Lal

Lal, born M. P. Michael on 2 December 1958, started out as a mimicry artist at Kalabhavan with his childhood friend Siddique. The two first worked as assistant directors to Fazil on Nokkethadhoorathu Kannum Nattu, and as the directing pair Siddique–Lal they made films including Vietnam Colony (1992) and Kabooliwala (1994) before going separate ways. Lal then produced the Siddique-directed Hitler. His first acting role was Paniyan, the Iago figure, in Jayaraj's Kaliyattam (1997). Today he acts, directs, writes, produces and distributes, mostly in Malayalam and Tamil, with a few Telugu films. He came back to direction with 2 Harihar Nagar (2009), then made King Liar (2016) and Tsunami (2021). His acting has won him the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor for Thalappavu (2008) and Ayaal (2013), the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Malayalam (2008) and a National Film Award Special Mention for Ozhimuri (2012). He played Balaraman in Pulimurugan (2016) and Mathachan in 2018 (2023), took parts in Sulthan, Karnan and both Ponniyin Selvan films, and appeared in the series Kerala Crime Files and Suzhal. In Kochi he runs Lal Media Arts, a post-production studio. Suriya's Tamil film Scene, directed by Jithu Madhavan, also has him in its cast.