admit that the vfx and sets were very impressive for their budget, what with Thugs of Hindostan having failed so badly with much more money on this count. I only bothered watching the first 1 and half hour, till Keerthy Suresh (who is automatic bad news these days) and that whole nonsense.
I’m surprised you say Mohanlal did badly, admittedly I haven’t seen the full film, but Mohanlal doing a bad job seems…impossible.
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JPhil
December 18, 2021
And I while I’m at it, I am going to bell the cat and say that all that botox is stymying his expressions. Clearly he started it for the abomination called Odiyan and seems have developed a fondness for it. With his wig and the facial aesthetics he is started to look like a mannequin .
@BR thanks for taking the effort to conduct an interview, though, -as usual-he remains somewhat prosaic (which is not meant as a criticism).
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MANK
December 18, 2021
Aman, Mohanlal has lot of bad performances to his discredit, especially in the last 20 odd years. Post his golden days – that extended roughly from the mid 80s to mid 90s when everything he touched turned into gold – he has declined majorly as an actor. Especially since he is a spontaneous, instinctual actor – and not a method actor (like Mammootty) who have their ‘process’ to stick to in performing a role. He always dependent on his instincts, his spontaneity and flexibility in pulling off a role; What he mostly refers to as god’s miracle or some spiritual power enveloping him in front of camera between action and cut. But once he entered his 40s, he has been bogged down by illness, weight issues and (what i would term as) an unhealthy lifestyle, that has all contributed to him loosing his acting instincts and flexibility. And he never had a ‘method’ or ‘technique’ to fall back on; things happen to him rather than he making things happen, and things have not been happening of late, at least not at the level it was before. I would say that today he’s only 25 percent the actor that he was in his heyday, but the thing is that even that 25 percent Mohanlal is way better than many of the contemporary actors in the country today.
As for Marakkar, he’s never been particularly good or comfortable in a historical setting, or in speaking in different slangs or accents- it’s very difficult for him to master the nuances of the language. In Marakkar, he’s called upon to do all these, and he’s just not upto it. He speaks in a Malabar Muslim slang in the film- at which he has already failed miserably in ‘Kilichundan Mambazham’, and he doesn’t do any better here (many of his dialogues from this film have already become fodder for hilarious trolls and memes). Yeah, all that Botox for Odiyan hasn’t helped either, looks like he can’t act without his beard anymore.
On the other hand, Mammootty is someone who’s not very gifted as an actor, but through constant practice and working hard on his craft, today he’s much better actor than what he was 25 years ago. Watch him in a film like “Munnariyippu,” “Pathemari” or “Unda”, (particularly the first one)where his performance is extremely complex, layered and brilliant. I don’t think Mohanlal is capable of essaying a character at that level anymore. Also, Mammooty has always been great at mastering languages and vernacular accents (he dubs his dialogues himself in telugu, tamil,…), he has a towering physicality and voice, and he’s also more adapt at the theatrical, high-pitched acting required for pulling off larger-than-life historical heroes.
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Aman Basha
December 18, 2021
@MANK: I have heard that Mohanlal and Mammootty are both at the same level, although box office and acting talent wise, Lal is ahead. Perhaps Mohanlal’s recent run might even things out for them.
“(what I would term as) an unhealthy lifestyle”-Ahem, to put it politely, I believe you’re making references to Mr. Lal’s slightly “off beat” choices like “Casanova”, as I scan his filmography 😉 Though this is itself surprising as you’d expect Mammootty and not someone with Mohanlal’s looks.
“25 percent Mohanlal is way better”-Agreed, there’s that scene where someone comes into Georgekutty’s home in Drishyam 2 to ask him if the body was in the station, and that chill of fright he gets on his face is missing in the Telugu version with the same director. His instincts came out brilliantly here, while in Lucifer, he seemed to have nothing to do, except be blank.
“He speaks in a Malabar Muslim slang”-I saw the dubbed version so this didn’t make an issue. But he did seem too genteel for a warrior, in fact, his son was quite impressive with the right features from his father.
“he dubs his dialogues himself in telugu”-Seeing Yatra was one of the most fascinating experiences I had as a Telugite. The way Mammootty embodies YSR’s public presence, not completely imitating him but taking a few key gestures is very telling especially seeing Balayya fail miserably as doing his own father at the same time. But Mohanlal in Iruvar is by far the best performance in a biopic I’ve seen, in fact one of the best performances I’ll ever see possibly.
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sanjana
December 19, 2021
Marakkar Box Office Final Worldwide Collections: Mohanlal’s Epic Drama Fails To Make It Big
Domestic Kerala: 18.02 Crore Tamil Nadu: 0.56 Crore Telugu States: 0.41 Crore Karnataka: 0.23 Crore Rest Of India: 0.13 Crore Total: 19.35 Crore Overseas UAE/GCC: 16.87 Crore North America: 1.52 Crore Europe: 0.28 Crore Australia/New Zea Land: 1.48 Crore Rest Of World: 0.22 Crore Total: 20.37 Crore Total Worldwide Gross Collection: 39.72 Crore
https://www.filmibeat.com/malayalam/news/2021/marakkar-box-office-final-worldwide-collections-mohanlal-s-epic-drama-fails-to-make-it-big-326460.html?story=3
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Anu Warrier
December 19, 2021
there have been several priyadarshan films in the past where, after i finished watching them, i really wanted to beat up priyan .
I could cry in sheer relief! I have been saying this for years, MANK, and firmly place Mohanlal’s deterioration as an actor at Priyan’s feet. As another commenter remarked, that coterie is responsible for some of the ills that plague Malayalam cinema. As for botox, I heard from a reputable source that he also underwent cosmetic surgery for Odiyan.
In his golden years, there were few films of Mohanlal that I really liked, preferring Mammootty to him – and that was solely due to his collaboration with Priyan and Satyan. The ‘ordinary man’ template that the films of these two directors repeated was mostly sexist, misogynistic and was made appealing and ‘comedic’ due to the immense talent of this man. To me, they were these films were the precursor to those by Jayaram and Dilip – each successively regressive than the previous one. And now, as reports go, Mohanlal will drag Manju into that same abyss.
I never had any hopes of Priyan making a great film and was scared when I heard about Marakkar being helmed by him. The comments here validate that. Of stealing scenes and dialogues from other films – When Priyan first made a film in Hindi and I realised it was an uncredited remake of Aniyathipravu, I remarked on it to my brother who quipped, “Priyan has not made a single original film in Malayalam; what makes you think he would do so in Hindi?”
It’s a shame. The Marakkar definitely needed a better film.
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Parangi
December 20, 2021
“maybe it’s the effect of speaking in English”..
He was his usual subdued , philosophical self in the interview given to Anupama in English. I think he has been more forthcoming and open in the interviews he has given post marakkar debacle.
He purposely made an effort to bring the subject back to marakkar every time Rangan asked about other things. I also have noticed that he has a reluctance to talk about his characters in past movies. He seems least interested in gloating in the glory of the past.
