1.
Malayalam
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Malayalam /mʌləˈjɑːləm/ is a language spoken in India, predominantly in the state of Kerala. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and was designated as a Classical Language in India in 2013 and it was developed to the current form mainly by the influence of the poet Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan in the 16th century. Malayalam has official status in the state of Kerala and in the union territories of Lakshadweep. It belongs to the Dravidian family of languages and is spoken by some 38 million people, according to one theory, Malayalam originated from Middle Tamil in the 7th century. However, the current understanding proposes the separation of Malayalam from Proto-Dravidian in the pre-historic era, Malayalam incorporated many elements from Sanskrit through the ages. Before Malayalam came into being, Old Tamil was used in literature and courts of a region called Tamilakam, including present day Kerala state, silappatikaramit was written by Chera prince Ilango Adigal from Chunkaparra, and is considered a classic in Sangam literature. Modern Malayalam still preserves many words from the ancient Tamil vocabulary of Sangam literature, the earliest script used to write Malayalam was the Vatteluttu alphabet, and later the Kolezhuttu, which derived from it. As Malayalam began to borrow words as well as the rules of grammar from Sanskrit. This developed into the modern Malayalam script, many medieval liturgical texts were written in an admixture of Sanskrit and early Malayalam, called Manipravalam. The oldest literary work in Malayalam, distinct from the Tamil tradition, is dated from between the 9th and 11th centuries, the first travelogue in any Indian language is the Malayalam Varthamanappusthakam, written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar in 1785. Due to its lineage deriving from both Tamil and Sanskrit, the Malayalam script has the largest number of letters among the Indian language orthographies, the Malayalam script includes letters capable of representing almost all the sounds of all Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages. Malayalam serves as a language on the islands including the Mahl-dominated Minicoy Island. The word Malayalam originated from the Sanskrit resp, Malayalam words malai or mala, meaning hill, and elam, meaning region. Malayalam thus translates as hill region and used to refer to the land of the Chera dynasty, the language Malayalam is alternatively called Alealum, Malayalani, Malayali, Malean, Maliyad, and Mallealle. The word Malayalam originally meant only for the name of the region, Malayanma or Malayayma represented the language. With the emergence of modern Malayalam language, the name of the language started to be known by the name of the region, hence now, the word Malayanma is considered by some to represent the olden Malayalam language. The language got the name Malayalam during the mid 19th century, the origin of Malayalam, an independent offshoot of the proto-Dravidian language, has been and continues to be an engaging pursuit among comparative historical linguists. Together with Tamil, Toda, Kannada and Tulu, Malayalam belongs to the group of Dravidian languages
2.
Mammootty
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Mammootty is an Indian film actor and producer best known for his work in Malayalam cinema. In a career spanning three decades, he has acted in over 350 films. Mammootty was a lawyer by profession, after establishing himself as a lead actor in the 1980s, he got his major breakthrough with the commercial success of the 1987 film New Delhi. He has won 3 National Film Awards for Best Actor,7 Kerala State Film Awards, in 1998, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India for his contributions towards the arts. He has also received honorary degrees from the University of Kerala in January 2010. Mammootty is the chairman of Malayalam Communications, which runs the Malayalam television channels Kairali TV, People TV and he is also the goodwill ambassador of the Akshaya project, the first district-wide e-literacy project in India. He is the patron of the Pain and Palliative Care Society and he has also been working with the Pain and Palliative Care Centre situated in Kozhikode, India. His father, Ismail, was a farmer and his mother, Fatima and he has two younger brothers, Ibrahimkutty and Zakariah and three younger sisters, Ameena, Sauda, and Shafina. Mammootty had his education from Govt. Later Mammoottys father shifted his family to Ernakulam in the 1960s and his school life was at St. Alberts School and Government School Ernakulam. He did his pre-university course at Sacred Heart College, Thevara and he attended Maharajas College, Ernakulam for his degree. He graduated with a LL. B. from Government Law College, Mammootty practiced law for two years in Manjeri. Mammootty married Sulfath on 1979 and has a daughter, Surumi, Mammoottys younger brother Ibrahimkutty is an actor in Malayalam films and Malayalam TV serials. Ibrahimkuttys son Maqbool Salmaan is also a film actor, Mammoottys debut was in the 1971 film Anubhavangal Paalichakal directed by K. S. Sethumadhavan. His second film was Kaalachakram, a 1973 Malayalam film directed by K. Narayanan, in 1979, he played his first lead role in Devalokam, directed by M. T. Vasudevan Nair. However, this film was never completed and his first release was the 1980 film, Vilkkanundu Swapnangal, directed by Azad, written by M. T. Vasudevan Nair. Mammoottys first starring role in a film was the 1980 film Mela, written and directed by K. G. George Mammootty films of the 1980s include Sphodanam, Munnettam. In 1981, he got his first state award in the Best Supporting Actor category for his performance in Ahimsa and his performances included Aalkkoottathil Thaniye and Adiyozhukkukal
3.
