While a number of new heroes have entered Mollywood and have cornered the attention of audiences, the old firm of Mammootty and Mohanlal continue to rock. Mammootty, especially, has been able to weather the storm with critically-acclaimed films like veteran cinematographer Venu’s Munna-riyuppu and commercial entertainers like Siddique’s Bhaskar the Rascal. One of the most handsome actors ever to grace Malayalam cinema, Mammootty, a practising advocate, gave up his black robes to embrace stardom. His latest release Puthiya Niyamam, a thriller that dealt with vigilante justice and had Mammootty in the role of a firebrand lawyer with leftist links, received mixed reviews.
Mammootty has been extremely fortunate in his career as he has worked with some of the finest talents in the industry. After a blink and miss role in Sethumadhavan’s Anubhavangal Paalichaka, starring the late Sathyan, he got an excellent opening with his first film Vilkkanundu Swapnangal in 1980 and thereafter managed an excellent break with avant garde director K G George’s Yavanika, a crime thriller. With audiences rooting for him, he teamed up with hotshot directors like I V Sasi with whom he did as many as 35 films including all-time hits like Balaram vs Tharadas and films with discerning subjects like Mrigaya.
Internationally-acclaimed filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, who rarely repeats actors in his films, made an exception for Mammootty who worked in three of his films Anantharam, Mathilukal and Vidheyan. In Vidheyan, based on a story by reputed novelist Paul Zachariah, the superstar played the hero with negative shades who is finally lynched by the villagers. Although Adoor’s films are more popular on the international film circuit than in theatres, Mammootty accepted them for the aesthetic satisfaction they afforded him.
The actor has also been successful in portraying legendary folk heroes in historicals and ace director Hariharan’s films Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha and Pazhassi Raja, both super-duper hits, saw Mammootty as a swashbuckling, sabre-rattling hero. A remarkable aspect of this actor’s career is that he has never been typecast and even directors who have repeated him in their films have always taken care to cast him in diverse roles.
Mammootty’s recent films including Kunjananthante Kada and Pathemari, Munnariyuppu and Ranjith Shankar’s Varsham, all eschewed the usual box-office ingredients and handled socially-relevant themes. But what has baffled critics and perhaps his fans as well is his accepting the kind of roles that he did in Cobra, Fireman, Utopiyayile Rajavu and Ache Din, all of which nose-dived at the box-office.
And while the actor has been concentrating on his career in Malayalam films, he has also done films in Telugu including Vishwanath’s Swathi Kiranam, Kannada film Shikari, Dhartiputhra in Hindi and a number of hit Tamil films like Mounam Sammadham, Azhagan (K Balachander), Dhalapathi (Mani Ratnam) and Anandam (Linguswamy). His three National Awards came to him in Mathilukal/ Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha, Ponthan Mada / Vidheyan and the Jabbar Patel-directed English film Babasaheb Ambedkar.
Large-hearted Mammootty has also been espousing several social causes and has been contributing his mite as an active campaigner in schemes devised for the upliftment of the poor and the downtrodden, besides continuing his stewardship of the Malayalam TV channel Kairali.