If I am not mistaken, he hasn’t made many financial gains from all his movies in the ’80’s. Even lost money by producing Vanaprastham etc. I think glory is all he got from them. Maybe that is why he signed a lot of movies for pure financial gain in the ’90’s, not caring about their artistic value.
ALso, just repeating what MANK said…..I kind of get why lal talks about magic and spiritual power etc when it comes to his acting. It must be kind of overwhelming to see this kind of unparalleled success without trying much. From whatever I heard in interviews, good things just kept happening to him in the past. He had priyadarshan, producer suresh kumar, singer m.g sreekumar, manager, antony perumbavoor (most of them his school mates)..all successful people around him who collaborated with him and contributed to his success. Compared to Mammootty, Lal’s success ratios at the B.O were always high.
MY all-time favorite films of Mohanlal like CHitram, Vandanam, Mazha Peyyunnu Maddalam Kottunnu have all been directed by Priyan. There is a certain level of abandon in his performances that not many possess, in these movies. I think having his close circle of friends behind the camera made it easy for him to let go and perform without many inhibitions.
BY the time all his neelasery, nair, tharavadu etc movies came, repetition had crept in and I had slowly stopped looking forward to his movies. Casanova is just unforgivable. I hate the writers and directors for making him go through that . It was just cringe, cringe, and more cringe. I think Mammootty wouldn’t even select a script like that.
While , in the early part of his career, Mammootty had to struggle his way up without much support. I think producer Joy Thomas is the only one who put his bets on him and gave him new Delhi even after successive flops. Even after that, he had many b.o duds. But that didn’t deter him from doing characters of diverse nature that could pose a risk at the b.o.
Mammootty’s Murikkinkunnath Ahmed Haaji in Paleri manikyam was so well done. Unda was a revelation.
Mohanlal’s performance in Iruvar was the last one that surprised me.
Mammootty’s discipline and high standards reflect in his movie selection, his physique, and even in his family life.
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Parangi
December 20, 2021
Let me also add thalavattom to my favorite list of lal priyan combo. I haven’t heard many people talk about this film. He gave such a wonderful performance in this film. ALso, poochakoru mookuthi, hello my dear wrong number, boeing boeing, kilukkam. I have rofl-ed( literally falling off a sofa and rolling on the floor laughing ) watching these films and also watching performances of actors like Jagathy in these movies. Marakkar and all other debacles can be forgiven only bcoz he has given us such amazing performances in the past. I cannot think of anyone in the present gen who can do and make such films work, including fafa, Tovino , DQ, and the rest of them.
Lal was exceptionally gifted in his prime.
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MANK
December 20, 2021
The way Mammootty embodies YSR’s public presence, not completely imitating him but taking a few key gestures is very telling especially seeing Balayya fail miserably as doing his own father at the same time.
My god what a comparison :). Legend Balayya is unfit to play even himself, leave alone his father. he’s best at playing akhanda, simha and so on…. Mammooty was definitely robbed of a national award for his performances in Yatra, peranbu and some Malayalam films he made that year. There’s no other actor (except Kamal in his prime) who gave such stellar performances cutting across multiple languages\film industries in a calendar year.
I never had any hopes of Priyan making a great film and was scared when I heard about Marakkar being helmed by him.
Me too Anu :). Especially when i heard he was writing it too. His screenplays usually consists of a series of comedy skits centered around a loose plot that’s stolen from some foreign film. It’s always upto the genius of Mohanlal, Jagathi, Nedumudi Venu , Pappu etc to make it work. That kind of approach will not work for this film.
yeah You are right, Marakkar definitely deserved a better film. The is just another Priyadarshan film. Actually, There was a rival project that was developed by Santosh Sivan with Mammootty as Marakkar, but that had to be abandoned because of this film. I don’t how hw good that film would have been, but Mammootty as Marakkar is definitely a better choice. Now fans have started campaigning on social media to resurrect the Mammootty project.
Let me also add thalavattom to my favorite list of lal priyan combo. I haven’t heard many people talk about this film. He gave such a wonderful performance in this film.
Oh that was fun, and yes Lal was great (that was really the beginning of his golden phase and superstardom- Rajavinte Makan and Thalavattom released almost back to back, and how different were those performances from one another). Even thought one half of the film is stolen from “One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and the other half from Waheeda- Rajesh Khanna starrer “Khamoshi,” it works mainly (as Anu pointed out) due tot he sheer genius of Mohanlal.
Also,I like those unpretentious, rip-roaring, ensemble comedies that Priyan made around 85\86 like Boeing Boeing, Poochakkoru mookuthi, dhim tharikida thom (an absolute favorite that did not star Lal), Mazha peyunnu madallam kottunnu etc. more than Mohanlal, it was Jagathi sreekumar, Pappu, nedumudi venu etc who were in top form in those films.
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Madan
December 20, 2021
Priyadarshan’s comedies – if the Malayalam ones were anything like the ones he remade in Hindi – anyway owed a lot to Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron /MMKR (both directors being unlucky in not getting the BO success they deserved). One of the luckiest filmmakers, coasted on Paresh Rawal and Akshay Kumar to score hits with mediocre films.
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Jayk
December 20, 2021
@MANK you seem to be speaking about a master craftsman without knowing the first thing about acting .
His choice of scripts have been terrible but giving lectures on his process of acting and how he doesn’t have a method to fall back upon is laughable. You would not have the first idea about what a crazy mind Mohanlal is in possession of.
I am not a typical fanboy who will support all the BS movies that Lal has been a part of for the past 20 years.
Mohanlal is a maniac as an actor and there must of course be method to his madness. We don’t know what goes on in that brain.
I agree with all the points on botox, his coterie etc but trying to get to the bottom of his troubles with such simplistic analysis is laughable. Mohanlal needs to take risks with Aashique, LJP, Pothan, Alphonse etc. God knows how long I have been waiting for it. His last 15 years have been very poor in terms of the quality of movies he has been in and that is directly proportional to the mediocre teams he has collaborated with. You bring up Mammoty but Manmotty has been an even bigger disaster over the past many years. The Peranbu, Unda year was an exception. He seems to be at least taking risks now but to say that Mammotty has somehow been better in this period is not nuanced. To be honest, Mohanlal and Mammoty movies are the ones that I dread the most these days. Actors I absolutely love in the hands of absolutely mediocre teams has been the norm for some years now.
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Jayk
December 20, 2021
@BR Was my comment/reply not accepted for some reason?
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theeversriram
December 20, 2021
@MANK, really nice to read your comments after a while.
As a 90s kid from Tamil Nadu but grew up all over India, I never understood why Mohanlal is considered a big actor/star until I read the comments in BR blog.
In my opinion Mohanlal lacks the X factor to be a pan India star. Something that Rajnikanth Amitabh Bachan, SRK (at his prime) had.
