Suchitra Mohanlal has opened up about Pranav Mohanlal’s and Vismaya Mohanlal’s familiarity with Malayalam. She also discussed the reasons Vismaya Mohanlal takes time before committing to acting projects.According to Suchitra Mohanlal, both her children spent their school years in boarding schools. Their surroundings also meant they regularly communicated in English. She said this affected their connection with Malayalam as they grew older.In the interview with Can Media, Suchitra Mohanlal also accepted some responsibility for the situation. She revealed, “Vismaya is listening to new stories. She needs about three or four months. Since both the children studied in boarding schools, they don’t know Malayalam very well. Appu knows it better, though.You can understand that if you watch his first movie. Jeethu didn’t give him many dialogues in ‘Aadhi’. But because he has done so many movies now and has spoken to everyone on the sets, his Malayalam has improved considerably.
Why Vismaya Mohanlal’s Malayalam is limited
Suchitra Mohanlal explained that Vismaya Mohanlal entered boarding school much earlier than her brother. Pranav Mohanlal reportedly joined one when he was in sixth grade. Vismaya Mohanlal went to one while she was still in third grade.“Maaya has that particular problem. Appu went to boarding school when he was in sixth grade. Maaya went when she was in third grade. Most of the children studying there were foreigners. They mostly spoke English. Even when they came home, I spoke to them in English. That is my fault.
English was also spoken in Suchitra’s family
Suchitra Mohanlal said English was not unusual in her own family either. She explained, “When I was growing up, we siblings also spoke in English to some extent. That’s because Daddy speaks half Tamil and half Malayalam. Mummy is completely Malayali. We speak Malayalam with Mummy. With Daddy, we speak all three, that are English, Tamil and Malayalam.”She also explained that Mohanlal’s busy shooting schedule meant he was frequently away from home. As a result, the children had fewer opportunities to regularly communicate with him.
Vismaya Mohanlal lacks confidence in Malayalam
Suchitra Mohanlal said the family circumstances gradually reduced her children’s connection with Malayalam.“Then when the children came along, their uncle (Mohanlal) wasn’t at home either. He was mostly away shooting. I would speak to them over the phone when they were at the hostel every week. When they came home, their cousins had also been born and brought up in Madras, so they too spoke in English.”She added, “So, as they grew up, they lost their connection with Malayalam. When they come here, they speak to their father and mother. Other than that, they don’t really have any other connections. Maaya can speak Malayalam, but she doesn’t have the confidence to speak it. Then there is the slang. Everyone says I myself have a Tamil influence in my speech.”
Vismaya Mohanlal needs time for movie projects
Suchitra Mohanlal also explained why Vismaya Mohanlal may take longer before taking up a movie. She said, “Maaya reads scripts in English. She says she needs a month to learn the dialogues. That’s why it won’t happen immediately. Even if a good project comes along, she needs about a month or a month and a half.”Vismaya Mohanlal recently made her acting debut with the movie ‘Thudakkam’. In the same interview, Suchitra also revealed that her son Pranav has committed to a project, but she doesn’t know the details.