Thiruvananthapuram, Monday, January 24, 2011: Noted Malayalam Film Director and screenwriter P Padmarajan was remembered on his 20th death anniversary.

Padmarajan made some of the landmark motion pictures in Malayalam cinema, including masterpieces like Oridathoru Phayalwan (1981), Arappatta Kettiya Gramathil (1986), Kariyila Kattu Pole (1986), Namukku Parkkan Munthiri Thoppukal (1986), Thoovanathumbikal (1987), Moonnam Pakkam (1988), and Njan Gandharvan (1991).

Padmarajan’s stories deal with deceit, murder, romance, mystery, passion, jealousy, libertinism, anarchism, individualism, and the life of peripheral elements of society. Some of them are considered as among the best in Malayalam literature, his first novel Nakshathrangale Kaaval won the Kerala Sahithya Academy award (1972).

He entered the world of Malayalam films by writing the screenplay for Bharathan’s directorial debut Prayaanam (1975) to take first steps to be one of the most talented script writers to have graced Malayalam cinema.

Padmarajan’s sudden and untimely death occurred at Hotel Paramount Towers in Calicut while he was visiting a Cinema playing his last film Njan Gandharvan. The news of his death was a shock to Keralites and was widely mourned, and the feeling of loss among the people of Kerala lingers to this day.