Choice of roles

Time plucked away Padmarajan and Aravindan, Bollywood did the same to Priyadarshan, and the Hariharan-MT Vasudevan Nair duo became less prolific; looking back, it is easy to realize why Lal was something of a lost soul by the mid-Nineties. 'Devasuram' was an intelligent use of the star and the actor but many movies that followed the same formula - 'Onnaman' and 'Praja' for starters - lacked soul and did not deserve the actor.