Award-winning music composer and singer Shahabaz Aman is a self-confessed Mohanlal fan who has openly declared his great admiration for the screen icon. The singer, in a recent Facebook post, has shared his views about the new-age movies and also about Mollywood superstars Mammootty and Mohanlal.
Aman claimed that Malayalam cinema would have ceased to exist had it not been for Mohanlal. He added that even today the filmmakers are trying to either absorb the incredible persona of the superstar into their movies or to totally reject him. The singer is of the opinion that when filmmakers succeed in the latter, movies like Annayum Resoolum,Ee, Ma Yau, Mayanadhi and Eeda are born.
“In fact, the new filmmakers have been trying to take movies which are ‘not a Mohanlal movie’. This is all they prove and they need to grow beyond that. When the filmmakers try to include Mohanlal’s aura out of excitement but cannot successfully execute it, bad movies are made in Malayalam. But whoever ‘utilises’ Mohanlal in the right way, there is always an incredible energy emanating from the screens. When this energy or excitement spreads beyond the theatres, an actor becomes a superstar. I believe that this ability to pose a challenge through his everlasting presence is what enables him to reign as a silver screen icon,” wrote Aman on his Facebook page.
The singer was all praise for Mammootty as well and said that the actor continues to adorn a significant place in the cultural scenario of Kerala though the latter, unlike Mohanlal, has never exerted such an influence over cinema. He wrote, “Those movies which Mammootty hasn’t acted in are not ‘Mammootty films’, but the movies in which Mohanalal the actor is not seen too could be termed ‘Mohanlal films’. So Mohanlal’s greatness lies more in being a constant challenge for the filmmakers than being hailed as the complete actor. He continues to challenge them as effortless as he shows off his signature walking style. From my own personal observation of the actor, I think Lalettan himself has realised that he indeed is the ‘psychological’ factor that influences the Malayalam cinema, or might even be wishing that there should be new cinematic sensibility that doesn’t imbibe him at all.”
Aman concludes his Facebook post by hoping that more newage filmmakers would take up this challenge and fare well in it.
The singer posted the message on the silver screen icon’s birthday on May 21.