KOCHI: It’s certainly not going to be yet another book for fan clubs. For it presents a historical perspective of Kerala reflected through a bunch of characters played by an actor known for his portrayal of real life characters.
Mohanlal - Oru Malayaliyude Jeevitham (Mohanlal - The life of a Malayali)’, co-authored by journalists A Chandrasekhar and Gireesh Balakrishnan, is a study of the change in the Malayali sensibility over the last 30 years reflected through the real and reel life of Mohanlal.
It’s an attempt to look into socioeconomic and political shifts in Kerala society and the Malayali psyche through different characters played by the actor. Issues related to politics, unemployment, mafia, Gulf money and many more are manifested in his earlier characters, say the authors.
But why Mohanlal? The authors say that he’s like Rajnikanth for Tamil movie buffs. "Other actors always portray larger than life characters. But Mohanlal started his career portraying real life characters and it was much later that he began doing largerthan- life characters,’’ says Chandrasekhar.
The book talks about his life outside the silver screen. The actor as a brand ambassador (which he created through his persona), Mohanlal’s image of a cultural leader, his business ventures, his widely discussed perspectives on life like Osho philosophies and the typical Mallu sensibility that one can see in the actor are discussed in detail in the book.
“The book looks into stardom. A star is merely raw material for a film and is created by producer-audiencefilm maker network. Interestingly, when a film makes it big it’s not the product but the raw material that becomes costly. The book deals with this strange paradox. The so-called image is a false thing,’’ said Chandrasekhar.
The 176-page book has 11 chapters and selected caricatures of the actor drawn by scriptwriter and caricaturist Suresh Babu. The book, brought out by Viewpoint Publishers, is priced at Rs 125.
Chandrasekhar, one of the authors of the book, has won the state award for best book on cinema for his book ‘Bodhatheerathil Kalam Midikkumpol’ in 2008.
The book will be released by Oscar winner Resul Pookutty who will hand it over to actor-director Madhupal at a function to be held at IMA Hall, Kaloor, on Sunday at 6 pm.
Mohanlal will be the special guest for the evening.
K Jayakumar, Viewpoint Publishers editor R Parvathi Devi, N Subrahmanian and Asad Mooppan will attend the function. There will be a concert by gazal singer Shahabas Aman during the function. He will sing songs from Lal’s films.
kochi@epmltd.com