Three years back Mohanlal, Megastar of Malayalam, was unapproachable by second-rate directors. But now you can see a different Mohanlal who does not mind even to move with debut directors.

This is the list of directors of Mohanlal's new movies: Viswanathan, T. S. Sureshbabu, Taha.... All are second-rated directors and one among this list is a debut director. What prompted Mohanlal to change his mind?

After many successive flops Mohanlal got a break through a second-class director V. M. Vinu's BALETTAN. The last Mohanlal movie before BALETTAN was BRAHMACHARI. Though it busted in the box office, BRAHMACHARI, a comedy film, was directed by Tulasidas, who also is a low-grade director.

Viswanathan, who is a newcomer in the field of direction, directs the new Mohanlal movie HARIHARAN PILLA HAPPY AANU. Three years back, it was a daydream for second-rated directors to get dates from Mohanlal. A debut director could not even dream of getting Mohanlal date.

Three years back Mohanlal had been the magic star for Priyadarshan, Shaji Kailas, Fazil, Kamal and Bhadran- All are first-class directors. Even other superstar of Malayalam, Mammootty, was very generous to give dates to V. M. Vinu, Shaju Karyal, T. S. Suresh Babu, they could not be expected that offer from Mohanlal. When time change, stories too change. The formulae of films too change.

Viewers are not ready to suffer any more superhuman characters from Mohanlal. When Shaji Kailas film THANDAVAM failed, Lal himself decided to say good-bye to super human characters. Mohanlal badly needed a break. So he approached Priyadarshan for a break. But KILICHUNDAN MAMBAZHAM directed by Priyadarshan could not save Mohanlal. This aggravated Mohanlal's crisis. But where first-rate directors like Shaji Kailas and Priyadarshan failed, second-rate directors won. V. M. Vinu had created a big magic through BALETTAN. This movie has made Mohanlal confident. He got back his old lost family viewers.

Through BALETTAN's success the Malayalam film formula is changing. Earlier Mohanlal had not liked to experiment with new screenplay writers too. But Balettan's screenplay writer was a newcomer- T. A. Shahid. In Mohanlal's new film HARIHARAN PILLAI HAPPY AANU both director and screenplay writer are new faces.

But at the same time first-hand directors of Malayalam like Bhadran and Kamal left Mohanlal. They like to experiment with young heroes in their films. So equations are changing in Malayalam - first-class directors join hands with young, new-heroes while superstar Mohanlal vibes with new directors and writers.