Director M. Padmakumar talks about working with the actor in Kanal.

He has worked with him in only two films, but director M. Padmakumar says he’d be hard pressed to find an actor who beats expectations in just about every shot as Mohanlal does. “I had enjoyed working with him in Shikar, which remains one of the films closest to my heart; he was brilliant in it. I was looking forward to doing another film with him and was happy when I got the opportunity with Kanal,” says the director of films such as Vasthavam and Vargam.
He adds Mohanlal surprised him during the shoot of Kanal too. “He did a great job as John David, a graphics animator. I felt Anoop Menon too performed remarkably in the role of a television journalist; we had considered a few other actors before casting him. Now, it seems, Mohanlal was the perfect choice.”
Kanal, he says, is a thriller. “The film takes off on a train journey where the characters of Mohanlal and Anoop meet. Their paths had crossed once though only one of them is aware of that fact,” says Padmakumar. Pratap Pothen and Atul Kulkarni also play prominent roles in the film. Honey Rose and Sheelu Abraham play the two main female characters.
Before working on Kanal, which reached cinemas last week, Padmakumar had completed Jalam, a film that he has high expectations about. “I had never made a film like Jalam; it discusses the serious issue of displacement. The film is told from the point of view of Seethalakshmi, a homeless young woman,” he says.
Jalam, he says, will be released in December and is keen to work on more such low-budget films. “I had taken a risk when IINVESTED in the film but I have no regrets,” he says.