‘Didn’t you sing my mother’s song in a movie?’ Mohanlal’s reply surprises Arundhati Roy

A simple phone call turned into a moment of shared memory when actor Mohanlal and Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy connected as she arrived to receive the Mathrubhumi Book of the Year 2026 award for her memoir ‘Mother Mary Comes to Me’.

The call began modestly. “This is actor Mohanlal,” came the voice on the line. Roy immediately chuckled him and responded with a question that bridged cinema, literature and personal history: “Oh I know. Didn’t you sing my mother’s song in a film?”

The line took Mohanlal straight back in time. Almost instinctively, he recalled the tune and sang a few lines — “Pa pera-pera-pera-perakka…” — turning the conversation into an unplanned moment of laughter and nostalgia of warmth. The phone call was facilitated by Mathrubhumi Managing Director M V Shreyams Kumar, who connected Mohanlal with Arundhati Roy as she arrived to receive the Mathrubhumi Book of the Year 2026 award for her memoir Mother Mary Comes to Me. The spontaneous exchange unfolded during this brief interaction, turning a formal moment into a personal and memorable conversation rooted in shared cultural history.

The song carries deep personal meaning for Roy. It was written years ago by her late mother, Mary Roy, a noted educator, legal reformer and women’s rights activist. Originally composed for children at her school in Kottayam, the rhyme later reached a wider audience when Mohanlal performed it in the 1999 Malayalam film Olympiyan Anthony Adam.

The brief exchange unfolded with the ease of familiarity rather than formality, reflecting a shared cultural memory rather than a ceremonial interaction. At Mohanlal’s request, Roy later signed a copy of her award-winning memoir for him, writing: “To Mohanlal. Stay cool. Love. Arundhati Roy.” 

The rhythmic refrain “Pa pera-pera-pera-perakka” holds a special place in Kerala’s cultural imagination. Beyond cinema, it also appears in Roy’s novel The God of Small Things, used as a chant by the character Kuttappen, subtly weaving the song into her literary world as well.

In a few minutes of conversation, three creative lives quietly intersected — Mary Roy’s legacy as an educator and lyricist, Arundhati Roy’s writing rooted in memory and grief, and Mohanlal’s enduring presence in cinema. Actor Mohanlal is set to inaugurate the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters 2026 (MBIFL 2026) at Kanakakkunnu on Thursday. At the literature festival inauguration venue, Mohanlal will receive the book autographed by his beloved author.