You can beg all you want. It's still the truth

The only SOUTH INDIAN who can act is the ULTIMATE MOHAN LAL from MALLU MOVIES (did the police officer role in COMPANY). No one in South india to compete against his acting skills. Kamal Hassan always over act. (VIRUMANDI, and ANBE SIVAM were pretty good without too much over acting, still in anbe sivam he over acted in some scenes)

Kamal's crying and funny scenes are worst than SRK movies, where both of these comes naturaly in mohan lal's acting. In an interview NANA PATEKAR said he is a fan of MOHAN LAL. Lal is that good, and he will always be rememberd as the best actor of south india.

There are stars who are also actors than there are stars who are merely stars. Let's see Nutan, Meena Kumari, Waheeda Rehmaan, Mala Sinha, Jaya B were stars who were also actors, than there were much bigger stars like Zeenat, Hema Malini, Sri Devi and Kareena who are stars not because of their talent but because they kept the box office buzzing.

How many performance's by Zeenat, Hema, Sri Devi & Kareena compare with those from Jaya, Waheeda, Nutan, Meena Kumari & Mala Sinha?
U BE THE JUDGE AS TO WHO IS REALLY OVER RATED.

How can u put KAREINA POO in same CATEGORY with LEGENDARY SRI DEVI!????

Well I just did, in my humble opinion most female stars from south except Vyjantimala & Rekha were over-rated.

I agree with you, he is not in the top three of all time Indian actors. But I still rate him highly.

Mohan Lal is not that great. He has no screen presence and he has always annoyed me. I fact I think of him as the equivient of bollywood's Govinda in MALLU CINEMA. God knows why Priyadarshan uses him all the time!!! There are much better MALLU actors out there. The only film I rated him in was Iruvar, but I actually think that Prakash Raj's acting was the best part of the film!!

Also is there such thing as acting out a "good" cry??...check out H. Berry and her oscar speech - a OTT cry in real life. I think SRK and Kamal crying scenes are not always OTT. Watch the scene in Thenali when Kamal is describing the horrors of witnessing the rape of his mother, or in the film Dil Se...when SRK crys out his fustrations after Manisha leaves him....they are great acting and character moments in IMO...

Please do not compare Mohanlal to Govinda. Govinda is nothing but a big fat retard who makes horrible movies. Priyadharasan uses him all the time because he is part of his 'team'. I don't think he is the greatest actor ever but I do think he is one of the best Indian actors. Mohanlal has done movies with directors other than Priyadharasan. He was a south indian cop in COMPANY. But usually he excel in roles of average joes and their woes. And also the guy has couple of national awards to his credit.

That being said, I'm also a fan of Kamal Hassan. Ever since I saw him in the movie where he plays the role of a father whose daughter was sold to brothel and he is trying to keep the family together. I can't remmber the name of the movie but he was fantastic in it.

Srk's emotional scenes in Dil Se made me cringe!!

I thought Dil Se was the one good SRK performance I've seen. But otherwise his stammering and hamming is annoying. Watch the scene in K3G where he and Hrithik are reunited and they're sitting on the bench. Hrithik blows him away IMO.

I think Kamal has his good performances, but he is nothing incredible, and has done mediocre work as well. I don't think his performances are good enough to elevate mediocre stories. I remember thinking he was great in Aboorva Sagotharargal (waiting for a good DVD).

I find the theme of this thread a bit confusing! Over-rated actors and stars?? Surely the box office and the general response of the market rates an actor or a star correctly in the long run, if not in the short run. Perhaps, one could compare actors to shares in companies, which can be undervalued or overvalued. But as buyers overbuy the undervalued shares, these shares increase in price to their real worth. Similiarly, as buyers refuse to buy shares that a overvalued, they will come down to their real values.... Actors and stars, whatever you call them, are similiar commodities in many way, although admittedly, my comparision is crude.

To put it simply, perhaps the theme is which actors or stars have been more successful than they deserved, ie actors that were not talented but yet became very successful? I guess in such cases, they would make up for their acting inability with their good looks, good personalities, good reputation, family connections or something else!

Respondents have praised actors like Kamal Hasan and Naseerudin Shah, but these actors are very limited in their appeal to the mass audience, as they dont look attractive enough to be heroes. Only the right blend of sex appeal and acting talent can make an actor or star reach the top. Amitabh Bachchan had it in the 1970s, and now its Shah Rukh Khan - like it or leave it!

Mohan lal has no screen presense?? lol. If there any actor who has such a screen presense, it is MOHAN LAL. Even if its a bad film with a worst story. Can u define screen presense man?? The day he began acting in films he was known to everybody by his screen presense. When he started his career he had only small roles, but he excelled his small roles, and became known to everyone by his little presense in his movies.

PLEASE, DO NOT EVER COMPARE GOVINDA WITH MOHAN LAL. Mohan lal is the MARLON BRANDO OF INDIA. Lately he is doing really bad acting, and films and that does not make him the greatest. I can name films which was a hit due to his acting skills and screen presense only.

Anyway let us end this conversation because there aren't many people who saw 10 or more of his films in this forum

How about mammootty from mallu films?

NAME ONE ACTOR WHO IS BETTER THAN MOHAN LAL in KERALA who is ALIVE.

Comparing Kamla Hasan and SRK, Hrithik in same league is not Justified!

No one can BEAT VERSATILITY of KAMLA HASAN!!

Kamal is nothing compare to the versatility that mohan lal has. Kamal wont even come close to mohan lal when it comes to comedy, or serious roles.[/quote]

Of all the Indian actors, I think Kamal relies on physical transformations and/or double roles the most. Not so much in his Hindi films from the 80s, but he was doing it quite a bit in Tamil, and still is doing it. Nothing wrong with that, but I find his roles outside of such transformations to be rather plain and occasionally mediocre. At least he has done a variety of roles, which is more than we can say about most actors.