Reader James dropped this as a comment a few days back. We thought that this was an amazing observation and is worthy of a post – ed.

Some interesting history trivia regarding Mohanlal’s career:

I think the turning point year in his career was 1986. That’s when he was shifted upwards to super stardom. It is unbelievable when one looks at the releases of his films during that one year.

1. Ninnishtam Ennishtam (Director: Priyadarshan)
2. Mazha Peyyunnu Maddalam Kottunnu (Director: Priyadarshan)
3. Hello My Dear Wrong Number (Director: Priyadarshan)
4. Thalavattam (Director: Priyadarshan)
5. Sanmanassullavarku Samadhanam (Director: Sathyan Anthikad)
6. T. P. Balagopalan M.A. (Director: Sathyan Anthikad)
7. Gandhinagar 2nd Street (Director: Sathyan Anthikad)
8. Kariyilakkattupole (Director: Padmarajan)
9. Desatanakkili Karayarilla (Director: Padmarajan)
10. Namukku Parkkan Munthiri Thoppukal (Director: Padmarajan)
11. Rajavinte Makan (Director: Thampi Kannanthanam)
12. Sughamo Devi (Director: Venu Nagavally)
13. Yuvajanolsavam (Director: Sreekumaran Thambi)
14. Mizhineerpookkal (Director: Kamal)
15. Panchagni (Director: Hariharan)
16. Abhayam Thedi (dir. IV Sasi)

He was lucky to be there at the right time. He got the best screenplays and directors.

I don’t think any actors from the next generation would have such a luck. Though Fahad Fazil seems to be on fire.

All those movies have done very well commercially. People really like seeing the some of these things  again and again and Dileep is minting money on it. This is really important and the film industry depends on such hits.

Now think of it from an actor’s long term career perspective. The problem with this ‘what you can expect from me’ mentality is this. Someone else can take over this from you. Mohanlal was doing comedy in his early days, then he moved to action, classy movies and all that. In that gap Jayaram grew. He did comedy for a while and then tried different things. In that gap Dileep got in. Now Jayaram was not successful in ‘other roles’ and so he is now coming back to comedy. But that space is crowded now and he has no where to go. Now what will happen to Dileep, if there is a rising comedy star?  Can he move to other serious roles?  He probably cannot as an actor with serious limitations.  He is diversified  and is now wisely producing movies and minting money. The other problem with this mentality is if no one likes the package you are selling, example – Suresh Gopi.

Even singers have this problem. No one calls Rimy Tomy to sing a classical song (yes, Ara Pavan in Vasthavam is an exception) and no one calls M G Sreekumar to sing Pramadavanam or Venugopal to sing Velmuruka.  Moving from singers, if you look at directors, they too have this mentality.  You know what to expect when you go for a Sathyan Anthikkad, Rajasenan or Shafi movie. At the same time, you did not know what you were into when you went for a Padmarajan movie or I V Sasi movie or Lal Jose movie. They have tackled so many ideas and made those movies successful as well. This is why we admire film makers and actors who have range, compared to those who don’t.

The conjecture is that the growth of tamizh and most other cinemas is what market-mechanism ensures when fueled by the inflow of money and the absence of impedance from AMMA-type gundaism. In contrast, the growth of malayALam cinema during 1980s was due to the presence of a tiny bunch of talented, yet not other-worldly ( in the Aravindan/Adoor sense ) directors/technicians/actors – I mean bharatan, padmarAjan etc. – whose sheer talent and appeal were powerful enough to uplift an entire movie industry – in other words, it was rather fortuitous coincidence that this small bunch were born in Kerala and managed to get together. Once these people passed away/aged/entered a creativity-drought there was none left to pull the rest up, and things went back to where they would have been if the geniuses didn’t exist and unionism existed.[Indian Panorama - Malayalam movies galore]

froginthewell asked that question in the comments question about the golden age of Malayalam Cinema.

A lot of credit, as he rightly pointed out, goes to Bharatan and Padmarajan for uplifting the quality of Malayalam cinema. While Padmarajan was a writer as well as a director, Bharatan was not. Directors of those era were helped a lot by great scripts by  MT Vasudevan Nair, T Damodaran and later by Lohithadas. Directors like IV Sasi too made some excellent socially relevant movies during that period.

Later there was the Sreenivasan-Sathyan Anthikkad-Priyadarshan type comedy, which were dark and socially relevant. These movies did not fly above the head like various Adoor/Aravindan movies, but connected with people. People were able to idenitify with the protagonists and their issues.

Once Padmarajan died, MT stopped writing for a while, Priyadarshan discovered Hollywood movies and Sathyan Anthikkad became a master of cliches, the field was taken over by the Shaji Kailas, Shafi, Rafi-Mecartin types. Their movies were entertaining in one sense, but were repetitive and predictable.

Lohithadas too seems to have lost his mojo and the last standing writer of that era is Srinivasan who is able to churn out movies like Katha Parayumbol, which still connect with the masses.Right now a director like Lal Jose alone is able to churn out a hit film called Oru Arabikatha based on Iqbal Kuttipuram’s script with Srinivasan as the hero. This is rare.

Right now the superstars are into mindless comedy, super man movies. Producers too want only them because they have a minimum guarantee. Hopefully a bunch of great talent will burst out – the souls of Bharatan and Padmarajan would have reincarnated somewhere — and save us from Anil-Babu and the likes.

What do you think?