India, Dec. 20 -- If you don't know Thalathil Dineshan in the movie Vadakkunokki Yantram or Dasan-Vijayan in Nadodikattu, Prabhakaran in Sandesham or Saroj Kumar in Udayananu Tharam, chances are that you are either not from Kerala or a Malayali born after year 2010. For over 40 years, writer-director-actor Sreenivasan played a huge role in shaping and defining Kerala's popular culture, analysing and critiquing the various complexes, hypocrisies and double standards of individuals and society in general. His characters, roles and screenplays are today part of Malayali cinematic folklore, with some of the dialogues a part of everyday life.

Sreenivasan (69) passed away on Saturday morning, after having acted in more than 200 films, writing ...