India, Jan. 10 -- Within the span of two weeks, Malayalam has lost two illustrious artists who were the finest representatives of the romantic tradition that greatly defined popular taste in the 20th century. MT Vasudevan Nair, who died on Christmas day at age of 91, was arguably the most popular fiction and scriptwriter in Malayalam in the last century. He also directed a handful of landmark films, among them his debut, Nirmalyam, which won National Awards for the Best Feature Film and Actor (PJ Antony) in 1974, is counted among the significant films of the 1970s New Wave cinema. P Jayachandran, who passed away at 80 on Thursday night, was a singer who started his career in films in 1966 and sang close to 16,000 songs mostly in Malayalam...