Words : As told to K P Jayakumar
Photos : Jayaprakash Payyanur

With the Most
     Endangered Tribe on Earth
       Mohanlal (Actor, India.)

The versatile acting genius of South Indian  film industry, Mohanlal is a staunch believer in the philosophy of living in the present. An Oshoean in spirit and practice, his I’ll-drink-life-to-the-lees attitude has not gone well with the moral brigade. Now, it is anybody’s guess that he must be an ardent travel buff. And yes he is. Though he has travelled round the globe, most of them were career trips with hectic schedules. The suave thespian shares some of the best moments of his globe-treks.

Dream journey:

I always dream of getting my backpack ready and go, wherever I wish to. But seldom do I get a chance to. I love meeting people and sharing with them, listening to their stories, indulging in the mostordinary pleasures of life. Unfortunately, I’ve almost become a vicarious traveller, thanks to my career.

I suppress the call of this big beautiful world of wonders and quell my desires reading books and writings on great journeys. It is an occupational hazard of being in the glam world. Either you are busy or in a crowd that pamper you to the maximum. You rarely get a chance to be yourself and to follow the call of the traveller within.So, most of the time I would rather crawl back to your cocoon, find my dream destinations in travel reads. But being in the tinsel world for more than 26 years, I’ve learned quite a few tricks to cheat the world around to have my way.

The heavy shooting schedules and hasty reshuffles often play the spoil sport. A few months back I was all set for a trip to Himalayas and to the Kailas-Manasarovar, one of my dream destinations. But an urgent project came in the way and I couldn’t take off.

My Andaman adventure was for the film Kalapani, (a period film directed by Priyadarshan, famous Indian film maker) were I met the smallest ethnic group on earth, the Onges. It is nearly a seven hour long journey by the sea and another ten kilometres on the ground to reach the Onge habitats in the forest. When we reached there, the 105 strong aboriginal group was celebrating the birth of a new entrant in to their fold. That was really an exciting experience to be with the smallest ethnic group on earth. And it was even more exciting to do some scenes with the Onge people, who had no idea what the aliens were up to.

The most memorable:

' she really hit hard on my cheeks. No actor can break my record of being the first actor on earth to have hit by a woman of the most endangered ethnic group! The most memorable part of it was with the Onge woman Kaka who acted with me. There was a scene in which Kaka whacked on my face. Kaka didn’t have any clue of the techniques of cinema and acting and she really hit hard on my cheeks. No actor can break my record of being the first actor on earth to have hit by a woman of the most endangered ethnic group!

My favourite haunt:

The blue hills of Neelgiris and Ooty, the lake town on the hills. I frequent the place to get my biological clock back in the right mode. Many of my films were shot in these beautiful hills making them dearer to me.

(As told to K P Jayakumar)

(Mohanlal's awards and recognitions include two national awards for best actor and Padmasree, one of the highest national honour. In his next film, Mohanlal will do the lead in an Indo-Japanese period film together with Jackie Chan.)

© travelbird