Madampu Sankaran Namboothiri popularly known as Madampu Kunjukuttan, passed away this morning at a private hospital in Thrissur, Kerala. He was undergoing treatment following post covid complications.
He was a celebrated Malayalam author and a screenplay writer. He was born in Kiralur village of Thrissur District on 23 June 1941. He studied Sanskrit, Hasthyaayurvedam, the treatise for treatment of elephants. He also worked as teacher for Sanskrit at Kodungalloor in Thissur district and was also a priest in a nearby temple. Madampu also worked for All India Radio.
His novel ‘Mahaprasthanam’ won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Best Novel in 1983. He won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay in the year 2000 for the Malayalam film Karunam, which was directed by Jayaraj.
In 2003, he won the Ashdod International Film Award in Israel for Best Screenplay for the film Parinamam (The Change) directed by P Venu. He received Sanjayan Award in 2014.
Some of his other noted works as a screenwriter include Makalkku, Gourisankaram, Saphalam and Deshadanam. He also acted in a slew of movies, including Mohanlal’s Aaraam Thampuran, director Shyamaprasad’s Agnisakshi and Jayaraj’s Shantham.
He hosted the TV show E4 Elephant along with Sreekumar Arookutty on Kairali TV.
His wife Savithri Antharjanam had pre-deceased him and he leaves behind two daughters, Jaseena Madampu and Haseena Madampu.
