AK Lohithadas passed away this morning...Very sad and unexpected loss to the whole malayalam film industry.

I would say that he is one of this kind of 'scripwriter- director' whose movies were high in artistic content,but at the same time, depicted common mans life and themes in a realistic way...very similar to the 'Padmarajan- Bharathan', 'Sreenivasan-Sathyan Anthikad' combinations he made many successful movies in what is called the 'Golden age of Malayalam cinema' (eighties and ninties) with Sibi Malayil. Before this time there were broadly two types of movies ie either the art /parallel cinema and the mainstream commercial movies. The boundary between these two were gone in the late 80's ...thanks to all these filmakers.

Lohithadas' first script was for the movie 'thaniavarthanam' and after that there was no turning back. He wrote script for about 30 movies, directed about 10 movies, acted and wrote songs in a few. He received many state and atleast one national award (Bhoothakannadi-his debut movie as a director) if I remember correctly. Most of his movies had a bit of tragedy in it and may be thats one of the reason it stays in mind for ever.

Some of his memorable movies and scenes for me include:
1. The helpless mother mixing poison in rice and giving it to her son (Thaniavarthanam)
2. The dashing of the hopes and aspirations of a middleclass young man and his family due to just one incident and how the society sees it and dictates the life of people (Kireedam)
3. The relationship and love between two brothers and the circumstances that lead to one's concealment of the others death and the trauma, he experiences..... (Bharatham)
4. The dreams of a poor fisherman father (and daughter) who wants his daughter to become a doctor being shattered by her love and subsequent marriage to her childhood friend (Amaram)
5. The life of an extended farming family in Kerala told through the responsible and loving elder brother (Vatsalyam)

One dialogue I cannot forget is in Dasharatham (Mohanlal). This dialogue probably summarises what Lohithadas has to say about life....

"ഇതു എന്റെ life ആണ് . ഞാന്‍ അത് ചില്ല് പാത്രം പോലെ എറിഞ്ഞു പൊട്ടിക്കും , അലമാരിക്കുള്ളില്‍ ഇട്ടു പൂട്ടും , ചപ്പാത്തി പോലെ പരത്തും ,റബ്ബര്‍ പന്ത് പോലെ കളിക്കും അത് എന്റെ ഇഷ്ടം . ആരും ഒന്നും പറയണ്ട ”

This list is endless ...His highness abdullah, Kamaladalam, Adharam, Sallapam, Kanmadam etc, etc...His loss is irreplacable( like Padmarajan), but I hope he has shown the way for others to make similar themes in the future and bring back the golden days of Malayalam cinema...