Mohanlal
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His first film to be released was Manjil Virinja Pookkal, a romance film in which he played the antagonist. He established himself as an actor during the 1980s. The 1986 crime drama Rajavinte Makan was significant in labeling him a dominant actor in Malayalam cinema, in a career spanning over three decades, Mohanlal has acted in over 300 Malayalam films and a few films in other languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. He is also a producer, and owns the production company Pranavam Arts International. In 2001, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri, Indias fourth highest civilian honour and he grew up at Mudavanmugal, Poojappura, at his paternal house, in Thiruvananthapuram. Mohanlal studied at Model School, Thiruvananthapuram, and graduated with a B. Com. from Mahatma Gandhi College in Thiruvananthapuram. Mohanlal received his first ever recognition as an actor when he was in grade for a stage play called Computer Boy in which he enacted a ninety-year-old person. In 1977–78 he was the Kerala state wrestling champion, Mohanlal has acted in over 320 Malayalam films and produced or co-produced over 35 films. His acting credits include some Tamil, Hindi, Telugu. He has acted in 4 professional plays and he has sung over 30 songs, most of them for the films he acted in. Mohanlal played Kuttappan, a mentally disabled servant, due to some issues in censorship, the film was not released in time, it took 25 years to release the film. In 1980, Mohanlal was cast in the lead antagonist role in Manjil Virinja Pookkal – the directorial debut of Fazil, the film became a major success. Mohanlals friends had sent his application in response to an advertisement released by Navodaya Studio, in an interview with Readers Digest in 2004, Mohanlal said that his looks as a young man might have fit the villains image. By 1983, Mohanlal was credited in more than 25 feature films, through Sasikumars Ivide Thudangunnu, he became a successful hero with a good heart. It also marked the beginning of the Mohanlal-Priyadarshan duo who As of 2016 have worked together in 44 films, in 1985, he recorded a song for the film Onnanam Kunnil Oradi Kunnil. Uyarangalil, Nokketha Doorathu Kannum Nattu, Boeing Boeing, and Aram + Aram = Kinnaram were some of his films in this period. During this period, Mohanlal played very different roles in made by the great masters like G. Aravindan, Hariharan, M. T. Vasudevan Nair, Padmarajan, Bharathan. In 1986, he starred in T. P. Balagopalan M. A. directed by Sathyan Anthikad and he portrayed an unemployed young who shoulders the responsibility of his family
4.
