Kalabhavan Mani

He started his career as a mimicry artist with the drama group Kalabhavan. His film debut was as a junior artist in Vijayakanth Captain Prabhakaran. He started his acting career in the Malayalam film Aksharam as an auto rickshaw driver. He got his first major breakthrough with the Lohithadas movie Sallapam (1996), which was a hit. After this, he acted in several movies in the comedy roles. He did some notable roles in movies such as Dilliwala Rajakumaran, Manthra Mothiram, Gajaraja Manthram, Katha Nayakan, Mayaponman and Kottappurathe Koottukudumbam. Mani's comic role as Monayi in the 1998 movie Summer in Bethlehem was appreciated among the audience. After portraying several comic characters, his true potential to do the character roles was revealed in the film Vasanthiyum Lakshmiyum Pinne Njaanum. He did the role of a blind singer in it which earned him the Special Jury Award at both National Film Awards and Kerala State Film Awards. These awards helped Mani to do the character roles and villain roles in several movies while also doing comedy roles in numerous films. In Vakkalathu Narayanankutty (2001), he played the villain role. However his performance as villain was first noted in the movie Rakshasa Rajavu (2001), where he played the role of a crooked corrupt politician called Gunasekharan. The Guard is unique film as it has only Mani as a star cast in it. His performance as a poor eccentric person called Kuttan in Karumadikuttan received high appreciation. Mani returned to his unique comical role with the Jayaram starrer One man show. Mani was praised for his performance in Valkannadi (2002). The revenge drama had Mani in the role of Appunni, a blacksmith with the history of mental illness. He was also noted for his performance in the character role in Malayali Mamanu Vanakkam. After the comedy movies Kuberan and Bamboo Boys, both of them released in 2002, Mani almost shifted his complete focus on doing character and villain roles. Mani's notable movies in 2003 include Vellithira, Balettan, Pattalam and War and Love. He once again returned to do the comedy role with the 2004 Priyadarshan screwball comedy movie Vettam, which is probabily his last notable movie in a complete comic role. He also had a small appearance in Magic Lamp. Mani's performance as Chemban Gurukkal, the blind master martial artist, in Ananthabhadam (2005) received high appreciation. In Ben Johnson, he played the role of an action hero for the first time. It was one of the highest-grossing movies in 2005.His villain Role as komalan in the movie pouran(2005) also noted. The success of Ben Johnson saw Mani playing the similar hero roles in movies such as Lokanathan IAS, Chacko Randaaman, Kisan, Payum Puli, Red Salute etc. He got a lot of praise for his performance as the villain in Chotta Mumbai (2007). In the movie, Mani played the character called Nateshan, which is considered one of the biggest villain characters in Malayalam. Mani played the lead role in the family drama Aayirathil Oruvan (2009), which was critically acclaimed In 2010, Mani acted in several films in the lead roles such as Orange, Pulliman, Black Stallion and Canvas. However, most of these were a huge failure at box office. In 2012, he acted in the multi-starrer crime drama film Bachelor Party. His performance as Looyi Papan in Amen (2013) was acclaimed by both the critics and audience. Mani's last Malayalam movie is Poyi Maranju Parayathe, which was released in 2016 after his death. He grabbed everyone's attention in the Tamil film industry as the villain in the movie Gemini (2002), which featured Vikram in the lead role. He acted in more than 30 Tamil films along with numerous Kannada and Telugu films. His last Tamil film is Pudhusa Naan Poranthen released in 2016. Along with his acting career, Mani established a parallel industry of Nadan Pattu (folk songs), by selling a record number of releases. His first music album was Kannimanga Prayathil. Most of his songs were written and composed by Arumugan Venkidangu. He also released several religious songs and Mappila Pattukal.