Thikkurissy Sukumaran Nair

Born: 16 October 1916

Died: 11 March 1997

Website: www.thikkurissy.com

He was a Nagercoil born Malayali Indian poet, playwright, scriptwriter, lyricist, orator, film director, and actor, though he is best known as an actor in Malayalam cinema.
He is the recipient of Padmashri from the Government of India, which is one of the highest civilian honors in India.
In a career that spanned about 47 years, he acted in over 700 films.
He is considered to be the First movie star in Malayalam cinema.
He launched his career as a playwright.
His plays Mareechika and Kalakaran were hugely successful.
He then went on to write three more—Sthree, Maya and Sariyo Thetto—that revolutionized the professional play scenario in Malayalam.
He replaced the melodramatic romantic musicals, which ruled the roost till then, with dialogue centered prose plays having themes of realism and social importance.
The success also made Thikkurissy the first superstar of Kerala.
Jeevitha Nauka was dubbed into four languages including Hindi.
In 1952, he acted in Navalokam with a socially significant theme with Miss Kumari, who would later become the pet of the masses after the success of Neelakkuyil (1954).
Navalokam did not make it big at the box office, but he cemented his superstardom with a big hit in the same year.