Kavalam Narayana Panicker
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Kavalam Narayana Panicker was an Indian dramatist, theatre director, and poet. He is the founder – director of theatre troupe, Sopanam and he was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Direction in 1983 by Sangeet Natak Akademi, and its highest award for lifetime achievement, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 2002. In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan in the field of Arts and he died in his residence on 26 June 2016, aged 88, a few days after returning from the hospital. He was born in the village of Kavalam, into an ancient family from Kuttanad in Alappuzha, Kerala and his family name is Chalayil and he is a nephew of Sardar Kavalam Madhava Panikkar and a cousin of Dr. K. Ayyappa Panicker, a Malayalam poet. He attended CMS College in Kottayam whose alumni included K. P. S. Menon and he obtained a degree in Economics from S D College, Alappuzha and later a Bachelor of Law degree from Madras Law College. He started his career as a lawyer in 1955 and practised law for six years before devoting himself to art, in 1961 he was nominated as Secretary of Kerala Sangeetha Nadaka Academy, Thrissur and shifted his base to Thrissur, the cultural capital of Kerala. His work has always been rooted in both the classical and folk traditions of Kerala, in 1974, Kavalam shifted his residence to the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. In this period his play Avanavan Kadamba was filmed by G. Aravindan and he has worked in many countries, including the former Soviet Union. In Greece he worked with Greek artists on a production of the Ilyayana, a fusion of the Indian Ramayana, as a lyricist in Malayalam cinema, he has written for films like Ulsavapittennu, Manjadikuru, Vadakakkoru Hridayam and Marmaram. He won Kerala State Film Award for Best Lyrics for the two films. Mee directed his play Ottayan in New York City, the Village Voice said, the haunting pungency of a rich Asian folk-theatrer tradition shines through every stylized gesture. Mee devotes a chapter of her book Theatre of Roots to Panikkars work. His work is also the subject of the volume K. N, Panikkar, The Theatre of Rasa edited by Udayan Vajpeyi His play Aramba Chekkan is included in DramaContemporary, India, edited by Erin B. Mee conducted an interview with him for PAJ magazine and his work is the subject of an interview by Erin B, Mee in Seagull Theatre Quarterly,1995 The Use of Folk Philosophy in Kavalam Narayana Panikkars Poetic Theatre of Transformation. He has remained a consultant at Asianet Communications and vice-chairman for Sangeet Natak Akademi and he was married and had two sons. He lived in Thiruvananthapuram with his wife Saradamani and also had another house in his village of Kavalam. He had two sons — Kavalam Harikrishnan and Kavalam Sreekumar, Kavalam Harikrishnan served as BHASABHARATHIs Chief contact person before he died in October 2009. His younger son Kavalam Sreekumar, is a singer in Kerala, Sreekumar has sung innumerable folk and light music numbers over the past three decades
5.
K. J. Yesudas
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Kattassery Joseph Yesudas is an Indian Carnatic musician and film playback singer. Yesudas sings Indian classical, devotional and cinematic songs and he has recorded more than 50,000 songs in a number of Indian languages as well as Malay, Russian, Arabic, Latin and English during a career spanning more than five decades. He has performed in most Indian languages except Assamese, Konkani and he also composed a number of Malayalam film songs in the 1970s and 1980s. Yesudas is fondly called Gana Gandharvan and he was awarded the Padma Shri in 1975, the Padma Bhushan in 2002 and Padma Vibhushan in 2017 by the Government of India for his contributions towards the arts. In 2011 Yesudas was honoured with the CNN-IBN outstanding achievement award having recorded over 20,000 songs in a five-decade career, in 2006, he sang 16 film songs in four South Indian languages on the same day at AVM Studio, Chennai. K. J. Yesudas was born in Fort Kochi, in the erstwhile Kingdom of Cochin, in a Latin Catholic Christian family to late Augustine Joseph and his father, who was a well-known Malayalam classical musician and stage actor, was his first guru. Yesudas was the eldest of five children, followed by three brothers and a younger sister. He started his music training at R. L. V. Later he studied at Swathi Thirunal College of Music, Thiruvananthapuram under the tutelage of the music maestro late Sh. K. R. Kumaraswamy Iyer and the late Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, for a brief period, he was with Sri Vechur Harihara Subramania Iyer, after which he took advanced training from Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar. He completed the Ganabooshanam course at R. L. V, Music Academy, Thripunithura, Cochin and studied at Sree Swathithirunal Music Academy, Trivandrum under the tutelage of the carnatic music maestro late Sh. K. R. Kumaraswamy Iyer. In 2011 he completed his 50 years as a playback singer, the first song sung by Yesudas is Jaathi Bhedam Matha Dwesham on 14 November 1961, which he usually sings on all the special occasions in front of the audience. But the first film song was Attention Penne Attention, which he sang with Santha P. Nair, Yesudas began his career in playback singing in the Malayalam movie Kaalpadukal and Tamil, Telugu and Kannada movies in the early 1960s. He got the first break in his career with the hit Malayalam film named Bharya. In 1967, he sang hit songs in the composition of M. S. Baburaj for the film Udhyogastha directed by P. Venu and he sang in Tamil for Bommai first, but the first released movie was Konjum Kumari. In 1965, he was invited by the Soviet Union government to perform at concerts in various cities in the USSR. The trio of Salil, Yesudas and Prem Nazir entered the Malayalam Cinema Industry of the 1970s, in 1970 he was nominated to head the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy and was the youngest person ever to occupy the post. By the 1970s Yesudas entered Bollywood, the first Hindi song he sang was for the movie Jai Jawan Jai Kissan, but the first released movie was Chhoti Si Baat
6.
