As is usual with me, just yesterday I finished watching the Malayalam movie "Summer in Bethlehem". This is after about a week since I started it..phew. Now one of the things I'd heard about the movie was the cameo by Mohanlal. And I continued to watch the movie, there was no sign of the cameo. Being a movie of the musical-comedy-romance genre, I'd perhaps expected a funny entrance among kids. But with the entry of a gloomy Manju Warrier character should have made me guess. It was an intense role, and boy, was it "intense"!
It is just one scene of 9.5 mins, and rightly built up to be the climax of the movie. And a scene with many characters sharing the scene with Mohanlal: the jailer, Suresh Gopi and Manju Warrier. But the performance in those few minutes really underlined why he is one of the greatest actors in this country, of this generation. In entry itself the character shows spark (the background music also helped). The bearded ascetic appearance belies the mood that would be, of this scene. Lal eases the tension, and lives it up too. When he speaks of how by killing an evil industrialist, he really killed a whole family including innocent children, your eyes well up with his. When he just after says how he realized how communist "revolutionaries" miss the point that what you need to fix is the system, not the people, you can feel the searing passion. When he hurries from Manju Warrier to Suresh Gopi begging him to put the thali, the hurry is expressed in action and expression. Subtle, but only if you miss. Pure amazing otherwise!
I can't remember an even better cameo in any film, at least till now, even 2 days after I finished the film. Some people have it, what they call charisma. They are born with a talent. And when they make what they love their life's work, you can see the rhythm. Mohanlal, the actor, is one such.
I have known and am willing to accept that Mohanlal the human may have deficiencies. But to expect him to be perfect will be like stifling him. It'll only kill the creativity within the artist. I've always said, there's no need to be a fan of any person, just his good parts. In this case, his acting talent.
Apparently all his scenes are spontaneously performed. And that, like the other great actor Amitabh, Mohanlal is a nervous wreck before his scene. But that's until the camera starts rolling and the sheer magic begins. Just sit back, enjoy and celebrate the performance.
Ironically perhaps, people might have walked out the movie theater equally or more remembering Mohanlal's cameo than the rest of its content. But then, Gods do take preference!
