Sukumari

Sukumari Biography

Sukumari is one among the most versatile actresses of South India who has contributed more than 3000 movies in the character roles. Though she has acted in all South Indian languages, Bengali and Hindi, her roles are most remembered in Malayalam and Tamil movies. Most recently she died due to burns in her residence at Chennai at the age of 72. She has been awarded with Padma Sri in the year 2003 and has won second actress award in Kerala 4 times. In addition to these awards, she has been awarded with Life time achievement awards, Critics award, Chalachitra Prathibha awards and Kalaimamani award.

She belongs to the family of talented actresses trio – Lalitha, Padmini, Ragini popularly known as ‘Travancore sisters’. She is the cousin of Travancore sisters and they have influenced a lot in shaping her acting career. Sukumari was born and brought up in old Travancore. She used to assist them in studios and concerts, when she was a child and thus developed an interest in acting in movies. She has learned dancing and Carnatic singing too. She started her acting career at child artist at the age of 10. After that, spanning over 60 years she has given unparallel contributions to south Indian industry in the form of leading actress, mother, sister, sister-in-law, mother-in-law and grandmother. Among all the character roles played, her roles as mother and grandmother are noted most and she shares a great position in Malayalam film industry and the industry gives due respect to her.  

It’s often told that her roles are uncountable and many times, it has been noted that she has acted in maximum number of movies. Though not collectively grouped, she has acted in more than 3000 movies. So, it’s not at all easy to list the best movies of her acting career. Drama, negative shades or comedy – Sukumari has proved several times that no one can beat her in her territory. ‘Poochakkoru Mookkuthi’ of Priyadarshan is the best instance of her comic shades while ‘Archana Aradhana’ and ‘Amme Bhagavathi’, for negative impacts. Yet at the last stage of her career she was concentrated most on character roles of mother and grandmother. She was engaged in the movies till the accident in the pooja room and many of her movies were released after her death. Mammooty’s Emmanuel was one such memorable performance of Sukumari. Many superstars attained her funeral taking leave from their schedule and travelling long distance, as she is known to be ‘Amma’ of film industry whom everybody respects a lot.

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Updated: April 02, 2014