I. V. Sasi
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Irruppam Veedu Sasidaran, better known as I. V. Sasi, is an Indian film director who has made over 150 Indian films in various languages and genres. He is known for his South Indian films of the 1970s, 1980s and he is also the winner of J. C. Daniel Award for the year 2015. I. V. Sasi, born on 28 March 1948, is married to Malayalam actress Seema on 28 August 1980 and he met her on the set of his film Avalude Raavukkal. Ever since, she has been his favorite heroine and they have worked together in more than 30 movies. He has two children, daughter Anu and son Ani, Anu has acted in Symphony, directed by her father. Anu got married to Milan Nair on 10 December 2010. Ani completed Visual Communication from Loyola College, Chennai and is a director himself. I. V. Sasi lives with his family in Chennai, I. V. Sasi started his film career as an art director. Later, after working as an assistant director in some films, though his name was not mentioned in the credits, the film turned out to be a huge success. He started his career officially with his first film Ulsavam. Soon he carved out a name for himself in the Malayalam film industry and his films were known for their uniqueness and always contained a stamp of his directorial style. I. V. Sasi has directed more than 170 odd films over a span of 34 years and has constantly delivered super hits and his Malayalam film Avalude Raavukal permanently established his name in the industry. This film was dubbed into many other Indian languages including Hindi. It was the film in Malayalam to be rated as Adults only even though it was a drama. One of Mohanlals first breaks as a co-hero Ineyengillum was also directed by I. V. Sasi. He introduced Mammootty as a hero in his film Thrishna and he worked with Mammootty on more than 35 films. He went on to one of Mohanlals biggest hits, Devaasuram. He has directed films in other languages, such as Hindi, Telugu. He has directed Kamal Haasan in films like Guru, Allauddinum Arputha Vilakkum, Karishma and he was the one who introduced Rajinikanth to Malayalam film industry through Allauddinum Albhutha Vilakkum in 1979. Other films with Rajinikanth include the Telugu-Tamil bilingual film Kaali and Ellam Un Kairasi and he has directed Hindi movies as Patita, Anokha Rishta, Pratishodh, Karishma etc
7.
