MALAYALAM: Loud laughter echoed in the room when Vinu Mohan presented himself before director Lohithadas for the screen test of ‘Nivedyam’.
“I was told that the character I would play was a Namboodiri youngster. And to impress the director, I dressed myself up in a mundu and jubba and my forehead smeared with sandalwood paste,” says Vinu, one among the youngsters in Mollywood who is gradually carving a niche in tinseltown.
The sets of ‘Nivedyam’ was
“a school of cinema” for Vinu who hails from a family of actors. He is the grandson of one of the finest actors of Malayalam cinema, Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair, and the nephew of popular hero-turned-villain, Sai Kumar. Vinu’s father Mohan is a drama and cine artist and mother Sobha is a familiar face on the small and big screens. “So the pressure to live up to the legacy was high,” recounts Vinu. So much so, he messed up on the first day of the shoot! “I feared being dropped from the project when I requested Lohi Sir to postpone the shooting by a day. But he was understanding enough and gave me time.” Vinu’s role as Mohanakrishan endeared him to Malayalis. “The credit goes to the director. Not once has he made me feel like a newcomer. He knows how to extract the best out of every actor,” says Vinu, who is yet to come to terms with his mentor’s untimely demise.
‘Cycle’, ‘Sultan’, Colours’, Keralotsavam’, ‘Chattambinadu’, Dalamarmarangal’ and ‘Inganeyum Oraal’ saw him in prominent roles. “I could relate well to the aggressive and frustrated cricket player I played in ‘Cycle’ because once upon a time, I dreamt of making it big in cricket.” The camaraderie he struck with Vineeth Sreenivasan saw the film being accepted by the youth. “We share an off screen chemistry too. The shooting was in and around Thalassery and that being his native place, Vineeth knew the place well. We are complete foodies and during break time, we checked out the famous eateries in the locality. We had a whale of a time together!”
Vinu’s upcoming projects include Atlas Ramachandran’s directorial debut ‘Holidays’, in which he is paired opposite Muktha, and Umar Kareekad’s ‘Bombay Mittayi’, where he plays the son of a musician who failed to make it big. “My character, Suresh, is a funny one who yearns to earn quick money through hook or crook.” Sharing screen space with expelled Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and former Bollywood heartthrob Dimple Kapadia was a great experience, says Vinu. “Although we didn’t have many combination scenes, I got to interact with them. From Dimpleji’s acting, I learnt that the styles of acting in the north and down south are different. Amarji was keen to get his act right and studied his scene well before the shoot. There’s a lot that I learnt from them. I consider myself lucky to be part of the film and to have rubbed shoulders with such stalwarts.”
Coming up next is a Viji Thampy film. “Youngsters have many opportunities in the film field. But the sad part is that not many films come up with good subjects to explore our creativity. Newcomers today miss the variety of roles that Mohanlal and Mammootty did in their prime in the 80s,” says the actor who now has offers from Tamil and Telugu filmdom as well.
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