Santha Devi

One more loss to the Malayalam Film Industry in 2010. Santha Devi, National Award winning Malayalam Actress of yesteryear passed away uncared on 20th November 2010 at Kozhikode. Her last days were full of misery and pain and for sometime she was in the care of an old age home.

Santha Devi at Old Age Home

Her son Sathyajith was an award winning child artiste in M.T. and P.N.Menon's film "Kuttiyedathi". Sathyajith acted in my first film 'VIDYARTHIKALEY ITHILE ITHILE' (1971) directed by John Abraham and Santha Devi who had accompanied him had also acted in that film. At times her husband Kozhikode Abdul Khadar used to come to Madras where most of the shooting was done. In those days we had a flat at Madras Mahalingapuram, as our office cum residence where John, Script writer M. Azad, Sound Engineer Devadas and myself used to stay during the shooting. Santha Devi's family were also accommodated in one of the rooms, when they came to Madras for the shooting.

She had acted in many of my films and in most of the films which had Kozhikode as their location. Finally time took its toll and the roles became lesser and lesser and the tragic death of Sathyajith also affected her much. As usual on her death a lot of "honour" was given by the Government and Film Industry organizations but while living no one bothered to help her in her time of need.

May her Soul Rest in Peace at last.