Kochi  :

Director Sasi Shankar, who crafted some of the notable movies in Malaylam, died here on Wednesday. He was 58. Sasi was found in a bad health condition at his residence at Pancode, near Kolanchery, on Wednesday morning and though was hospitalised, his life could not be saved. He was under treatment for diabetes for the past few years. He is survived by wife Beena, son Vishnu and daughter Meenakshi.

Sasi Shankar has directed seven Malayalam movies and two Tamil movies. His notable movies include ‘Narayam’, ‘Manthramothiram’, ‘Gurushishyan’, ‘Mr Butler’, ‘Kunjikkoonan’ and ‘Perazhagan ‘(Tamil).

Sasi began his career in film making as an assistant director of P A Backer and after working with him for three films, joined director Sathyan Anthikkad’s crew. He assisted Sathyan in nearly 30 films. His first attempt in independent filmmaking through ‘Narayam’ (1993) had a significant social relevance and won him state and national awards.

His second movie Punnaram (1995) had Jagathy and Kalpana playing the lead roles. ‘Manthramothiram’ (1997) with some genuine comedy numbers by Dileep and Kalabhavan Mani and ‘Guru Shishyan’ (1997) with some stunning comedy items by Jagathy Sreekumar fared well in theatres, earning Sasi Shankar the status of a director with a minimum guarantee in boxoffice. ‘Kunjikkoonan’ (2002) which Dileep played the double role, became a mega hit and ran for nearly 100 days. Scripted by Benny P Nayaramabalam, the movie saw Dileep playing the role of a hunchback.

Following the success of Kunjikkoonan, Sasi Shankar was invited to Tamil industry by actor Surya himself for doing the Tamil remake.  The movie ‘Perazhagan’ (2004) was his Tamil debut. He also made another movie with Jayaram in 2005, Sarkar Dada. Pagadai, Pagadai (2014), the Tamil movie was his last film to hit screens.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Kochi / by Express News Service / August 11th, 2016