Who is Mohanlal's favourite heroine?

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 14 (IANS) Unlike most actors, Mohanlal vibes well with all his heroines. But with some his screen chemistry is better.

Not only with heroines, Mohanlal has an amazing ability to gel even with his screen mothers too. People refer to Kaviyoor Ponnamma, who has acted as his mother for years, is referred to as 'Mohanlal's mother'!

Coming back to heroines, it was Karthika who was paired with Mohanlal in the largest number of his early films. Most of their films together were very successful.

The success of a pair is also judged by the amount of gossip they manage to create. There were rumours in those days that Mohanlal and Karthika would get married.

Anyway, after acting in some memorable films with Mohanlal, Karthika bade goodbye to films, got married and disappeared completely from the Malayalam film scene.

Then Shobhana came as his heroine. Once Mohanlal started acting with her, people felt they were the best pair after Prem Nazir and Sheela. Not one or two but several extremely successful films followed. They created magic on screen, both in tragedies and comedies.

"Thenmavin Kombathu" is one such comedy by Priyadarshan. In "Manichitrathazhu", though they were not the romantic lead, director Fazil had them as the central characters, and people remember it as a Lal-Shobhana film.

Later on, Shobhana started concentrating on her dancing assignments and acted in fewer and fewer movies. It was after a long gap that she acted in Revathy's first directorial venture "Mitr - My Friend" and won her second National award.

Though Mohanlal did not act with Revathy in as many films as with Shobhana, "Kilukkam" is an all-time favourite with Malayalis. It was a delight watching them indulge in repartees.

Then came Urvasi. In "Bharatam" and "Midhunam", they acted as if there was a silent understanding between them.

Though Mohanlal acted with Manju Warrier in only a couple of films, who can ever forget "Aaram Thampuran" and "Kanmadam"?

It was quite evident that Mohanlal enjoyed all those fiery scenes with Manju Warrier in "Aaram Thampuran"; once again, they looked perfect together.

After watching Mohanlal opposite such intense actresses, it is pathetic to see him acting with teenage girls like Nayanthara who are young enough to be his daughters.

Against this background, the news that director Joshi is going to bring Mohanlal and Shobhana together in his next film titled "Mambazhakkalam" is indeed welcome. Keralites can definitely expect some fire on the screen after a long time.