Legendary Malayalam film director KS Sethumadhavan has passed away at his residence in Chennai here on Friday morning. He was 90. He was suffering from age-related ailments for some time. As a director and a screenwriter, he also became a part of Hindi, Tamil and Telugu film industries.
K S Sethumadhavan was born to Subrahmanyam and Lakshmi in Palakkad in 1931. His childhood was spent in Palakkad and in North Arcot of Tamil Nadu. He studied at Government Victoria College in Palakkad. He started his film career as an Assistant Director to K Ramnath and later assisted directors L V Prasad, ASA Swamy, Sunder Rao and Nandakarni.
His first film as an independent director was Veeravijaya (1960), a Singhalese film and his first Malayalam film was Jnana Sundari, produced by T E Vasudevan. It was KS Sethumadhavan who introduced Kamal Haasan into Malayalam cinema as a child actor. Later, he also introduced Kamal Haasan in a lead role in his movie ‘Kanyakumari’. He had also introduced Suresh Gopi as a child actor in the 1965 film Odayil Ninnu.
Since the early 1960s, he has directed over 60 movies. He has directed many landmark films in Malayalam film history such as Odayil Ninnu, Yakshi, Kadalpalam, Achanum Bappayum, Ara Nazhika Neram, Panitheeratha Veedu, Anubhavangal Palichakal, Punarjanmam and Oppol.
He was known for giving silver screen adaptation for iconic works in Malayalam literature. ‘Venalkinavukal”, a 1991 movie based on the script of Jnanpith laureate M T Vasudevan Nair, was his last outing in Malayalam.
He has won numerous awards including ten National Film Awards and nine Kerala State Film Awards including four honours for Best Director. He was also the recipient of the JC Daniel Award, the highest honour in the film sector instituted by the Kerala government.
Last rites will be held at 5 pm on Friday at Nungambakkam Choolaimedu crematorium.
He is survived by wife Valsala and three children.
Discussion about this post