Kuthiravattam Pappu

Kuthiravattam Pappu (24 December 1936 – 25 February 2000) acted in over 1,000 Malayalam films, and some of his lines passed into everyday Malayalam speech. The stage and film actor was born Panangat Padmadalakshan in Feroke near Kozhikode, grew up in the village of Kuthiravattam and gave his first major stage performance at 17, while still a student at St. Antony's School, Calicut. He performed in around 1,000 instant plays and two professional dramas, Samasya and Manasu, and won a Best Comedian award for Samasya. Ramu Karyat and A. Vincent noticed him in the play Mudiyanaya Puthran and cast him in Moodupadam. His first noted role came in A. Vincent's Bhargavi Nilayam, written by Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, who named his character Kuthiravattam Pappu; the name stayed with him for good. Audiences knew him for his Kozhikode dialect, sharp comic timing and a delivery they called the "Pappu style", in films including Angadi, Ahimsa, Karimbana, Ee Nadu, Chembarathi, Avalude Ravukal, Aalkkoottathil Thaniye, Manichitrathazhu and The King. "Taski Viliyeda" from Thenmavin Kombathu (1994) and "Thamaraseri Churam" from Vellanakalude Nadu are two such lines. He also appeared in the TV series Akashadoothu, and set up Akshara Theatres a few weeks before his death. His son Binu Pappu is also a Malayalam actor.