Pala Thankam

Pala Thankam Biography

Pala Thankam is a noted character artist associated with Malayalam cinema. She is also a singer ad dubbing artist, most active during the era of 1960s and 1970s. One of the prominent dubbing artists of Malayalam cinema, she has appeared in more than 100 movies and has dubbed for almost 500 films. She has been a stage actress associated with KPAC, Vishwakerala kala Samithi and Jyothi Theaters before her foray to movies.

She was born in Pala of Kottayam district and Thankam is her real name. She started her career as a stage actress at the age of 14. She started off with plays of N. N. Pillai who was her mentor. She got married to a police officer. Actor Sathyan was his senior and that’s how she got her first film role. She played the role of Sathyan’s mother in Rebecca in 1963. Earlier she has appeared in a movie, Kedavilakk at the age of 12 though the movie never got released. She acted as Sathyan’s sister in that movie. Later her acting career started in Udaya Studios. Though she got film offers, they were not enough to get enough exposure for this talented actress. Thus she almost completely switched on to theater.

She reached Chennai to become a playback singer. Though she debut as an actress, she later got noticed as an actress. But this artist got familiar to Malayalis as a dubbing artist. She worked as a dubbing artist since 1971 and dubbed for the first time for Bobanum Moliyum for the character Boban. Since then she has dubbed for about 500 movies which include about 1000 characters. Her husband died in an accident and the couple had three children. Her daughter Ambili is also a dubbing artist in Malayam movies. Currently she stays in an old age home at Kollam.

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Updated: January 04, 2016