Thank you for Everything: Malayalis bid adieu to Sreenivasan
KOCHI: Sreenivasan enjoyed punctuating the tale with hearty amusement. Arriving in Thiruvananthapuram for what he believed was an acting assignment in a film by Priyadarshan, the twenty-something sought to know the nature of his role. The directors reply was blunt... as it was life-altering: There is no script. If Sreenivasan wanted to act, he would have to script it. With nothing to do back home, he stayed on the set and began writing. Both Priyadarshan and Sathyan Anthikad pushed me into the deep end of scriptwriting, he later said at an awards function, and I somehow stayed afloat without knowing how to swim. That reluctant plunge produced one of Malayalam cinemas most original voices. On Saturday, that voice fell silent. The veteran actor, screenwriter and filmmaker was 69. Ailing for long, Sreenivasan was being taken to Amrita Hospital for dialysis when his condition deteriorated. He was rushed to the Tripunithura Taluk Hospital, where he breathed his last. His cremation will be held at 10.30am on Sunday at his residence in Udayamperoor. Sreenivasans death draws the curtains on an era. Few artists chronicled the Malayali psyche with such wit, empathy and sting. Over nearly 48 years, he acted in more than 200 films and wrote screenplays that shaped the industrys golden years. His humour was never decorative; it was dissecting. With an almost journalistic eye, he teased out the hypocrisies embedded in everyday life political posturing, middle-class vanity and masculine insecurity rendering them funny, painful and recognisably human. Born on April 6, 1956, in Pattiam near Thalassery in Kannur district, Sreenivasan grew up in a modest household his father was a schoolteacher and mother a homemaker. Sreenivasan: The goat of satire Actors Mammootty and Mohanlal pay their respects to Sreenivasan at Town Hall in Kochi on Saturday. After his schooling in Kuthuparamba and Kadirur, he studied economics at PRNSS College, Mattanur, before training formally at the Tamil Nadu Government MGR Film and Television Institute, Chennai. He made his acting debut in Manimuzhakkam (1976), directed by P A Backer, and his first lead appearance was in Sanghaganam (1979), also by Backer. But it was writing that unlocked Sreenivasans true range. His debut screenplay, Odaruthammava Aalariyam (1984), announced a new idiom irreverent, observant and unafraid of puncturing social sanctimony. The mid-1980s to early 1990s marked his creative peak, when his writing, often in collaboration with Sathyan Anthikad, produced a string of enduring films including Gandhinagar 2nd Street, Sanmanassullavarkku Samadhanam, Varavelpu, Thalayanamanthram and the immortal Nadodikkattu. Blending humour with social insight, these films, most of which were anchored by Mohanlal, translated middle-class anxieties into movie lore with Nadodikkattu and its sequels attaining cult status and embedding their characters and dialogues deep in Keralas public memory. No film captures Sreenivasans political bite better than Sandesam (1991). A searing satire on over-politicisation, it framed Keralas bipolar politics within the confines of a family home. Polandine kurichu oraksharam mindaruthu! Dont you utter a word about Poland! his retort to Jayarams character remains lodged in the Malayali collective memory three decades on. The joke endures because the truth it skewers still stands. Sandesham earned him the Kerala State Film Award for best story and the status of Malayalam cinemas most influential political satire. As a filmmaker, he was equally incisive. Vadakkunokkiyantram (1989), which he scripted and directed, anatomised male insecurity and patriarchy with rare tenderness and landed him the state award for best film. Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala (1998) explored marital alienation and emotional estrangement, winning the national award for best film on other social issues. In these works, Sreenivasan turned the camera inward, exposing the fragile ego of the typical Malayali man he knew so well. Even as the industry changed, he adapted without blunting his edge. Udayananu Tharam, Katha Parayumpol and Njan Prakashan reintroduced his social satire to a new generation. Njan Prakashan went on to become among Malayalam cinemas highest-grossing films. As an actor, restraint was his strength he played the flawed common man with authenticity, allowing silences to speak as loudly as punch lines. Sreenivasan wore his career accolades lightly. What mattered was the work: Stories that laughed at power, and questioned piety and social mores. He is survived by his wife, Vimala, and sons Vineeth and Dhyan, both established figures in the industry. As his body was kept at Ernakulam Town Hall, the crowds that came to pay their respects reflected on the breadth of Sreenivasans reach from political leaders to ordinary film lovers who saw themselves in his characters. For nearly five decades, he gave voice to the anxieties, contradictions and quiet dignity of the common Malayali. In losing him, Malayalam cinema has lost a storyteller who laughed with society, even as he held an unflinching mirror up to it. THE LEGEND OF SREENI In an illustrious career spanning nearly 48 years, Sreenivasan acted in more than 200 films, directed two movies and wrote screenplays that shaped the industrys golden years A champion of social satire and political criticism and creator of unadulterated humour, he mirrored the Malayali community, with all its vulnerabilities, pettiness, honesty or the lack of it through his scripts. Awards and accolades Sreenivasans directorial venture Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala (1998) won the National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues' Vadakkunokkiyantram (1989), which he scripted and directed, won him the Kerala state award for the best film He won the state award for best story for Sandesam (1991), and best screenplay for Mazhayethum Munpe (1995)
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