EUPHORIC MOOD: The actor dons his usual winning smile

For the past week, Kerala's capital is has been in the grip of a Lal fever. His latest-255th-film Balettan is a hit after a long spell of flops. Every Malayalam television channel is now screening his past classics. A month-long celebration organised by his friends is on in Thiruvananthapuram. This includes a festival of his films, a photo exhibition and seminars to culminate in a finale on the grounds of his alma mater, the Mahatma Gandhi College, which will be attended by his producers, directors and co-stars. The festivities had started with a re-enactment of the first scene in his first film Thiranottam. It was Lal playing a mentally retarded child coming home on a bicycle. The film, though a non-starter, was the collective effort of Lal and his buddies. The festivities, aptly named Thiranottam (look back), is being organised by the same old college group in which many have struck gold in cinema, like noted director Priyadarsan and singer M.G. Sreekumar.

"In fact I didn't know I had completed 25 years in cinema until someone reminded recently. For cinema is a world where you don't feel the passage of time," says the 43-year-old star.

In fact, there never has been a Malayalam actor loved both by the masses and the critics in equal measure. The 5-foot-10-inch-tall actor, weighing 90 kg, with an unlikely face of a star had started off as a menacing villain and went on to become the super-human action hero in Malayalam cinema's all- time hits like Narasimham, Araam Thampuran or Rajavinte Makan. He was also the lovable, innocent villager who made every one laugh with his self-mocking roles in films like Nadodikkatt,

T P Balagopalan MA, Varavelppu and so on-all Chaplinesque comedies with an under current of pathos. He also made millions guffaw without reason in Priyadarsan's slapsticks like Kilukkam, Poochakkoru Mukkutii or the more serious multi-lingual Kalapani. At the same time he also made critics marvel at his intense performance as a Kathakali performer in Shaji N. Karun's Vanaprastham or as the refugee resettlement officer in post-Partition Bengal in Vasthuhara directed by the late

G. Aravindan. A two-time winner of the national award for the best actor, Lal became a favourite for discerning non-Malayali directors. For Mani Ratnam he played an M.G. Ramachandran-like character in Iruvar. In Ram Gopal Varma's Company, Mohanlal was cast in the much-acclaimed role of an honest and shrewd police officer.

But the silver jubilee has come not in the best of times for either the Malayalam film industry or for Lal himself. Crises loom large over the sick Malayalam film industry where 95 per cent of the films seem to flop. The much-hyped Kilichundan Mampazham which he made with director Priyadarsan failed at the box office. He has become far more choosy about films now.

"When I produced Vanaprastham with Shaji Karun at a cost of Rs 4 crore I knew I wasn't going to get back my money. But the recognition I received at Cannes when the film was shown was a reward in itself," says Lal. Karun, who was surprised by the pains Lal took to master Kathakali for the film, says, "I haven't seen many with his urge to excel." Adds legendary Kathakali dancer Keezhpatam Kumaran Nair who too acted in the film: "Mohanlal is such a natural actor who stunned us all by picking up the nuances of Kathakali so fast."

Lal himself is content to say, "But I don't work extra hours just because a film is made by a master. This is seen in the sets of the ongoing Hariharan Pillai Happy Aanu."

Many ascribe the flops to the actor himself. He has played the stereotype as a super human hero in a row. No one wants to see now. "Perhaps Lal is the most outstanding actor in Malayalam history. His range is phenomenal but compulsions of stardom make him do silly roles. His potential has never been used best," says Adoor Gopalakrishnan. Lal himself has acknowledged the fact that he has to get away from doing super human roles if he has to stay on in cinema. His previous role in Kilichundan Mampazham was an attempt to bring back his old charm as a simple, do-gooder villager. His role Balettan too is similar and promises to bring back his fans back to theatres. Even in his ongoing film Hariharan ... in which he again plays a simple but bungling architect unable to build a house of his own. Mohanlal says he has made mistakes in his choice of roles. "But I don't lose my sleep over it. How do I know in advance I was making a mistake since most of the flops were made by those who had made many super hits in the past?" he asks. He adds he is not worried about whether his luck is on the wane. "I would like to act until my death because I don't know anything else I can do," he says. But that doesn't mean the actor is not into other things. He has a couple of recording studios in Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram. He is also pursuing his second favourite passion: food. He has launched the first of a chain of restaurants called Taste Buds in Dubai and Sharjah. He has started a high tech pastry-making unit called Bake Mart in Dubai.

He is hoping that a good role will come his way again. He has high hopes for the coming big-budget project Naran, based on the recent communal clashes in Kozhikode, which is the first directorial venture by Ranji Panikkar, a well-known script- writer. He also looks forward to an unnamed film to be made by director Fazil whose Manjil Virinja Pookkal, Lal's second film, gave the ace actor the biggest break of his life in 1979. He would like to reenact that success.