Thoppil Bhasi

Thoppil Bhasi Biography

Thoppil Bhasi was playwright, screenwriter and film director of Malayalam. He has been associated with Communist Party of India and his playwright ‘Ningalenna Communist aakki’ (You made me Communist) was immensely popular. Mudiyanaya Puthran and Puthiya Akasham are other popular dramas of Bhasi of 16 dramas written by him. His autobiography titled Oliviley Ormakal is one of his significant works. He is a successful filmmaker as well, who wrote scripts of over a 100 movies and has directed 16 movies.

His birth name is Thoppil Bhaskara Pillai and he was born on April 8, 1924 at Vallikunnam in Alappuzha. He was the eldest son of Thoppil Parameshwaran Pillai and Nanikkutti Amma. He completed his Sanskrit studies from Sanskrit School, Changankulangara where he completed Sanskrit Shastri course. Then he joined Ayurveda College Thiruvananthapuram and became involved in students’ movements. Many of them were successful providing better facilities for the college students.

His friendship with Kambisseri Karunakaran proved to be the turning point of his life where he associated himself with political movements of Kerala. Though he was a believer of Congress party, slowly he began to get attracted towards Communist party and its principles. He took part in many movements during 1940s and 1950s.  He later went on to contest the first Panchayat elections in Kerala and became the first Panchayat president of Vallikunnom panchayat. He was elected twice to the state assembly contesting the State elections, from Bharanikkavu in 1954 and Pathanamthitta in 1957.

After 1957 he gave a new direction to his life, concentrating in the art of dramas. His powerful scripts became the backbone of KPAC, the communist theatre and later he began to get involved in movies too. Thulabharam was a powerful film script written by Bhasi. Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy awarded him its Fellowship in 1981. His dramas have won Kerala Sahithya Academy Awards and he is a recipient of Professor N Krishna Pillai Award and the Soviet Land Nehru Award too.

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Updated: October 16, 2013