Mala Aravindan

Mala Aravindan
Born	T. K. Aravindan[1] (1939-01-15)15 January 1939[2] Vadavucode, Ernakulam, British India
Died	28 January 2015(2015-01-28) (aged 76) Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
Residence	Kottavathil, Mala, Thrissur, Kerala
Other names	Mala (മാള)
Occupation	Actor, Tabla percussionist
Years active	1976–2014
Spouse(s)	Geetha (1971–2015)

Mala Aravindan (15 January 1939 – 28 January 2015) was an Indian theatre and film actor. He was best known for his work as a comedian and character artist in Malayalam films. He has acted in over 500 films.

Early life

He was born at Vadavucode, Ernakulam district of Kerala state as the eldest son of Thanattu Ayyappan, an Excise department employee and Ponnamma, a school music teacher. Soudamini, Ramanathan and Prakashan are his siblings.^[3] His father died when he was studying at seventh class.^[4] Later when his mother got transferred, his family relocated to Mala in Thrissur district and he started using the place name as a prefix to his name.^[5] He had his primary education from St Antony's High School, Mala, where his mother was a music teacher.^[6][7] Seeing his talent in playing Tabla his mother joined him with Cochin Mohammed Ustad, a famous Tabla artist.^[8] He joined for Pre University degree in Christ College, Irinjalakuda but dropped out in between to concentrate on his career.^[9]

Career

Aravindan started his career as a Tabla artist. He joined stage plays and started playing Tabla as a background artist. Later, he moved into acting and started acting in professional stage plays of Kottayam National Theaters, Nadakashala, Suryasoma Theatres etc. He continued acting in dramas for 12 years. He has won Kerala State Nataka Academy's Best Actor award for his role in Sooryasoma's play Nidhi. He received State Award in 1978 and 6 other state level awards for the stage play Rasna.^[10]

Aravindan started his film career with the movie Ente Kunju, but the film got never released. His first movie released was Thalirukal in 1967 in which he acted as a mental patient among many.^[11] His first full fledged role was in the 1968 movie Sindhooram, directed by Balakrishnan. Since then he has acted in over 400 films for 33 years and established his own style which became his trademark. During the initial stages of his career, the Mala-Pappu-Jagathy trio was a guaranteed crowd-puller among Malayalam film audiences.His last film was Noolppaalam which is yet to be released. He was the president of the AMMA, the association of Malayalam film artistes.^[12]

Personal life

Aravindan was married to Anna, on 1971, after 5 years of love relationship, who is a christian, later changed her name as Geetha.^[13] The couple have two children, Kishore (Muthu) and Kala. Muthu is married to Deepthi and they have a son Vedavyasan. Kala is married to Surendran and they have two children Devi and Vishnu.^[14]

Death

Mala Aravindan was admitted to Kovai Medical Centre Hospital in Coimbatore on 19 January 2015, following a massive heart attack and was shifted to the ICU on January 24, where he was diagnosed as having diffused block. He was on ventilator support. The actor had earlier undergone an angiogram after being hospitalized.^[15] He died on 28 January 2015 at 6:29 a.m.^[16] He was 76.^[17]

Awards

• 2013 : Kerala Film Critics Association Awards^[18] - Chalachitra Prathiba Puraskar
• Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Akademi Award for Best Actor - Nidhi (Suryasoma Theatres)

Filmography

References

External links

• Mala Aravindan at the Internet Movie Database
• Mala Aravindan at MSI