Mammootty has played just about every kind of man you can imagine in a career that has stretched over five decades. The larger-than-life hero, the troubled antihero, the charming romantic lead, the deeply unpleasant man you cannot stand watching. There is rarely a role he has been afraid to take on.

But there is another interesting way to look at his filmography: through the women in his films.

They are not all written as "strong women", and that is exactly what makes them interesting. Some are vulnerable. Some make questionable choices. Some are angry, some curious, some quietly rebellious. A few are deeply flawed. Most importantly, they feel like people rather than characters who exist only to make the hero's story work.

On Mammootty's 75th birthday, here are 10 films that gave us female characters worth remembering.

Kaathal: The Core – Omana, played by Jyothika

It would have been easy for ‘Kaathal: The Core’ to become Mathew Devassy's story. After all, Mammootty plays the central character and the film revolves around a deeply personal truth about his life. But Omana is never pushed to the side.

Played by Jyothika, Omana has been married to Mathew for years when she decides that she wants a divorce. Once the reason behind her decision comes out, the film could have made her the angry wife or the person everyone expects to forgive and move on. It does neither.

Omana is hurt, confused and, above all, ready to make a choice for herself. She does not need dramatic speeches to make her point. A look, a pause or the way she sits quietly in a room can tell us what she is feeling.

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There is something very moving about the way the film lets her reclaim her life without turning her into a symbol. She is simply a woman who has realised that she cannot continue living a life that no longer feels honest.

Rorschach – Seetha, played by Bindu Panicker

Seetha is the kind of character who keeps you guessing. When we first meet Bindu Panicker's character in ‘Rorschach’, she appears to be a grieving mother dealing with a terrible loss. But as the film progresses, it becomes clear that there is much more going on beneath the surface.

Seetha is fiercely protective of her family. She is also manipulative, capable of violence and willing to make some pretty disturbing choices. The film does not make it particularly easy to decide whether you should sympathise with her or be afraid of her. 

There is no neat box to put Seetha in. She is not simply a good mother or a villain. She can be loving and frightening in the same breath.

Bindu Panicker also gets to do something very different from the kind of roles audiences had often seen her play. While Mammootty's character is at the centre of the mystery, Seetha is a big part of what makes ‘Rorschach’ so unsettling.

Peranbu – Paapa, played by Sadhana

At its heart, ‘Peranbu’ is about a father and daughter trying to figure out how to live together. But the film is also about a young woman discovering herself.

Sadhana plays Paapa, a teenage girl with cerebral palsy, while Mammootty plays her father, Amudhavan. What makes Paapa's character stand out is that the film never treats her as someone whose entire life revolves around her disability.

She has feelings. She gets frustrated. She wants things. She experiences desire and sexuality. She wants a degree of independence, even when the people around her are unsure about how much freedom she should have.

That makes the relationship between Paapa and Amudhavan complicated in a way that feels much closer to real life.

Amudhavan may think he knows what is best for his daughter, but Paapa slowly makes him question those assumptions. She is vulnerable, yes, but she is never reduced to being helpless.

It is a difficult role, and Sadhana's performance is one of the reasons ‘Peranbu’ is so hard to forget.

Puzhu – Anila, played by Parvathy Thiruvothu

In ‘Puzhu’, Mammootty's Kuttan is a man whose prejudices have shaped almost every part of his life. He is controlling, suspicious and deeply uncomfortable with anyone who does not fit into his idea of how people should live.

His sister Anila is almost the opposite. Played by Parvathy Thiruvothu, Anila has chosen a life that her brother cannot accept. She is married to a Dalit theatre artist, played by Appunni Sasi, and their relationship goes directly against Kuttan's rigid caste beliefs.

But Anila is not constantly trying to argue with her brother or convince him that he is wrong. She simply lives her life. That may be the most powerful thing about her.

In a film where Kuttan's prejudices seem to fill every room, Anila quietly shows that there is another way to live. She does not need to shout to make her point.

Parvathy plays her with a calmness that makes the character's choices feel even stronger.

Munnariyippu – Anjali Arakkal, played by Aparna Gopinath

Anjali Arakkal is curious. Very curious. The journalist, played by Aparna Gopinath, becomes fascinated by CK Raghavan, the mysterious prisoner played by Mammootty. What begins as professional curiosity slowly turns into something much more complicated.

