Four biopics in which Mammootty played his role to perfection

There is probably no other actor who gets into the skin of the character more than Mammootty - his two National Awards for starring in biopics are testaments to the megastar's skill. These are the four biopics with Mammootty in the lead role that are sure to teach actors a thing or two about playing their role to perfection, especially when it's based on real-life personalities.
Mathilukal (1989)
Filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s movie Mathilukal, which focused on the prison life of Vaikom Mohammed Basheer and the romance between the legendary writer and a female inmate, earned Mammootty his first National Award for Best Actor (shared with Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha). On choosing the actor for the role, Adoor had earlier told us, “When Mathilukal came; the search was on for someone to play Vaikom Mohammed Basheer. We haven’t seen Basheer when he was young but in his writings he described himself as a handsome, well-built and desirable man. I could not but cast Mammootty for the role. He really excelled in that role.”
Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar (1999)
To play modern India’s architect, Dr BR Ambedkar in his biopic by director Jabbar Patel, was no easy feat for any actor. But Mammootty’s transformation proves that there is no feat that the actor cannot master. The role in 1999 fetched him his third National Award for Best Actor. One incident, Mammootty revealed in an interview, while shooting the film stands testament to why it was his finest role. The megastar said that while he was shooting at the Pune University – in the make-up and get-up of Ambedkar – a professor fell at his feet, saying, “Baba Saheb.” The actor later remarked for many, Ambedkar was God.
Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja (2009)
There’s probably no other actor in Malayalam who has played royalty better than Mammootty. The acclaimed trio of Mammootty, Hariharan and MT Vasudevan Nair came together in 2009 to tell the story of Pazhassi Raja, the Malayali king who fought against the British in the 18th century. The technically brilliant movie proved why Mammootty is often the first choice in Malayalam to play such roles. With his well-built physique and baritone voice, the actor aced the action sequences and, inspired as well as made the audience feel sympathy for his character in the biographical action drama.
Yatra (2018)
It’s never easy for an actor belonging to another State and language to play a leading political figure of another State and also be accepted by the audience. That’s what Mammootty did when he played the role of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy in the film Yatra, directed by Mahi V Raghav. The actor has in fact done his own research on the former chief minister, and studied the various mannerisms of YSR. Mahi, in an earlier interview told us, “Mammootty sir wanted to stay true to the real-life persona of YSR. The credit to his interpretation of the character goes entirely to him. He also put in the effort to dub it right because YSR spoke authentic Telugu, which is not easy to dub at all. Even if a bit of pronunciation goes wrong, it would draw flak from the audience and Mammootty sir gets that.”