Mammootty at 75: The superstar who never stopped experimenting

Seventy-five is usually the age at which a superstar's career is turned into a museum exhibit. The greatest hits are revisited, iconic characters are counted, old photographs resurface and the familiar story of the rise from obscurity to fame is told once again.

Mammootty, however, has never been particularly interested in staying where audiences last left him.
At 75, and with 55 years in cinema behind him, the actor is still doing something that has defined his career from the beginning: changing his mind about what he wants to play.

The man who once entered films in small and supporting roles went on to become one of Malayalam cinema's biggest stars. But the more remarkable part of Mammootty's journey is what happened after he had already achieved that status. Instead of spending the rest of his career protecting the image of a superstar, he repeatedly put it at risk.

He played the flawed, the eccentric, the vulnerable and the downright unpredictable. He worked with established filmmakers and newcomers. He moved between massive commercial entertainers and films that demanded a completely different kind of performance. And somehow, at 75, the experimentation hasn't stopped.

From the margins to the centre
Mammootty's journey to superstardom was hardly an overnight phenomenon. He began his acting career with small appearances and supporting roles before gradually establishing himself as a leading actor. The 1980s changed the scale of his career, with films such as 'Yavanika', 'New Delhi' and 'Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha' demonstrating that he could command both commercial cinema and serious dramatic roles. By then, the image of Mammootty the superstar was firmly in place. But there was always another Mammootty underneath it.

The actor who could play the swaggering journalist G Krishnamoorthy in 'New Delhi' could also become Chandu Chekavar in 'Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha'. He could play the legendary warrior with wounded pride one year and disappear into a far more restrained character the next. That ability to move between extremes became one of the defining features of his career.

He never let the star become bigger than the actor
Perhaps the easiest thing for Mammootty to have done was to keep repeating what worked. Instead, his filmography became increasingly unpredictable.
There was the larger-than-life Bellary Raja in 'Rajamanikyam', the stylish Bilal John Kurishinkal in 'Big B', the three radically different characters in 'Paleri Manikyam', and the deeply vulnerable Amudhavan in 'Peranbu'. In more recent years, that willingness to experiment has become even more visible.

'Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam' asked him to move between identities within the same performance. 'Rorschach' pushed him into darker territory. 'Kaathal – The Core' cast him as Mathew, a middle-aged gay man who has spent much of his life hiding his sexuality while living in a heterosexual marriage. 'Bramayugam' stripped away much of the familiar superstar vocabulary and placed him inside a stark black-and-white horror film. These weren't simply different genres. They were different versions of Mammootty.

The fascinating part is that audiences followed him
A superstar experimenting is one thing. A superstar experimenting while continuing to command audience interest decades into his career is something else. Mammootty's longevity isn't just about the number of films he has acted in or the number of hits attached to his name. It is about his ability to make each phase of his career feel slightly different from the one before it. That is why his filmography cannot easily be divided into "commercial Mammootty" and "actor Mammootty". The two have always existed alongside each other.

55 years later, the story is still moving
This is perhaps what makes Mammootty's 75th birthday unusual. There is plenty to celebrate in retrospect: more than five decades in cinema, hundreds of characters, major commercial successes, critically acclaimed performances and three National Film Awards for Best Actor. But a retrospective alone doesn't quite capture where Mammootty stands today. He isn't simply looking back at 55 years of cinema. He is still adding to it.