Mohanlal Viswanathan is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, film distributor, and director who predominantly works in Malayalam film industry besides also having sporadically appeared in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Kannada films. Mohanlal has a prolific career spanning over four decades, during which he has acted in more than 400 films. Mohanlal's contributions to the Malayalam cinema have been praised by his contemporaries in the Indian film industry. The Government of India honoured him with Padma Shri in 2001, and Padma Bhushan in 2019, India's fourth and third highest civilian honours, for his contributions to Indian cinema. In 2009, he became the first actor in India to be awarded the honorary rank of lieutenant colonel in the Territorial Army. Mohanlal was named as one of "the men who changed the face of the Indian Cinema" by CNN-News18.
Priyadarshan is an Indian film director and screenwriter who predominantly works in Malayalam and Hindi cinema. The massive success his movies enjoyed mirrors the collective conscience of the people, particularly the elite, of that era - a period with which the filmmaker is intimately connected.
Kilukkam (transl. Jingle) is a 1991 Indian Malayalam-language comedy drama film directed by Priyadarshan and written by Venu Nagavalli. The story set in Ooty revolves around tourist guide Joji (Mohanlal) and photographer Nishchal. They happen to meet a lavish tourist Nandini (Revathi), whom they bet their fortunes on. It also stars Thilakan, Innocent, K. B. Ganesh Kumar, Sukumari, and Sharat Saxena, with Murali and Jagadish making cameo appearances. The music was composed by S. P. Venkatesh. Kilukkam was released on 15 August 1991. The film was the highest-grossing Malayalam film at that time and ran for more than 365-days at the theaters. Kilukkam won five Kerala State Film Awards, including Best Actor for Mohanlal, Second Best Actor for Jagathy Sreekumar, Best Editor for N. Gopalakrishnan, and Best Cinematographer for S. Kumar. The film is regarded as one of the best comedy films of Malayalam cinema. It was remade in Telugu as Allari Pilla and in Hindi as Muskurahat by Priyadarshan himself. Later, the film had a sequel Kilukkam Kilukilukkam (2006). The movie was reported to have been inspired by the 1953 American movie Roman Holiday.
Kaviyoor Ponnamma is an Indian actress who appears in Malayalam films and television. She began her career performing in theatre dramas before foraying into cinema. She has also acted in TV serials and commercials and has playback singing credits in few films. Ponnamma is a four-time Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Actress winner. Her sister Kaviyoor Renuka was also an actress. Often called as the Mother to all actors, she has acted as mother of almost all actors in her career panning over decades. At the age of 20, she played the mother of Sathyan and Madhu in the 1965 movie Thommente Makkal. She gained critical acclaim for acting as the mother of the actor Mohanlal.
Raavanaprabhu is a 2001 Indian Malayalam-language action thriller drama film written and directed by Ranjith in his directorial debut. It is a sequel to the 1993 film Devaasuram written by Ranjith, directed by I.V. Sasi. The film stars Mohanlal in the dual role of Mangalassery Neelakandan and M. N. Karthikeyan, father and son. Napoleon reprises the role of Neelakandan's archenemy Mundackal Shekharan. It also features Vasundhara Das, Innocent, Siddique, Vijayaraghavan, and Sai Kumar. Revathi reprises the role of Bhanumathi in a cameo appearance. The plot follows M. N. Karthikeyan, Neelakandan's son and his attempts to reclaim their ancestral home Mangalassery tharavadu.
Sukumari Amma was an Indian actress best known for her works in Malayalam and Tamil films. In a career spanning more than five decades, She has appeared in more than 2500 films predominantly in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, along with few Hindi and one each in Sinhala, French, Bengali, Tulu, English and Kannada films. Sukumari began acting at the age of 10. In 2003, she was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India for her contributions toward the arts. She won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the Tamil film Namma Gramam (2010). Sukumari died on 26 March 2013 in Chennai, following a heart attack.
Vidhu Prathap is an Indian playback singer. He has sung many songs in over 600 films in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu languages.
Adiyozhukkukal (transl. Undercurrents) is a 1984 Indian Malayalam-language drama film directed by I. V. Sasi and written by M. T. Vasudevan Nair; starring Mammootty, Mohanlal, Seema, Balan K. Nair, Vincent and Rahman. The film was produced by Raju Mathew under the banner of Casino and was distributed by Century Films.
Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan, better known by his stage name Dileep, is an Indian actor, producer, and businessman who predominantly works in the Malayalam film industry. He has acted in more than 150 films and has won several awards, including four Kerala State Film Awards and one Filmfare Awards South.
Aashirvad Cinemas is an Indian film production company based in Kochi, Kerala. It was established in 2000 by Antony Perumbavoor, since then, it has produced over 30 Malayalam films, starring Mohanlal. Since 2009, the company co-operates with the distribution company Maxlab Cinemas and Entertainments co-founded by Mohanlal and Antony Perumbavoor for distributing films. It is one among the most active and leading production houses in the Malayalam film industry.