M. S. Viswanathan
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Manayangath Subramanian Viswanathan, also known as M. S. V. was an Indian music director and composer. He was popularly known as Mellisai Mannar and he composed songs in 1200 films across languages - Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi. He worked primarily in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films and he also acted and sung in a few Tamil films. The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa conferred the Thirai Isai Chakravarthy title on him in August 2012 and presented him with 60 gold coins, M S Viswanathan was born on 24 June 1928 to Manayangath Subramanian and Narayanikutty in Elappully village in Palakkad, Kerala, India. His father died when Viswanathan was four years old, and his mother decided to kill him, his sister and herself as an escape from abject poverty and he was saved at the last minute by his grandfather. His grandfather Krishnan was a warden at the jail of Kannur. After death of his father, his family moved from Palakkad to Kannur to stay with his jailor uncle, as a child, he sold refreshments in a movie theatre without any pay, so he could listen to the music in the films. He had a part in the film Kannagi produced by Jupiter Pictures and his primary education was at Pallikunnu, Kannur. He would often play truant from school and stand outside the house of Neelakanta Bhagavathar, a music teacher. He learnt to play the harmonium, and Neelakanta Bhagavathar, who heard him play and he later gave his first stage performance in Trivandrum at the age of 13. He worked as a boy for Jupiter Pictures in the 1940s. Viswanathan was married to Janaki and they have four sons and three daughters and his wife, Janaki, died on 14 May 2012. She was 77 when she died, Chandrababu stayed the last few years of his life in the house of M. S. Viswanathan, and as per the request of Chandrababu, MSV arranged his rites when he died in March 1974. On 27 June 2015, Viswanathan was admitted to Fortis Malar hospital in Chennai with breathing difficulties and he had been undergoing a treatment at the hospital for some time. He died at 4.15 a. m. on 14 July 2015 due to age-related ailments and he had turned 87 only three weeks earlier, three days before his hospitalization. He was cremated with state honours at Besant Nagar Electric Crematorium. People from various fields of life paid homage to him and he is survived by his seven children - four sons and three daughters - none of them who followed their fathers path. Viswanathan had always wanted to be an actor and singer, but was not successful and he had a few small roles in stage dramas in the 1940s
8.
Balram vs. Tharadas
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Balram vs. Tharadas is a 2006 Malayalam crime thriller directed by I. V. Sasi, written by T. Damodaran and S. N. Swamy, Mammootty plays double role in the film, both as the protagonist, Inspector Balram, as well as the antagonist, underworld don Tharadas. Mammootty reprises his roles from the 1991 film Inspector Balram and 1984s Athirathram and it was I. V. Sasis 144th film, and Mammoottys 35th. The film was dubbed into Telugu as Monica and Hindi as Basha. The film was one of the most expensive Malayalam films ever made, with a cost of approximately ₹4 crore including print, a large cache of arms is discovered in the land belonging to the local businessman Hussein Sahib. On investigation, Inspector Varma finds that Hussein Sahib has no idea about this, the Inspector, along with his colleagues Sudhakaran go to arrest Bhaskaran, but they are given a good fight. As the police are being beaten, the screen alternates between a police jeep appearing on the scene and Anali Bhaskaran trying to knife people, suddenly a hand appears in the scene and beats Bhaskaran. He is still the same no-nonsense, arrogant person who follows his heterodox ways of investigation, Anali Bhaskaran reveals under interrogation that Hussein Sahibs son Salim is involved in this. Hussein Sahib says that his son left the house sometime back, then at this point it starts raining characters as if it is the start of monsoon season. Balram concludes that Tharadas was behind all this and the switches to Dubai. After beating his associate, Tharadas meets the minister Mustafa and does some business and he also wants a favor from the minister. He wants a ring to be passed to his girlfriend Supriya who is an actress, once the people and linkages are established, the game is set in motion in an even faster pace. Balram concludes that the way to trap Tharadas is to arrest Supriya. As expected Tharadas lands in Kerala and takes on Balram and tires to stop the actions of Balram, in the end, Tharadas shoots down one of his allies who had turned against him and this is witnessed by Balram, after which Tharadas surrenders to Balram. P. Anwar Sadat as himself in the song Mathapoove, rimi as herself in the song Mathapoove. The film was one of the most expensive Malayalam films ever made, with a cost of approximately ₹4 crore including print, the film was a commercial success. It is not a success it is considered as one of the flop movie of the year 2006 Balram vs. Tharadas at the Internet Movie Database Balram vs. Tharadas at AllMovie
9.
