Madhu

A newspaper advertisement led Madhu to the National School of Drama, and there he met Ramu Kariat. Born Madhavan Nair on 23 September 1933 at Gowreesapattom in Thiruvananthapuram, he had studied Hindi at University College, done his postgraduation at Banaras Hindu University and taught Hindi at S. T. Hindu College and Scott Christian College in Nagercoil. His screen debut was N. N. Pisharody's Ninamaninja Kalpadukal (1963), as Stephen, an army soldier, and Kariat's Moodupadam was his second film. Through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s he was one of the main leading men in Malayalam cinema, with occasional Hindi and Tamil films. He has acted in more than 400 films, directed 12 and produced 15, and once owned the Uma Film Studio. In Chemmeen (1966), the first Malayalam film to win the President's Gold Medal for best feature film, he played Pareekkutty; Bhargavi Nilayam is among his other well-known titles. Swayamvaram (1972) made him the first winner of the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Malayalam, and he has five Kerala State Film Awards. The Kerala government gave him the J. C. Daniel Award in 2004, and the Padma Shri followed in 2013. Mini, his children's film, won a National Film Award in 1995. He also heads the Kerala unit of the Indian People's Theatre Association.