Mala Aravindan

Mala Aravindan Biography

Mala Aravindan is a comedian and character artist of Malayalam cinema. He is a part of Malayalam cinema since late 1960’s and has more than 400 movies in his credit. He has his own distinct style and mannerisms that have given many memorable scenes of Malayalam celluloid. His ‘laughing style’ is his trademark that he has carried throughout his career. He belongs to Mala of Thrissur and this small village has become popular with his name. He is popularly known as ‘Mala’. He is a tabla artist also and has exhibited his talent as a musician in many of his films. He is a professional theatre artist also and has won Kerala State Nadaka Academy's Best Actor award for his role in Sooryasoma's play Nidhi.

He was born as the eldest son of Ayyappan, an Excise department employee and Ponnamma, a school teacher. The family later relocated to Mala and later, Aravindan came to be known as Mala Aravindan. He started his career as a tabla artist for theatre. He joined stage plays and started playing Tabala as a background artist. Later he moved into acting and became a popular professional stage actor. He has worked with professional drama troupes like Kottayam National Theaters, Nadakashala and Sooryasoma.  

Mala debut silver screen in the year 1968 with the movie – Sindhooram. Yet it took years for Mala to make his distinct foot prints in Malayalam cinema. It happened in the decade of 1980’s, when two more great names joined him. They were comedians Jagathy Sreekumar and Pappu. Middle 1980’s witnessed Mala-Pappu-Jagathy trio emerging as the biggest entertainers and crowd pullers of Malayalam cinema. They were repeatedly casted by directors to bring joy and entertainment to serious scripts. They successfully ruled the screen for about 2 decades till Kuthiravattam Pappu passed away in 2000.

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Updated: January 17, 2014