Sasidharan Arattuvazhi

Sasidharan Arattuvazhi Biography

Sasidharan Arattuvazhi from Alappuzha was a Malayalam playwright and screen writer, best known for writing the script of cult classic – Yodha in 1992, starring Mohanlal and Madoo. His career spanned to two decades where he contributed 20 screenplays and 12 plays. Sasidharan Arattuvazhi died on 21 January 2001 aged 45.  Known for experimenting with different genres of stories, he has written comedies as well as family drama, best instances being CID Unnikrishnan B.A., B.Ed and Kaliveedu respectively. Cheppadividya, Kudumbakodathi, Pravachakan, Pidakkozhi Koovunna Noottandu, Vardhakya Puranam, Ayalathe Adheham, Nettipattam and Porutham are among his other noted scripts. Most of the scripts were multi-starrers.

Sasi was born at Arattuvazhi in Alappuzha district as the son of Arjunan Pillai in 1955. Since school days he was interested in writing plays. Kolayaali was his first professional play. He studied at S. D. College, Alappuzha and used to write radio plays in those days. He started his professional career as a journalist in the capital city and worked for magazines such as Kudumbakatha and Kuttikatha. He also started his own advertising agency, Primary Colours.

Powerful screenplays of M. T. Vasudevan Nair inspired him a lot and that’s how he started experimenting with screenplays. Nettipattam (1990) starring Sreenivasan and Rekha was his first script. But the movie was a box office failure. It was followed by Gauthami-Jayaram starrer - Ayalathe Adheham, which was a box office hit.  But it was Yoddha released the following year which made him one of the top screenwriters of his time. This cult classic is regarded as his masterpiece as well. Arattuvazhi died at the Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, on January 22, following kidney failure. He is survived by his wife Sudhakutty and two daughters.

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Updated: November 29, 2015