R.I.P Murali

Malayalam actor Murali passed away yesterday. He was 55 years old.

Murali was one of the finest actors to have graced Malayalam cinema in recent years. He started off with theater and small roles in movies, went on to play leading man, and turned to character roles later on. He has performed in a variety of roles in his movie career, except for comic roles. In some of his earlier movies, he played villain or the villian’s side kick. He then moved on to play the friend of the protagonist in movies such as Lal Salaam, Amaram, etc. It was in the early 90s that he got a break as a leading man. I think Aadharam was his first movie as hero.

I still remember watching Aadharam in theaters. He was so good in the movie and the movie was a hit during the early 90s. After Aadharam, for a brief period during the early 90s, Murali was even considered a threat to the Malayalam superstars Mohanlal and Mammooty. He had a couple of memorable years with movies such as Venkalam, Champakulam Thachan, etc. However, he could not sustain the box-office draw for long and subsequently went back to donning character roles.

For me, some of his memorable roles in Malayalam are Aadharam, Lal Salaam, Amaram, Dhanam, etc.

I had a feeling he was kind of dormant for a while in Malayalam for the last few years. Did not hear much of him since 2004. May be its because I’m not following Malayalam cinema as much as I used to do before. And now suddenly I hear Murali is gone. His death is a huge loss for the Malayalam movie industry. This year seems to be really bad one for Kerala stars. Murali is the third talented personality from the Malayalam movie industry to bid adieu in the last few weeks, after Lohitadas and Rajan P. Dev.

The man may be gone, but movie lovers will remember him through the many roles he portrayed on screen. May his soul rest in peace!