Mohanlal started acting much before 20 year-old Santhosh Unnithan was born, but according to this engineering student, he became a fan of Mohanlal when he was in school.

What attracted Santhosh to Mohanlal were his comedies. He also enjoyed some of Mohanlal's 'superhero' films. Unnithan feels that lately Mohanlal has not been acting in good films, and has also not been paying attention to his appearance.

I was not born when Mohanlal acted in his first film, Manjil Virinja Pookkal. I saw the film much later when it came on television. By then, I was old enough to enjoy films. And Mohanlal along with Srinivasan were making comedies. They were oh-so-great! Those films were the reason why I became a hardcore Mohanlal fan as a schoolboy. Not only me but also all boys of my age were attracted to his comedies.

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No other actor has done comedies as well as Mohanlal. He was very natural and his sense of timing was amazing. Another thing is, he could complement so well with both Srinivasan and Jagathy Sreekumar. My favourites are all his comedies with Srinivasan. The best with Jagathy is Kilukkam. I don't think that Dileep, who came into the film industry imitating Mohanlal, is a patch on him. These days, however, Dileep's films are doing very well.

I sincerely feel Mohanlal should have concentrated more on comedies than on the superhero roles. It is not that I have not seen his superhero films. I have. But I definitely prefer his comedies.

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As a school student, I couldn't understand the intricacies involved in acting till I reached the 9th or 10th grade. After that, I started watching his serious films more intently. I have seen his Bharatham, Vaanaprastham and Kireedam. As a person who enjoys quality films, I feel those were his best performances. Still, I prefer going to the theatre with my friends and enjoying his comedies. All my friends in school, and now in college, are Mohanlal fans. We cannot be otherwise since we grew up watching his comedies.

Here, I must admit that he is one actor who can act in both serious and comic roles. He was truly amazing in all kinds of films.

In the last few years, however, he has made many blunders as far as selection of roles is concerned. I cannot understand why he decided to concentrate only on the superhero roles, where he keeps twirling his moustache all the time. It is not that he did not do those roles well. If he did not, they would not have become hits. But when such films came one after another, people also got bored. That is why his recent films as a superhero didn't do that well at the box office.

I don't blame him alone for doing such roles. I blame the filmmakers who did not offer him anything new. When one such film became a huge hit, they exploited the trend. They made money, but never tried to exploit his enormous talent. Eventually, he got blamed for such films, which is rather unfortunate.

Evidently he has realised the mistake. The result is Kilichundan Mambazham, where he tries to be the old Mohanlal, but has not succeeded. The film did not do well as expected for various reasons, one of which, according to me, is his physical appearance. He was quite obese in the film. He should have been more careful about his appearance. In a film like Vaanaprastham also he was very fat, but then his performance was so good that nobody bothered about his appearance. On the other hand, in commercial films, looking good is very, very essential. I saw Kilichundan Mambazham and was quite disappointed.

I must add that although he did not succeed in becoming the old Mohanlal in Kilichundam Mambazham, I am confident that he can be his old self again, because he is such a talented actor. Of course, he has to reduce his weight first.

I am also confident that he can compete and come up against actors half his age. Right now I don't see anyone else who is as talented as he. When he should have been doing films with experienced and good directors like Sibi Malayil, Kamal and Fazil, he is working with newcomers. I cannot understand why.

I also feel he should concentrate only on comedies like Nadodikkattu and Pattana Pravesam, and family dramas like Bharatham and stop doing superhero roles completely. We have had enough of superhero films from Mohanlal!

As told to Shobha Warrier

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