Anjali wants to understand Raghavan. She sees a story in him and becomes increasingly drawn into his world. The interesting part is that she is not always right.

Her curiosity gets the better of her. She becomes so invested in the mystery that the distance between journalist and subject begins to disappear. Eventually, she finds herself in a situation she may not have expected when she first became interested in Raghavan.

That makes Anjali feel like more than the usual movie journalist who asks questions, discovers clues and helps solve the mystery.

She is ambitious and intelligent, but she is also capable of making mistakes. And sometimes, curiosity can take you somewhere you did not intend to go.

Paleri Manikyam: Oru Pathirakolapathakathinte Katha – Manikyam, played by Mythili

Manikyam is perhaps the most unusual character on this list because she is already dead when the real story begins. Yet almost everything in ‘Paleri Manikyam’ comes back to her.

Mythili plays Manikyam, a young woman whose rape and murder become the mystery at the centre of the film. Mammootty plays three different characters, including the investigator trying to find out what happened to her.

But Manikyam never feels like just a dead woman in an old case. Her life, her relationships and the circumstances around her death slowly emerge through the stories other people tell. As the pieces come together, the film also paints a disturbing picture of the world she lived in and the power that men held over women like her.

There is something haunting about the fact that we never get to know Manikyam in the usual way.

Ore Kadal – Meera, played by Meera Jasmine

Ore Kadal does not offer an easy love story, and Meera Jasmine's Meera is not an easy character to judge.

She is married when she enters into a relationship with Dr SR Nathan, played by Mammootty. On paper, that could easily have become a familiar story about an affair. But the film is more interested in what pushes Meera towards that relationship and what happens after she makes that choice.

She is lonely. She is conflicted. She wants something that her marriage is not giving her. At the same time, she is not presented as completely innocent. Her choices affect other people, and the film does not pretend otherwise.

That is what makes Meera interesting. You may not agree with everything she does, but you can understand why she does it. There is no easy judgement waiting for the audience at the end. Just a woman who made a choice and has to live with it.

Mathilukal – Narayani, by KPAC Lalitha

Narayani never appears on screen. And yet, she is one of the most memorable women in Malayalam cinema.

In Adoor Gopalakrishnan's ‘Mathilukal’, Mammootty plays writer Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, who falls in love with Narayani, a woman imprisoned in the women's section of the same jail.

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There is one small problem: a huge prison wall stands between them.

The two begin talking from opposite sides of the wall. They cannot see each other, but through their conversations, Narayani slowly becomes a real presence in Basheer's life and in the film.

We get to know her through her voice, her humour and the things she says. KPAC Lalitha's voice performance does much of the work, giving Narayani a personality even though the audience never sees her.

It is a lovely reminder that a character does not always need to be on screen to stay with you.

Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha – Unniyarcha, played by Madhavi

Before contemporary Malayalam cinema began regularly giving audiences complicated female characters, there were films like ‘Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha’.

Mammootty's Chandu Chekavar is obviously the character most people remember from ‘Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha’. But Madhavi's Unniyarcha deserves her own place in the conversation.

Set in the world of the Vadakkan Pattukal, the film gives Unniyarcha a confidence and presence that goes beyond being someone's love interest.

She is skilled, assured and knows exactly what she wants. Her relationship with Chandu is tangled up in love, loyalty and betrayal, which makes their story far more complicated than a straightforward romance.

Madhavi brings a quiet authority to the character. Unniyarcha does not feel like a woman waiting around for the hero to decide what happens next. That is part of what makes her memorable.

The film may belong to Mammootty in the popular imagination, but Unniyarcha is an important part of the world that makes Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha so compelling.

Kandukondain Kandukondain – Meenakshi and Sowmya, played by Aishwarya Rai and Tabu

Mammootty is not the central hero in ‘Kandukondain Kandukondain’. The Tamil film, directed by Rajiv Menon and inspired by Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, follows sisters Meenakshi and Sowmya, played by Aishwarya Rai and Tabu.

The sisters could not be more different in the way they look at life and love. Meenakshi is passionate and idealistic, while Sowmya is more practical. Neither approach is treated as the "right" one. They are simply two women trying to make sense of relationships, family and the choices in front of them.

Mammootty plays Major Bala, a former army officer who becomes part of Meenakshi's story. But the film never loses sight of its two female leads. Even visually, the sisters are given distinct identities, with different colour palettes used to reflect their personalities.