Sreenivasan once took swipe at Mohanlal for doing Padayappa-like films, said actor stopped showing interest in doing films with him, Sathyan Anthikad

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Even after Mohanlal’s ascent to superstardom with Rajavinte Makan (1986), he continued to do social and comedy dramas penned by Sreenivasan, mostly helmed by Sathyan Anthikad. However, over time, Mohanlal became such a huge figure in Malayalam cinema that makers began crafting movies with larger-than-life heroes tailored just for him. Although he continued experimenting amidst this too and did films like Pavithram, Thenmavin Kombath, Kaalapani, Oru Yathramozhi, Guru, Kanmadam, and Vanaprastham, among others, by the late 1990s, mass masala commercial entertainers became the norm in his career.

Mohanlal in Narasimham. (Credit: thecompleteactor.com)

The era of the many Narasimhams

While screenwriter Ranjith’s attempts in this area found massive success — as evidenced by the blockbuster results of Devasuram, Aaraam Thampuran, Ustaad, Narasimham, and Ravanaprabhu — a long list of subpar replicas also followed closely, and needless to say, most flopped. Even the OG ones that emerged as massive blockbusters lacked great cinematic or artistic quality and have, over the years, earned significant criticism for their elitist and misogynistic undertones.

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Once, Sreenivasan himself expressed discontent with Mohanlal for prioritising mass masala films over artistically superior ones that pushed his limits as an actor. Contrary to popular belief that filmmakers like him and Sathyan Anthikad had stopped making projects like the ones they created with Mohanlal in the 1980s and 1990s, Sreenivasan claimed it was the superstar who began showing little interest in such films.

“In a recent interview, Mohanlal was asked why the old collaboration with Sathyan Anthikad and Sreenivasan wasn’t happening anymore. He said, ‘Why aren’t they making such stories? Only if they make stories can I act, right? They should make such films; screenwriters should write such stories.’ But the truth is that it’s Mohanlal who stopped showing interest in such films. We (Sathyan and I) continued collaborating and only made such films even after that. We didn’t make Narasimham. It was Mohanlal who transformed into Narasimham and started twirling his moustache,” the legendary actor-screenwriter said during an old episode of a Kairali TV talk show.

‘A Padayappa once a while is okay, but…’

He doubled down on such mass masala entertainers and pointed out that they were mere replicas of Rajinikanth movies such as Padayappa (1999), helmed by KS Ravikumar. For the unfamiliar, Padayappa served as the primary inspiration for both director Shaji Kailas and screenwriter Ranjith in creating Narasimham.

Sreenivasan added, “I wonder if Mohanlal’s current calculations are going wrong. See, Rajinikanth and Padayappa are okay in Tamil Nadu. They are fine as Tamil films in Kerala as well. But when Malayalam actors imitate Rajinikanth and Padayappa and create such movies, how much will the audience here like it? It’s okay for him to do such movies once in a while. But doing them continuously is something to be careful about. People who love Mohanlal’s acting brilliance will naturally feel sad seeing him doing just such movies.”