I tried seeing old movies like Chitram, Dharasuram, etc now in youtube but the dated look, poor production values, a lack of connect with milieu, etc. makes them look like any other Prabhu/ Karthik/ Ramarajan movie that we can watch on Tamil channels.
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Parangi
December 20, 2021
“other half from Waheeda- Rajesh Khanna starrer “Khamoshi”.
I didn’t know this.
I like thalavattom bcoz I haven’t seen very many Indian actors play mentally disabled characters without making it cringey. It was so easy to play that role all wrong if it was played by any other actor other than Mohanlal.
Getting carried away…
That one scene where he spills the ink on Karthikas’ application papers and she slaps him. That scene was a perfect place for any actor to overact and overdo the “vattu”. But His response to her slap was Just perfect…
Dileep in thilakkam could take a few lessons.
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JPhil
December 20, 2021
Hi @JayK
Re “I agree with all the points on botox, his coterie etc but trying to get to the bottom of his troubles with such simplistic analysis is laughable”
I must qualify my statements a bit better and also state that I am a doctor.
Botox essentially is a paralytic agent .Put simply it paralyses the muscle. Botox is conventionally injected into facial muscles of expression . Which is where my issue lies .You can see that , quite visibly , he is unable to use his facial muscles as he used to .Hence the perma – glazed look.He also -conceivably- uses dermal fillers for the ‘ plumped look’ .Neither of which helps I’m afraid in the line of work the 60 year old is .
I m not saying Botox is why he makes terrible movies ; that is because the movies are badly made . In these bad movies however he can barely wink …
I do realise you are not challenging the Botox issue but only clarifying my own – seemingly catty- post initially .
And of course the man needs to work on his scripts and the people he works with , if he wants to retain some sort of street cred. I remember chatting with Blessy ( a relative ) about directing Lal for Thanmathra . Lal simply refused to spend time with people with Alzheimer’s and -to me – it shows in his performances . He simply did not portray any patient or Alzheimer’s I have seen but some mimicry of an unhinged person from his Thalavattom days . His portrayal of something like Autism in Alexander is the worst kind of thing in that mould I have ever seen and I see children with Autism daily .His instincts work only so much . Sometimes – and who am I to preach – he needs to work on researching his characters too .
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Eldho
December 21, 2021
@MANK: Agree with your analysis that post 2000s, Mohanlal has been hardly 25% of what he was during 80s and 90s period, but even that is enough to make him still the best actor in the Malayalam film industry even with all the wonderful new gen actors taking center-stage. (25% is a generic overall take, but I think in some characters he can still be close to his best, say 80%, if the directors know how to make use of him).
But your analysis that Mohanlal is ill suited for historical characters (especially because he’s not really a method actor) is just laughable. First thing, for an experienced actor playing a historical character is in itself not a big deal. Lot of actors from all languages have played brilliantly such parts. For recent well known examples, say Ranvir Singh (Padmavat, Bajirao Mastani), Shahid Kapoor (Padmavat), Ajay Devgn(Tanhaji). Even Prabhas, Rana Daggubatti,etc.(in Bahubali) have wonderfully portrayed historical kind (ofcourse fictional/fantasy masala based) characters. So have many others.
To say that Mohanlal will have difficulty to act historical characters, which can be portrayed by almost any other ‘Good’ actor (Ranvir, Shahid, Prabhas, Ajay, etc are all excellent actors, not demeaning them in any way) is simply too naive to say the least.
Also it is another matter that Lal has already essayed one of the most iconic historical character depiction through Iruvar. Lal was phenomenal in Kalapani too, another historical although he was acting as a commoner in the movie. Lal has also won praises for his theatre venture Karnabharam, where he played Karna. That apart, he hasn’t got any solid historical character/movie to see how he portrays in a historical movie (Malayalam industry rarely produced historical movies post 1970s except a few written by M. T.) But the recent Nivin Pauly movie Kayamkulam Kochunni had a small yet extended cameo from Mohanlal where he played a swashbuckling mythical hero(or anti-hero) Ithikkara Pakki and it was widely seen as the best(and perhaps the only, as per some) aspect of the entire movie. He lifted the movie single-handedly.
An early 90s movie, Rajashilpi, a movie which seems to occur sometime in the past with no proper definite time given (the story could be happening in 17th,18th,19th or 20th century) have an astonishing performance from Mohanlal as a sculptor (a movie that can almost be considered as a historical classic if one wants).
The problem with Marakkar is only its super-Weak screenplay, dialogues, characters and un-visionary direction of Priyadarsan.
Such a weakly written character in a weak screenplay with poor dialogues in a poorly directed film cannot be saved by any actor.
Some of the dialogues as you said became troll material is not due to the actors’ fault, but the foolish dialogue writer/Director who gave such cringeworthy dialogues (For eg., the most trolled ‘bayathand’ dialogue of Kunjali Marakkar when his Chinese associate dies, is a dialogue used by Priyadarsan in his 25 year old comic masterpiece ‘Chandraleka’ as a mocking reference in a comic counter and here he uses the same as a very serious emotional dialogue, phew!! ).
Otherwise the dialogue delivery of the actors (especially Mohanlal, Siddique) even with the unnecessary Malappuram accent, was finely handled by the actors themselves.
In addition Mohanlal too looked bit unsuited for the character mainly due to his fatty physique and looked too aged for the character (He had considerably reduced his weight/size post Marakkar which completed shooting about 3-4 years ago and looks far more fit now).
So what I wanted to say that to pull of wonderful performances in genres like historical dramas (especially ones having Kings and Warriors type characters) are dependent only on:
1. Script/ Screenplay/ Dialogues/ Staging/ Direction :- 80-90% weightage.
Actor’s calibre and Star persona/charisma (latter especially for heroes and villains)
Actor’s physique and his age suitability to the character (latter’s responsibility too is mainly on the director itself) .
If ‘1’ especially and ‘3’ also satisfied, almost any ‘Good’ Actor-star can give excellent historical performances of a dramatic/theatrical mode. It ain’t gonna be anywhere near a Himalayan task for anyone of them.
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Eldho
December 21, 2021
@MANK: Agree with your analysis that post 2000s, Mohanlal has been hardly 25% of what he was during 80s and 90s period, but even that is enough to make him still the best actor in the Malayalam film industry even with all the wonderful new gen actors taking center-stage. (25% is a generic overall take, but I think in some characters he can still be close to his best, say 80%, if the directors know how to make use of him).
But your analysis that Mohanlal is ill suited for historical characters (especially because he’s not really a method actor) is just laughable. First thing, for an experienced actor playing a historical character is in itself not a big deal. Lot of actors from all languages have played brilliantly such parts. For recent well known examples, say Ranvir Singh (Padmavat, BajiraoMastani), Shahid Kapoor (Padmavat), Ajay Devgn(Tanhaji). Even Prabhas, Rana Daggubatti,etc.(in Bahubali) have wonderfully portrayed historical kind (ofcourse fictional/fantasy masala based) characters. So have many others. To say that Mohanlal will have difficulty to act historical characters, which can be portrayed by almost any other ‘Good’ actor (Ranvir, Shahid, Prabhas, Ajay, etc are all excellent actors, not demeaning them in any way) is simply too naive to say the least.
