Monisha

Monisha Biography

Monisha Unni, most popularly known as Monisha was a popular actress of Malayalam during late 80’s and early 90’s. She is the youngest recipient of National awards for best actress and she won it when she was just 14, for the movie Nakhashatangal. Another unique record is that she won her National award for her debut movie. But in an unfortunate incident, she lost her life when she was only 21 years old. Monisha was a trained classical dancer too, who used to do stage shows in temples and concerts.

Monisha was born in 1971 in Panniyankara, Kozhikode. Her mother was a dancer from whom she also learnt the primary steps of classical dance. Monisha did her first stage performance at the age of 9. She won aushika Award in the Karnataka state-level Bharatanatyam competition in 1985 also. M.T.Vasudevan Nair is a family friend of Monisha and it was he, who casted in his movie ‘Nakhashatangal’. This movie won many national awards including best actress and its music given by Ravi is considered as one among the finest tunes of Malayalam film industry.

Then she did a series of commercial and off beat movies during 1980’s – Rithubhetham, Sayam sandhya, Kanakaambarangal, Aryan and Adhipan were a few among those hits. She did a few Tamil, Kannada and Telugu movies in this period though given first preference to her mother tongue. She was most successfully paired with Vineeth in a series of movies. Vineeth was the hero of her first movie and one among her last movies – Kamala dalam. Though she did only a few movies during 1980’s, her career witnessed a sudden rise during early 90’s. She did 5 movies in 1990, 2 movies in 1991 and 7 movies in 1992, before death took her away exactly in the same year. She did maximum movies in the year 1992 and was on a rise that year. Her last few movies – Cheppadi vidya and Moondravathu kann (1993) were released after her death.   

Her best movies during 1990’s include Kamala dalam, Kadavu, Kudumba sametham, Kuruppinte Kanakku pusthakam, Perunthachan, Champakkulam thachan and Venal kinavukal. Now it has passed 20 years since she has passed away. Yet she is always remembered as one among the blossoming buds of Malayalam that shed before it was completely bloomed!  

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Updated: December 27, 2017