Photo: Prathyush Thomas / GFDL 1.2 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Mohanlal is, to my mind, one of world cinema's great under-exported treasures. Over four hundred films across four decades, two National Film Awards, and yet outside India he remains a connoisseur's secret. What sets him apart is his effortlessness: where many stars perform charisma, Mohanlal simply behaves on camera, and the camera believes him. He can pivot from comedy to menace to heartbreak within a single scene, which is why Malayalam cinema's writers keep building ambitious films around him. Add the producing, the playback singing, the business ventures, and you get a one-man cultural institution. I would love to see streaming finally give him the global audience his range deserves.
Overview
Mohanlal Viswanathan (IPA: [moːhɐnlaːl ʋiʃʋʷɐn̪aːt̪ʰɐn]; born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor, filmmaker, producer and playback singer who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema and has also occasionally appeared in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Kannada films. Mohanlal has a prolific career spanning over four decades, during which he has acted in more than 400 films.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Mohanlal
- Name (Japanese)
- モハンラル
- Reading
- もはんらる
- Born
- May 21, 1960 (age 66)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Gemini / Rat
- Origin
- Elanthoor, Pathanamthitta district, India
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- film actor / film producer / singer / playback singer / entrepreneur
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Mahatma Gandhi College
Awards & achievements
- 2019 Padma Bhushan
- 1991 National Film Award for Best Actor
- 1999 National Film Award for Best Actor
- Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor
- Padma Shri in arts
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Film actor — see all → · Film producer — see all → · More people from India →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-11
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.