Also it is another matter that Lal has already essayed one of the most iconic historical character depiction through Iruvar. Lal was phenomenal in Kalapani too, another historical although he was acting as a commoner in the movie. Lal has also won praises for his theatre venture Karnabharam, where he played Karna. That apart, he hasn’t got any solid historical character/movie to see how he portrays in a historical movie (Malayalam industry rarely produced historical movies post 1970s except a few written by M. T.) But the recent Nivin Pauly movie Kayamkulam Kochunni had a small yet extended cameo from Mohanlal where he played a swashbuckling mythical hero(or anti-hero) who is said to have lived a few centuries back, named ‘Ithikkara Pakki’ and it was widely seen as the best aspect (and perhaps the only, as per some) of the entire movie. He lifted the movie single-handedly.
Also an early 90s movie, Rajashilpi, a movie which seems to occur sometime in the past with no proper definite time given (the story could be happening in 17th,18th,19th or 20th century) have an astonishing performance from Mohanlal as a sculptor (a movie that can almost be considered as a fictional/myth based historical classic).
The problem with Marakkar is only its super-Weak screenplay, dialogues, characters and un-visionary direction of Priyadarsan.
Such a weakly written character in a weak screenplay with poor dialogues in a poorly directed film cannot be saved by any actor.
Some of the dialogues as you said became troll material is not due to the actors’ fault, but the foolish dialogue writer/Director who gave such cringeworthy dialogues (For eg., the most trolled ‘bayathand’ dialogue of Kunjali Marakkar when his Chinese associate dies, is a dialogue used by Priyadarsan in his 25 year old comic masterpiece ‘Chandraleka’ as a mocking reference in a comic counter and here he uses the same as a very serious emotional dialogue, phew!! ).
Otherwise the dialogue delivery of the actors (especially Mohanlal, Siddique) even with the unnecessary Malappuram accent, was finely handled by the actors themselves.
In addition Mohanlal too looked bit unsuited for the character mainly due to his fatty physique and looked too aged for the character (He had considerably reduced his weight/size post Marakkar which completed shooting about 3-4 years ago and looks far more fit now).
So what I wanted to say that to pull of wonderful performances in genres like historical dramas (especially ones having Kings and Warriors type characters) are dependent only on 3 factors:
(1)Script/ Screenplay/ Dialogues/ Staging/ Direction. :- overall 80-90% weightage.
(2)Actor’s calibre and Star persona/charisma (latter especially for heroes and villains)
(3)Actor’s physique and his age suitability to the character (latter’s responsibility too is mainly on the director itself) .
If ‘1’ especially and ‘3’ also satisfied, almost any ‘Good’ Actor-star can give excellent historical performances of a dramatic/theatrical mode. It ain’t gonna be anywhere near a Himalayan task for anyone of them.
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Eldho
December 21, 2021
@theeversriram : Imho, Mohanlal is greater than all of them. I’ll suggest a few (if you haven’t seen already) : Yoddha, Kireedam, Chenkol, Dasaratham, Thazhvaram, Vietnam Colony, Douthyam.
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Eldho
December 22, 2021
*In my earlier comment published above here, in the last part, the numbering I wrote did not show up, may be due to some technical issues with WordPress. So posting the last part of that comment once again below (as otherwise the last part of that comment may not make any sense). *
So what I wanted to say that to pull of wonderful performances in genres like historical dramas (especially ones having Kings and Warriors type characters) are dependent only on 3 factors:
(1)Script/ Screenplay/ Dialogues/ Staging/ Direction. :- overall 80-90% weightage.
(2)Actor’s calibre (& dedication) and Star persona/charisma (latter especially for heroes and villains)
(3)Actor’s physique and his age suitability to the character (latter’s responsibility too is mainly on the director itself) .
If (1) especially and (3) also satisfied, almost any ‘Good’ Actor-star can give excellent historical performances of a dramatic/theatrical mode. It ain’t gonna be anywhere near a Himalayan task for anyone of them.
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theeversriram
December 23, 2021
@Eldho, agree that Mohanlal might be a better actor than all 3 I mentioned (Rajni, SRK, AB).
But thing is for a non-malayalam speaking person, a non-film buff it is extremely difficult to sit through old movies like Chenkol, Kireedam, etc.
And one reason for that, apart from dated ideas & production values, is that Mohanlal doesn’t have the magnetic appeal or uniqueness that would attract someone new (like me) to his movies. This in my opinion is one of the reasons why Mohanlal is not popular outside Kerala, even in nearby TN, his movies do not even have 1/10 of a release that a Telugu movie has(eg Pushpa).
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lungi dance
December 23, 2021
“This in my opinion…”
The jury who awarded Mohanlal 5 national awards and 9 state awards had a different opinion.
I don’t think the Kerala audience will insult their intelligence by tolerating generic, mediocre actors with just random “magnetic appeal”, in their state.
I don’t think the Kireedam/ Chenkol directors or actors were making films for random generic audiences looking for the next SRk, Rajni, enthiran, Robo, lungi dance, etc. These movies were never given much publicity either bcoz they didn’t want the wrong kind of audience expecting loud, mindless generic movies, coming to watch their movies.
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Eldho
December 24, 2021
theeversriram : “This in my opinion is one of the reasons why Mohanlal is not popular outside Kerala, even in nearby TN, his movies do not even have 1/10 of a release that a Telugu movie has(eg Pushpa).” Comparing a latest Telugu movie to some 30+ years old Malayalam movie regarding popularity outside its State is juvenile.
First of all, Malayalam movies (especially mainstream, non-art movies) were rarely, if ever, watched by people outside Kerala (non Malayalis) before the digital era and the arrival of English subtitles (that is hardly 8-9 years). Maybe it could be because Malayalam was a tough language (for non natives) and also budget wise it was a smaller industry (and it’s a smaller State) and its stories were mostly rooted in its milieu.
Even now in the present OTT/digital era Malayalam movies are not yet anywhere nearly as pan-India popular as Telugu or Tamil movies, let alone Bollywood. But it is never a measure of quality (am not comparing the quality of films here though) .
And regarding Mohanlal’s magnetic appeal and all, each to their own tastes. Also it could be ignorance about his works (apart from a handful of films you may have watched).
Now see, even an older Mohanlal (a shadow of the talent he used to be till 20-22 years ago, though still a great actor without a doubt) is able to generate awe beyond Kerala in other States among cinephiles through simple films (technically/cost wise) like Drishyam2.
Anyway I don’t intend to speak much about his pan India popularity. He is an actor respected all over India among movie buffs which is more than enough.