Priyanka Nair is an Indian model-turned-actress who predominantly works in the Malayalam film industry. She made her debut in the Tamil film Veyyil in 2006. She gained critical acclaim for her roles in Bhoomi Malayalam, Vilapangalkappuram and Jalam.
Pranayam (transl. Love) is a 2011 Indian Malayalam-language romantic drama film written and directed by Blessy. The film stars Mohanlal, Jaya Prada, and Anupam Kher. The plot revolves around the love bound between the characters of Mathews (Mohanlal), Grace, and Achutha Menon (Kher). The music for the film was composed by M. Jayachandran. The film opened to positive reviews from critics and was also an average at the box office.
Run Baby Run is a 2012 Indian Malayalam-language comedy thriller film directed by Joshiy, produced and distributed by Milan Jaleel through the company Galaxy Films. It was the first independent screenplay of Sachy following the split of Sachi-Sethu duo. The film stars Mohanlal and Amala Paul. The music was composed by Ratheesh Vegha, while cinematography was done by R. D. Rajasekhar.
Peruchazhi (transl. Bandicota) is a 2014 Indian Malayalam-language political satire film written and directed by Arun Vaidyanathan. The dialogues were co-written by Ajayan Venugopalan. Vijay Babu and Sandra Thomas produced the film for Friday Film House. It features Mohanlal in the lead role, and Sean James Sutton, Ragini Nandwani, Mukesh, Baburaj, Aju Varghese, and Vijay Babu appear in supporting roles. Arrora composed the background score and soundtrack, while Arvind Krishna and Vivek Harshan did the cinematography and editing. The film received mostly negative reviews from critics.
Loham: The Yellow Metal is a 2015 Indian Malayalam-language action thriller film written and directed by Ranjith, and produced by Antony Perumbavoor for the production company Aashirvad Cinemas. The film, starring Mohanlal, Renji Panicker, Siddique, Andrea Jeremiah and Ajmal Ameer is about an elusive smuggling operation and the mysterious disappearance of 100 kilograms (220 lb) of gold. Sreevalsan J. Menon and C. Rajamani composed the soundtrack and film score, respectively.
Pulimurugan is a 2016 Indian Malayalam-language action thriller film directed by Vysakh and produced by Tomichan Mulakuppadam through Mulakuppadam Films and was written by Udayakrishna—half of the duo Udayakrishna and Sibi K. Thomas—in his first independent screenplay. The film stars Mohanlal in the title role, with Jagapati Babu, Kamalinee Mukherjee, Lal, Vinu Mohan, Bala, Noby Marcose and Suraj Venjaramoodu in supporting roles. The film score and soundtrack were composed by Gopi Sundar, while cinematography was handled by Shaji Kumar and edited by Johnkutty.
Pathemari (transl. Dhow) is a 2015 Indian Malayalam-language period drama film written and directed by Salim Ahamed and starring Mammootty in the lead role, with a supporting cast that includes Jewel Mary, Siddique, Sreenivasan, Salim Kumar, Shaheen Siddique, Viji Chandrasekhar, and Joy Mathew. The plot follows the life of Pallikkal Narayanan (Mammootty) who migrated to the Middle-East in the early 1960s, when the Kerala Gulf boom was just beginning.
Pappanikunnel Thankappan Saju, better known by his stage name Saju Navodaya, is an Indian actor and comedian who works in Malayalam films, television and stage. He began his career as a comedian on stage shows and later forayed into television and into films. In January 2020, he contested in the second season of Malayalam reality TV show Bigg Boss.
Oppam (transl. Along) is a 2016 Indian Malayalam-language crime thriller film written and directed by Priyadarshan from a story by Govind Vijayan. It was produced by Antony Perumbavoor for Aashirvad Cinemas and starred Mohanlal and Samuthirakani. The film contains songs composed by the group 4 Musics, and the score was composed by Ron Ethan Yohann. N. K. Ekambaram was the cinematographer.
Ittymaani: Made in China is a 2019 Indian Malayalam-language comedy drama film written and directed by Jibi Joju in their directorial debut. Produced by Antony Perumbavoor through the company Aashirvad Cinemas, the film stars Mohanlal in the title role, with Honey Rose as the female lead role. It also stars Siddique, Radhika Sarathkumar, Aju Varghese, K. P. A. C. Lalitha, Salim Kumar, Hareesh Kanaran, and Dharmajan Bolgatty in supporting roles. The original songs were composed by 4 Musics, Kailas Menon, and Deepak Dev and background score by Dev. The story is set in Kunnamkulam, Thrissur and revolves around Ittymaani, a Chinese-born Indian who moved to his homeland at age 10 and is now engaged in selling knockoff products among other businesses.
