Actor Murali passes away

Veteran actor and national award winner Murali, who has also been associated with the theatre for long, passed away Thursday evening. The end came at around 8.25 p.m. at a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, where Murali was undergoing treatment for diabetes related ailments. He was 55.

Born in Kudavattor near Kottarakara in Kollam district, Murali was a law graduate and got employed first with the Health Department and subsequently with the University of Kerala. He was associated with the theatre movement and was a member of Natyagriha, an amateur theatre group, to which the Late Narendra Prasad too belonged.

It was with 'Njattadi', directed by the late Bharath Gopi, that he made his debut in films. And then he did a small yet notable role in Aravindan's Bharath Gopi-Smitha Patil-Sreenivasan starrer 'Chidambaram'. It was with Lenin Rajendran's 'Meenamasathile Sooryan' that he won critical acclaim and appreciation. And then Hariharan's 'Panchagni' came, which too won him laurels.

One of the most versatile actors that Malayalam Cinema has ever seen, Murali played character roles as well as villainous ones. His performance in films like 'Kireedom', 'Kalikkalam', 'Adharam', 'Nee Ethra Dhanya', 'Lalsalam', 'Chakoram', 'Amaram', 'Chamayam', 'Neythukkaran' etc remain among the most unforgettable characters ever portrayed in Malayalam Cinema. He even crossed frontiers and acted in Tamil and Telugu films as well.

Murali also wrote books on acting and the theatre. A staunch leftist, he even contested the 1999 Lok Sabha elections from the Alappuzha Constituency as an LDF-supported independent candidate.

Murali, who played supporting characters as well as lead roles, won the State Award for the Best Actor for his performance in the George Kithu-directed film 'Adharam' and then the National Award for the Best Actor for his performance in Priyanandanan's 'Neythukaaran'. Murali was serving as the Chairman of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy when he breathed his last.

His death has come as an unexpected shock to the people of Kerala, who are just recovering from the loss suffered on account of the passing away of Lohithadas and Rajan P. Dev. This monsoon has proved really unfortunate for Malayalam Cinema, with three highly talented members of the film fraternity of Kerala bidding adieu to this world.