If Kireedam, Chenkol are not your cup of tea, if interested, you may please try Yoddha, Nirnayam, Gandarvam, The Prince.
Also please checkout the below scenes to see if Mohanlal got some magnetism/uniqueness in acting (I don’t know if you’ll feel it or like it, but give it a try maybe . Cheers 😊)
Proposal scene:
A classic comedy:
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Madhu
December 24, 2021
@theeversriram, You are joking about Rajnikanth being a pan-Indian star, right? He and Balayya are pan-Indian meme material. Rajni is the Chuck Norris of India.
One of my favorite pastimes is passing their troll videos. It is super fun.
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Madan
December 24, 2021
Dare I utter such a blaspheme in a Mohanlal thread but I am a lukewarm Rajni fan (more a fan of the actor than most of his post Baasha films). But I don’t see the pan Indian appeal sriram speaks of as a Tamilian living in Mumbai. The one Rajni movie that really broke through up North was Endhiran and that was because it was a high concept movie. I remember disbelieving Aman Basha when he said Hindustani was a huge hit until he showed me the numbers. But if I take that, Endhiran, Chachi 420, Baahubali all together, I could infer that high concept South movies are the ones that break through to pan India appeal. Otherwise it’s as Madhu says – Rajni videos are popular up North the same way Mithun movies are – to laugh and poke fun at. That isn’t something a Rajni fan should be overly proud of. At least when Mohanlal got tapped to act in Hindi movies it was genuinely for his acting and not for laughs. And this is Rajni’s fault because his acting per se isn’t as completely lacking as his critics want to believe. Back in the 80s he fared well in Andha Kanoon. But he has chosen to make every movie an interactive fanbase video game, not caring about how tiresome that is for everyone else.
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Satya
December 24, 2021
Madhu: I don’t deny what you say, but I do prefer Rajinikanth to Balakrishna any given day. For all the meme-worthy stuff he gives, Rajini comes across as someone charming enough to laugh with, instead of laughing at. The latter is the case with Balakrishna most of the times.
I do find some aspects of Balakrishna redeeming, but am not sure how many would agree with me. I am already having a miserable time with the year end work and stress. Don’t want to see myself go into something more scary.
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theeversriram
December 25, 2021
I seem to have ruffled some Mohanlal fans, my intention was never to do that, just a opinion from someone who hasn’t watched Malayalam cinema.
@ Eldho, comparing Pushpa & Kireedam might be juvenile but can’t Marakkar be compared to Pushpa/RRR/Endiran, etc. This is another high budget mass appeal movie right? But Marakkar really small release in TN, even in my hometown Coimbatore where Malayalee people are quite significant in number, movie is only in morning shows or in some old theatres.
Also others saying that Rajnikanth not being a pan India star? What exactly is the definition? Being popular even outside home state or being popular amongst Hindi audiences? Rajnikanth movies have a wide release in Karnataka, Telengana, Andhra, Kerala & abroad.
People from Karnataka actually flew to Chennai for Kabali FDFS, haven’t heard this for other actors. But yes after Kabali disappointment, his appeal in non Tamil states is gradually going down.
A Malayalam speaking person is more likely to have seen Rajnikanth/Vijay hit movie that a Tamil/Telugu/Kannada person to have seen a Mohanalal hit ( I’m referring to later movies like Odiyan, Puli Murugan, etc which do have a wide release & not some 80/90s flick).
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Madan
December 25, 2021
“Also others saying that Rajnikanth not being a pan India star? ” – Pan India means pan India. Doing well in the four southern states and with the South Indian diaspora is not pan India. Rajesh Khanna was pan India. AB was pan India. Rajni isn’t. AB isn’t a pan Indian star anymore either but he was at his peak. There was no time when Rajni was.
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Log4ji
December 26, 2021
In Minnal Murali which is set in 90s , Tovino’s room has posters of Salman& Aamir. They were pan India stars during that time. I remember someone saying when Maine Pyare Kiya was telecast on tv for the first time, many girls who were supposed to sing in the temple, which was a weekly activity, did not turn up. This was in Chenna and was not the Hindi speaking crowd. Except A,R. and Prabhu Deva (short lived) don’t think anyone from south had the pan india stardom with their regional work.
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theeversriram
December 26, 2021
Pan India means pan India – by that definition there would be no pan India star really.
Rajesh Khanna was popular in Tamil Nadu? I have never heard anyone speak of him nor recollect any of his movies/songs. Even if his movies had a release then it must have been only in Chennai or other few urban centers.
Also I’m not sure whether even Hindi movies are popular in North Eastern states. Mizoram for instance has a bad on Bollywood movies since 2000.
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brangan
December 26, 2021
theeversriram: Like most adjectives, “pan-Indian” must be taken with a bit of salt. The Beatles were a global phenomenon, but I am sure there were people in USSR or south India or Rwanda who never heard a single song of theirs. When we say Rajesh Khanna was a “pan Indian star”, it means two things:
One, that Hindi movies are the only truly “pan Indian” movies because they get released in states all over India in big theatres with many shows. (If you live in Delhi or Mumbai, Tamil films may no doubt be released. But only the big ones. For the small ones, you will have to travel really far to a single theatre like Aurora, etc.) But every single Hindi film gets a release in Chennai, etc.
Two, we just had a thread about Rajesh Khanna in the context of “Ilayaraja banishing Hindi music from the south and how that was not true.” Look it up. Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan etc were very big stars in Chennai and a few metros at least.
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Madan
December 26, 2021
” I have never heard anyone speak of him nor recollect any of his movies/songs” – But I have. My mother, her cousins were watching Rajesh Khanna movies in theater. And they were based out of West Mambalam, pretty far from Peter zone.
“Even if his movies had a release then it must have been only in Chennai or other few urban centers.” – Sure but these were Tamilians watching his movies. Except Endhiran, North Indians don’t generally go to watch Rajni movies in Mumbai. A few go out of curiosity to Aurora theater for the Rajni fan experience but that’s about it. And all that is after so much marketing and social media hype which has transformed Rajni into an inadvertently funny cult (same as how you can see Hollywood stars wearing Slayer T shirts these days) for that kind of audience. Put him in the 70s and there would be very little crossover appeal.
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Honest Raj
December 26, 2021
I don’t think the Kerala audience will insult their intelligence by tolerating generic, mediocre actors with just random “magnetic appeal”, in their state.
Huh? Is that why MGR (who was far from a mediocre actor even by the then Tamil cinema standards, IMHO) decided to try his luck in Tamil cinema? Nevertheless, please be reminded that Vijay, a wannabe MGR, commands the highest fan-following for an outsider in Kerala. I’m guessing that his fans in Kerala are far more loyal than the TN counterparts so much that even a Sura ran to packed houses during its re-release!
I don’t think the Kireedam/ Chenkol directors or actors were making films for random generic audiences looking for the next SRk, Rajni, enthiran, Robo, lungi dance, etc.
