Malayalam actor-director Sreenivasan.
Credit: PTI Photo
Known Malayalam actor, director and scriptwriter Sreenivasan, who passed away in Kochi on Saturday at the age of 69, leaves behind a series of strong political sarcastic and socially relevant films.
Sreenivasan was suffering from health issues over the last few years. On Saturday morning he suffered uneasiness and was rushed to hospital where he died.
His sons Vineeth Sreenivasan and Dhyan Sreenivasan are also known film personalities. He also leaves behind wife Vimala. The funeral will be held on Sunday.
Sreenivasan, who debuted his acting career in 'Manimuzhakam' in 1976, acted in over 200 films and wrote story and screenplay for several movies in his five decade long career. He won many honours including national award for best film on social issues for 'Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala' and six Kerala state awards for his films, screenplay, story and acting.
Born at Thalasserry in Kannur on April 6, 1956, Sreenivasan is a known leftist even as he sharply criticised the left for deviation from its ideologies in a sarcastic manner through many films. Most notable among them include the 2007 film 'Arabikatha', 1991 movie 'Sandesam' and 1989 movie 'Varavelpu'.
A host of socially relevant movies by Sreenivasan touched upon the life of the common households of Kerala. 'Talayanamanthram' of 1990, 'Vadakkunokkiyanthram' of 1989 and 'Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala' of 1998 are a few to mention. He scripted and directed the latter two movies.
A series of films like 'Sanmanasullavarkku Samadhanam' of 1986, 'Nadodikkattu' of 1987, 'Pattanapravesham' of 1988 and 'Udayananu Tharam' of 2005 presented evergreen humor roles of Sreenivasan. In almost all films he scripted, directed and acted, he played the role of characters with inferior qualities.
He also presented a host of popular dialogues like 'Pollandine kurichu oraksharam parayaruthu' (Don't tell anything about Polland) in 'Sandesham' and 'Elathinum athintethaya samayama ndu dasa' (everything has its time to happen Dasan) in 'Nadodikattu' that have become part of Malayalis' common parlance.
Sreenivasan's commitment to nature was visible from his interest towards organic and traditional farming, which he has been regularly doing.
All know film personalities including Rajnikanth, who was also Sreenivasan's classmate at Madras Film Institute, Mohanlal, Mammootty and Sathyan Anthikad shared their personal bondings with Sreenivasan in their condolence messages apart from hailing his class apart film career.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and opposition leader V D Satheesan were among others who condoled Sreenivasan's death. Scores of people were paying last respects to him.