Popular Malayalam actor and folk singer Kalabhavan Mani passed away at a hospital in Kochi on Sunday (March 6). He was 45.
Mani, who started as a mimicry artist, was a popular character actor in all South Indian languages. With over 200 films to his credit, Mani started with comedy roles but graduated to lead characters. He was also the playback singer in about 25 movies, but was more popular for his trademark folk songs. Of late, was seen more often in Tamil films.
He came to the forefront with his role in Sallapam, which incidentally was the first big hit of super star Daleep. He won the state award for best actor in 1999 for his role in Vasantiyum Lakshmiyum Pinne Njanum. He lost out on winning the national award that year by a narrow margin but got the Special Jury Award.This Malayalam movie was remade in Tamil as Kasi in which Vikram acted the role played by Kalabhavan Mani. He later took up character and villain roles in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu movies and earned appreciation for his acting style.
@Agency report.