I recall going through a discussion in a Malayalam movie forum – it was on the “middle-of-the road” films which were being made in the 80s by the likes of Bharathan, Padmarajan, et al. I cannot vouch for the veracity of the claims made there, but I came to know that except for a couple of films here and there, most of the films made by Padmarajan were BO duds. It seems, even a film like NPMT ran to empty houses back then. I’m not even going to venture into the Adoor/Aravindan territory.
Coming to Rajini, he’s still counted among the top-three actors (outsiders) in Kerala. This is a remarkable feat considering the fact that he’s never done a direct film in Malayalam to date, and none of his films had a wide release in Kerala until 1992. In terms of longevity, Rajini’s stardom is truly incomparable – Forget Rajesh Khanna, even AB doesn’t come closer. As for Mohanlal, with all due respect, his stardom is not even comparable to Kamal’s (of course, I’m talking about the star of the bygone era 😀 ) let alone Rajini’s. Outside Malayalam, it’s been quite a while since he started playing second fiddle to the next-generation actors – Vijay and even Suriya, NTR Jr. On the other hand, I believe, Mammooty has a much better appeal outside Kerala.
But, all in all, Rajini IS the biggest Superstar in the history of Indian cinema. Period. 🙂
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KayKay
December 26, 2021
“I have never heard anyone speak of him nor recollect any of his movies/songs”
Let me give you the Malaysian perspective.
Haathi Mere Saathi was one of the biggest box office hits here in the 70s. Which is telling , because as the smallest ethnic group, population wise, Indians don’t have the numbers to make a movie such a huge hit. Many Malays (the majority population here) prefer Hindi to Tamil movies (“more glamorous” and “Better Looking Actors” the most often quoted shallow reasons for this) and my parents recollect that cinemas were packed more with Malays than Indians. Same with “Aradhana” another big hit here. Rajesh Khanna was HUGE! In fact, a few of my mum’s Chinese colleagues rate Haathi Mere Saathi as one of their favorite movies!
Ditto with Amitabh. Don, Laawaris, Muqaddar Ka Siqandar all did good business here.
Not bad for movies which required English subtitles to be understood by most of the audience who turned up in droves to watch them!
Compared to that, Rajini films released here run because they attract an almost exclusive Tamil audience (who make up the majority of South Indians here). He is largely unknown to the ethnic Malay or Chinese population. SRK is a far more recognizable name among the current crop of Indian actors here.
For myself and a select group of friends, this relentless hype around Rajini is looked at with a measure of bemusement at best, and annoyance at worst. We acknowledge that he is most likely the single biggest Super Star the Tamil Movie Industry has produced second only maybe to MGR. We admire his screen presence and delight in his effortless charisma, especially when these are employed in service to films which already have a strong foundational narrative (Baasha, Endhiran etc) and eye-roll when they’re used to prop up shoddy material (about 95% of his output this last decade).
What we cannot agree is that he is a PAN INDIAN Superstar. Pan Indian SOUTH INDIAN star maybe, as I’m sure his movies run in Kerala, Andhra and Karnataka.
I’m with Madan in that he is of course a very well KNOWN personality across India, but you don’t earn Pan Indian Star status until your movies truly make bank in whichever state it’s released in.
Hell, forget Rajini, Kamal, Mammooty or Mohanlal, a true Pan Indian Star was the late, great Sri Devi. An established star in Tamil, who then packed her bags, went North and became Bollywood’s Numero Uno Leading Lady.
Now, THAT’S PAN India appeal, IMHO
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lungi dance
December 27, 2021
“Is that why MGR (who was far from a mediocre actor)”
Are you trying to say MGR wasn’t a mediocre actor? Sathyan – one of the pioneers of realistic acting in the Malayalam film industry- with his real and rooted acting style moulded the image of the hero in Malayalam cinema, and deeply influenced the acting codes in the Malayalam industry. It stands to this day. From Mohanlal, Mammootty to Fahad, mallus have an aesthetic that appreciates very natural performances from Kerala actors. But they do not expect the same from actors from outside Kerala. They are very accepting of and open to all sorts of influences from outside and do not tend towards conservatism, closure, and valorization of the familiar and the local .
“Vijay, a wannabe MGR, commands the highest fan-following for an outsider in Kerala.”
Money talks. A high-budgeted Rajinikanth or a Shankar film managed to overhaul the distribution and exhibition system in Kerala. In the early 2000s, Mammootty and Mohanlal were the reigning superstars . There were no young heroes in Kerala, save a young Boban(who didn’t have much range). Vijay managed to easily fill this vacuum with films that were high on action, dance, songs, and a love angle. Also, a much smaller Malayalam film industry had limitations . The budgets of even bigger Malayalam films are just a portion of the scale of a Vijay film. A Vijay film would release in many more centers in Kerala even when the regular Mohanlal or Mammotty film would be running in very few.
At present, I don’t think any new-gen Tamil actors can get the same kind of following in Kerala, bcoz Kerala has its own lot of young actors.
I didn’t understand what you were going on about NPMT and Padmarajan and Adoor. My point was that Kireedom/ Chenkol wasn’t made for an audience looking for choreographed dancing with scantily clad heroines, gravity-defying stunts, and foreign locales. So the comparison of these movies to high budgeted star vehicles made to cater to the lowest common denominator is ridiculous.
“As for Mohanlal, with all due respect, his stardom is not even comparable to Kamal’s”..
Unlike Rajni/Kamal , who debuted in Hindi at a younger age and tried to make a market in the Hindi belt, Mohanlal was never looking to make a strong presence in Bollywood . He went there to play a middle-aged cop character in his late ’50’s – very much a character role. That is what he had been doing in all other industries. Rajni/Kamal had to come back to their respective industries since the stardom they enjoyed in the south didn’t work in the North.
When did u see a Mohanlal even try flicking cigarettes, hair , shirt or lighting a cigarette by shooting it with a gun or lighting it with fire from his eyes or do gestures with his finger with whosh whosh sound effects in the background? Mallu audience will boo if the Malayali actors attempt it in their movies but will accept it if a Tamil/ Telugu actor does it bcoz they have learned to accept the ridiculousness and the spectacle as default from them. A movie like Jai Bhim with its manipulative narrative, storytelling, and loud acting might be accepted in Kerala as a regular Tamil film, but I don’t think such films if made in Malayalam will be well received, but will be panned.
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lungi dance
December 27, 2021
“Rajini IS the biggest Superstar in the history of Indian cinema. Period.”
Agreed. He is the next avatar ready for global domination. Rajini is so big that SRK reduced his whole acting career into a lungi with his super troll song lungi dance. Love SRK, but someone has to call him out for ridiculing Tamilians. From his ‘Ayyoji’, ‘Mind it’ and ‘I say’ , mixing noodles and curd, idli jokes in Ra one to enna rascala in OSO to making fun of Madhavan’s language at the Filmfare awards is plain wrong. If troll or meme is considered the parameter for “bigness” and popularity, then yes Rajni IS the biggest, not just in India, but even internationally.