Shankar (actor)
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Shankar Panicker, is an Indian film actor and director, popularly known as Shankar in Malayalam films and Oru Thalai Raagam Shankar in Tamil films. A superstar of the eighties, he was the most prominent romantic lead actor of Malayalam cinema after Prem Nazir. His father was a manager at Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited. He has two siblings, Krishnakumar and Indra and he completed the schooling from St. Bedes Anglo Indian High School, Chennai. He pursued bachelors in History from Gadwarl University, Rishikesh, later he joined South Indian Film Chambers of acting completing 2 years of acting course. Shankar was one among hundreds of newcomers done audition for Oru Thalai Ragam, Oru Thalai Ragam not only completed 365 days run in theatres but also became the cult romantic film of Tamil film history. Meantime Navodaya banner signed Shankar for their romantic film Manjil Virinja Pookkal along with newcomers Mohanlal, the success of Manjil Virinja Pookal made Shankar the leading young star of Malayalam films. Overnight Shankar became a hot property in both Tamil and Malayalam film industry and almost all his films doing good business and he was the second super star of Malayalam films of 80s after late action star Jayan. He never experimented with his roles, still he had a large fan base in kerala. Most of his films were hits just because of his presence. Simultaneously his Tamil films Sujatha, Koyil Puraa, Mouna Yuddham and Raagam Thedum Pallavi also done good business and he also tried a change in his appearance with Udhayamahirathu by shaving off his moustache. Success continued in Malayalam with Padayottam, Anuragakodathy, Kaliyamardanam, Sandhyakku Virinja Poovu and Engane Nee Marakkum and his other successful films of 1983 are Mortuary, Hello Madras Girl and Himam. In 1984, Shankar had hits like Ente Kalithozan, Arante Mulla Kochu Mulla and he also gave break to new directors Priyadarsan and T. S. Suresh Babu with Poochakkoru Mookkuthi and Itha Innu Muthal respectively as both films were major hits of 1984. Next year he was a part of successful films Archana Aradhana, in 1986, Shankar became a producer and turned Sibi Malayil into a family director with Chekkaeran Oru Chilla. His other major films of 86 are Naale Njangalude Vivahum, Oppam Oppathinoppam, Shankar staged a come back as lead hero in films like Sooryavanam, Bhadra, Sundarippravu and The Fire. He also done Stalin Sivadas with Mammootty, but all these films failed to ignite the box-office, in the mean period, Shankar moved to television media with a successful serial Ithu Manju Pole and continued to perform in serials like Swara Raagam and Parasparam. He also won the 2006 Film Critics Television Best Actor Award for his performance in TV serial Chithrashalabham and his last serial Ammakkayi aired in Surya TV was a success mainly due to his teaming with Menaka, his hit pair of 80s. As he wanted to concentrate in films, he stopped doing serials and launched himself as director with Virus, a film on HIV/AIDS, which was censored in 2007
10.
Raveendran (actor)
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Raveendran is an Indian actor, primarily concentrating in Malayalam and Tamil films. He was a busy actor in both these languages in 1980s. He debuted in Tamil mega hit Oru Thalai Ragam and he was the second lead in Kamal Hassan and Rajnikanth movies like, Sagalakala Vallavan, Per Sollum Pillai, Ram Lakshman, Ranga, Thankamagan and Pokkiri Raja. But he concentrated more in Malayalam with I. V and he has also done major roles in Echchil Iravugal, Poikkal Kudhirai, En Priyame and Kutravaaligal. He announced his comeback to films and did smaller roles until 2013 and he has played a wonderful barber character in the 80s Tamil movie Poi Kaal kuthirai. He made his debut as story writer through Sathyan Anthikads Ennum Eppozhum and he is the festival director of Kochi Metro Short Film Fest. He is also an interior designer and he is born to Elias and Dr. Saramma at Tripunithura, Kerala, India. He completed 2 years of acting course at South India Film Chambers, Chennai and completed degree course at Film and Television Institute of India, the couple have three children, Mareena, Bibin and Fabin. His son Fabin has acted in Idukki Gold in michaels childhood role, Raveendran at the Internet Movie Database Raveendran at MSI
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