V. Sambasivan

V. Sambasivan (1929–1996) was a famous "Kadhaprasangam" artist of Kerala, India. He was born on July 4, 1929 in Chavara Thekkumbhagom in Kollam district. After schooling in his native village he joined Sree Narayana College, Kollam for higher studies where he was associated with the Communist Party and its student wing AISF. His gift for singing and acting earned him the name of an artist very early in his life. He started his career as a teacher but quit the job to become a full-time artiste. With his inimitable style in story-telling he soon became one of the most popular artists of Kerala with immense mass appeal. He presented more than 50 stories on stage including Shakespeare's Othello^[1] and Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.^[2] Being a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) he was arrested and imprisoned in 1975, during the Indian Emergency declared by the then regime headed by Indira Gandhi. He died on April 25, 1996 aged 67.

He has acted in a feature film 'Pallamkuzhi' and in a documentary on poet Kumaran Asan.^[3]

V. Sambasivan was married to Subhadra. His son Vasanthakumar Sambasivan, a Professor of Chemistry at Sree Narayana College, Kollam follows his father's way.^[4]

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