I think u missed my bigger point which was that why even compare a Rajini / Allu to a Mohanlal who was doing local movies and was competing with Mammootty for the next national award win. There wasn’t even an attempt from his side in the ’80s to be a pan Indian anything. In fact, that is what made MFI stand apart…how rooted they were. And that is what makes the present-day Malayalam films churn out such superlative films.
A Fahad Fazil got A .R .Rahman to do music for his latest film, not to picturise it in foreign locales while dancing with girls half his age and sell it around the world to make money and to become Pan Indian Indian actor, but to say a very rooted, local poignant story about an intense survival drama and death and destruction in a landslide. Pan Indian acceptance and global domination be damned.
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Madan
December 27, 2021
KayKay : And Sridevi had a successful run in Malayalam too parallel to her Tamil /Telugu innings. So she conquered the South as well as Bollywood. theversriram may not believe this but at her peak, she was THE draw in multi starrer Bollywood movies. For commercial success, no actress has come close to her and yeah, she was arguably more of a pan India star than any actor. Albeit, and this may be an unkind cut, this could be attributed to the fact that an actress needs good looks and acting to succeed (more universal criteria) while the actor star can say Style Style Dhan and that’s enough for the regional fan base that worships the ground he treads (again, this is not to say that Rajni can’t act, only that his fans aren’t in it for the acting). That is, she needed a more tangible kind of charisma to succeed whereas what makes an actor charismatic for a specific regional Indian market is harder to define.
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theeversriram
December 27, 2021
@BR, I don’t agree that Hindi movies are truly pan-Indian but will leave that discussion for later. Also have you seen Rajesh Khanna phenomenon in Tamil Nadu first hand or heard from secondary sources?
@Madan, West Mambalam is bang in centre of Chennai.
Sure but these were Tamilians watching his movies – yes but a very low proportion of Tamilians. Going by simple calculation, population of Chennai as per 1971 census was approx. 25 lacs out of TN population of 4.2 Crs; meaning Chennai had less than 6% of total TN population. Out of 6%, around 2% must have seen Rajesh Khanna movies (even that is a high number, considering old people, children, people who can’t afford movies, etc). Apart from Chennai, 0.5% of people in Coimbatore & 0.5% in Madurai could have seen Rajesh movies which adds to 3% of total TN population; I’ll add 1% more for remaining TN & 1% since BR knows more about movies. Which adds up to 5% of TN population would have watched Rajesh Khanna movies, which in my opinion is a very low number for him to be called a big star in TN.
Also looking at IMBD top grossing hindi movies adjusted for inflation, below is the list. No Rajesh Khanna movie is present, if his movies were superhits in TN then shouldn’t box office numbers reflect the same? His movies aren’t even in top 20/50; Haathi Mere Saathi ranks at number 70.
In contrast Rajnikanth movies Enthiran ranks at 51, 2.0 at 66 & Baasha at 71. He has more industry hits (all time best for that language till date) and South India hits.
Of course we can say that numbers are fake, there are no reliable records, etc. But what other objective criteria do we have?
• Sholay
• Baahubali 2: The Conclusion
• Mughal-E-Azam
• Mother India (1957) …
• Hum Aapke Hain Koun
• Muqaddar Ka Sikandar
• Kismet
• Ratan
• Kranti
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
Link: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls069056295/
Looking at my previous comment, I realize that I must not have mentioned pan-India appeal since there can’t be anybody who is famous throughtout India; I’ll change to appeal outside home state.
Coming back to Mohanlal, I don’t think there are any movies in Tamil/Telugu/Kannada/Hindi where he is the solo star and movie is a hit as well. Iruvar was a flop; in Jilla he was reduced to playing father to Vijay & same to Jr NTR in Telugu as well. Maybe he got a good paycheck, but seeing him play a Madurai don but speaking in Malayalam accent in Jilla (with punch dialogues as well!) made him a butt of hilarious memes.
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theeversriram
December 27, 2021
To add just one point, Mammooty has solo releases in Tamil which are reasonable hits – Maru Malarchi, Alagan, Anandam, etc; in Telugu as well – Swati Kiranam, Yatra, etc.
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Madan
December 27, 2021
” West Mambalam is bang in centre of Chennai.” – Still not Peter-land. That would be Adyar, Besant Nagar, maybe parts of Mylapore. Have you been to West Mambalam?
“No Rajesh Khanna movie is present, if his movies were superhits in TN then shouldn’t box office numbers reflect the same? ” – The list later in your comment mentions Baahubali as the second highest grosser and Mughal E Azam as the third highest. Will you then accept that Prabhas and Dilip Kumar are much bigger stars than Rajni??
More on that point later but…are you trolling or are you seriously unaware that Rajesh Khanna had a string of 17 consecutive hit films, in all of which he was the lead actor (and only in two was he a co-lead, in the 15 others he was the solo male lead)? Pl tell me how does that not establish the kind of stardom he enjoyed.
And by the way Kamal himself had to once act as escort for Rajesh Khanna when he visited Chennai because Khanna wanted to see a movie in the theater and he got mobbed while exiting. And this was after his peak had passed.
“His movies aren’t even in top 20/50; Haathi Mere Saathi ranks at number 70.
In contrast Rajnikanth movies Enthiran ranks at 51, 2.0 at 66 & Baasha at 71. He has more industry hits (all time best for that language till date) and South India hits.” – Those numbers don’t mean all that you want them to. You are too invested in your argument to have questioned it when you saw 2.0 at 66. Do you seriously think 2.0 is a bigger hit than Padayappa, forget Baasha or Enthiran? Nope, they simply carpet bombed theaters, hoping to recoup as much of their ginormous 500 cr budget as possible. They released it in nearly 7000 screens in India and 2000 abroad. That simply wasn’t possible in the 1970s. The only reason more Rajesh Khanna films (apart from Aradhana and Haathi Mere Saathi) don’t make the top 100 list is simply lack of screens. So it took mega-phenomena like Mughal-E-Azam or Sholay to still make the cut. Also, RK acted in lots of films (just like Rajni did in the 80s) so by the time one film of his was getting done with a good run, another would have already released. There are no less than four films of his in the top 10 of 1971 alone:
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls000047485/
If you want to quarrel with my argument, just ask yourself why none of Rajni’s 80s hits, none of MGR’s hits make it to the top 100. As such, only 13 70s films make it to the top 100 which is low for such a successful decade with multiple stars in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. There is an identical number from the 80s. OTOH there are 8 films just from 2010s and you cannot tell me that decade as such has been anywhere comparable to 70s or 80s for popularity of stars. This is borne out also by the dip in the 90s and 00s. It took time to build multiplexes all over the country and for digital technology to finally allow the makers to carpet bomb screens with digital prints which was impossible in the analogue era. Again, to give another Rajni example, do you really think Annamalai is not as big a hit as 2.0, seriously?
