Versatile actor K.P.A.C. Lalitha, 74, died at Thripunithura, near here, on Tuesday. Once an inevitable part of Malayalam films, both commercial and art school, she had been ailing for some time.
A winner of two national awards for the best supporting role and four State awards, she held the post of Chairperson of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi before she took seriously ill and disappeared from the public scene.
Born at Ramapuram in Alappuzha, Lalitha learned dance and became a singer-actor at the Kerala People’s Arts Club (KPAC), which staged several landmark plays that also catalysed the Communist movement in Kerala.
The theatre’s name stuck to her when in 1970 K.S. Sethumadhavan adapted KPAC’s play Koottukudumbam to the silver screen. She got married to noted filmmaker Bharathan and went on to give several immortal characters to Malayalam cinema. While her characters in films such as Amaram (directed by Bharathan) and Aravam made her a household name, she also played with elan a variety of characters, including several noted comic roles.
Her voice alone gave a distinctive identity to the unseen character Narayani in Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Mathilukal.
She is survived by daughter Sreekutty and son Sidharth, himself an actor and director.