All that being said…
“Of course we can say that numbers are fake, there are no reliable records, etc. But what other objective criteria do we have?” – By your own yardstick, the top 10 films you mentioned don’t list a single Rajni starrer but do list two Amitabh Bachchan starrers. So by your own argument, you will have to agree with me on Amitabh even if you don’t on Rajesh Khanna.
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Yajiv
December 28, 2021
@KayKay’s comment reminded me of my childhood in Singapore. He’s absolutely right. Back then, there wasn’t much of a Hindi speaking population in the country, but Hindi movies would release solely for the Malay population. And it’s not just Southeast Asian, I have Palestinian and Lebanese friends who casually follow Hindi movies. It’s a bit pointless to be talking about “pan” and “reach” while comparing Hindi stars vs stars from any other southern language because Hindi is going to win out regardless.
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theeversriram
December 28, 2021
I seem to have ruffled some Mohanlal fans, my intention was never to do that, just a opinion from someone who hasn’t watched Malayalam cinema.
@ Eldho, comparing Pusha & Kireedam might be juvenile but can’t Marakkar be compared to Pushpa/RRR/Endiran, etc. This is another high budget mass appeal movie right? But Marakkar really small release in TN, even in my hometown Coimbatore where Malayalee people are quite significant in number, movie is only in morning shows or in some old theatres.
Also others saying that Rajnikanth not being a pan India star? What exactly is the definition? Being popular even outside home state or being popular amongst Hindi audiences? Rajnikanth movies have a wide release in Karnataka, Telengana, Andhra, Kerala & abroad.
People from Karnataka actually flew to Chennai for Kabali FDFS, haven’t heard this for other actors. But yes after Kabali disappointment, his appeal in non Tamil states is gradually going down.
A Malayalam speaking person is more likely to have seen Rajnikanth/Vijay hit movie that a Tamil/Telugu/Kannada person to have seen a Mohanalal hit ( I’m referring to later movies like Odiyan, Puli Murugan, etc which do have a wide release & not some 80/90s flick).
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Optimus
December 28, 2021
@theeversriram some kind of time loop going on? 🙂 I recall this comment posted earlier
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theeversriram
December 28, 2021
@Optimus seriously don’t understand how the comment came up again. Just saw Maanadu yesterday and maybe I’m in some loop as well.
@Madan,
“That would be Adyar, Besant Nagar, maybe parts of Mylapore. Have you been to West Mambalam?” –Yes bro, I’m an outsider to Chennai but have lived & worked for few years so have a decent understand of different areas. West Mambalam is a solid well-educated, upper caste, upper middle class area and CANNOT be a representative of majority of Chennai let alone Tamil Nadu. Average land rate in West Mambalam is approx. 20k which is higher than most of TN.
Will you then accept that Prabhas and Dilip Kumar are much bigger stars than Rajni?? Yes if Prabhas can deliver another couple of hits to match Baahubali then it must be acknowledged that he is bigger than Rajni.
“Are you trolling or are you seriously unaware that Rajesh Khanna had a string of 17 consecutive hit films, in all of which he was the lead actor” – Nope not trolling at all; I haven’t seen any RK movie till now. 17 hits on what scale? Like Bahubaali, Endhiran or small budget hit movies? I know this is stretching a bit far, but several actors have had a golden run at some point in their career before fizzling out (K Bagyaraj, Ramarajan, TR, etc in Tamil)
“Do you seriously think 2.0 is a bigger hit than Padayappa, forget Baasha or Enthiran?” – Numbers wise maybe yes; coz Padayappa/Baasha or other big hits of Rajnikanth seldom had big releases outside TN or India (maybe in united Andhra, but pretty low otherwise). Sivaji in 2007 was the first Rajni first that had a major release overseas.
“If you want to quarrel with my argument, just ask yourself why none of Rajni’s 80s hits, none of MGR’s hits make it to the top 100” – Like I said it was only in 2000s that overseas markets expanded for Tamil movies; even markets outside TN were really limited & vice versa as well. For example I have never seen Chiranjeevi movies having a release in TN unlike Pushapa/RRR now.
“So by your own argument, you will have to agree with me on Amitabh even if you don’t on Rajesh Khanna.” – Yes completely agree that at his prime AB was the biggest star in India & much bigger than Rajnikanth (not in recent years though)
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Yajiv
December 28, 2021
@theeversriram: I feel like the points in your last comment were already addressed by other commenters in this very thread.
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Madan
December 28, 2021
“West Mambalam is a solid well-educated, upper caste, upper middle class area and CANNOT be a representative of majority of Chennai let alone Tamil Nadu. Average land rate in West Mambalam is approx. 20k” – Dude, Peter has a particular connotation and is not just upper-caste and upper middle class but also about a very outward looking sensibility (that is derided for not being interested in Tamil cinema…certainly not something that applies to any West Mambalam I know of). Also, difference between West Mambalam of 1970s v/s today. If you don’t know what Peter means, have the humility to admit and learn the context instead of trying to manufacture a way to win the argument. Because if that’s what you’re after, you win, OK? Happy?
But moving on…
“Nope not trolling at all; I haven’t seen any RK movie till now.” – No wonder. So whatever theveersriram has not watched or does not know does not exist. That is the feeling emanating from your arguments.
“17 hits on what scale?” – Um, if you had even bothered to open the link of top 1971 films and read the contents, you would have got the answer. So pl do that, don’t be in a hurry to manufacture arguments for the sake of it. Seriously. If you want to argue facts, have the patience to peruse the facts I provide too, otherwise just don’t get into it.
NOW…if you had opened the link and read, it says clearly that the top 20 films of that year were superhits. Superhits in 1971 would have meant at least a 25 week run in Bollywood (as opposed to 100 days in a few centres being used to declare ‘hit’ in TN). NOW, consider that FOUR of the top TEN (not even top 20 but top 10) films in 1971 alone were Rajesh Khanna vehicles. Yeah. A year has 52 weeks and he had four films running 25 weeks or more in a single year.
Rajesh Khanna’s popularity or rather the mania he inspired at his peak is well documented and Kamal Haasan himself has spoken about it, among many other film personalities. In 1971, Amitabh Bachchan himself while working along side Rajesh Khanna in Anand spoke about how he was bowled over by the sheer stardom of RK. So don’t pretend that what you don’t know doesn’t exist and don’t even dare compare Rajesh Khanna to Ramaraj or Bhagyaraj. I mean, way to show the depth of your ignorance about the topic.
I am not going to bother addressing your arguments about 2.0 because, as Yajiv said, I explained exactly why it got way easier for producers to simultaneously release a film in incomparably many more screens compared to the 90s. Your response shows you completely missed the point…or chose to ignore it because it doesn’t ‘confirm’ your opinion.
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