തോപ്പില് ഭാസി
THOPPIL
BHASI AWARD-2013
Poet O N V Kurup will give away the
third Thoppil Bhasi Award to veteran journalist Thomas Jacob at a
function to be held on Sunday,8th December,2013.Foundation
president Pannian Ravindran said the award is given to Thomas Jacob as lifetime
achievement award. The award carries a cash prize of `33,333, citation and a
memento designed by Karakkamandapam Vijayakumar. O N V Kurup and
KPAC Lalitha were the recipients the first and second edition of the
award. Soorya Krishnamurthy, C Divakaran MLA will speak. Puthusseri
Ramachandran will deliver the remembrance lecture.
Thoppil Bhasi born 1924 April 8 – died 1992 December 8) was a Malayalam playright screenwriter and film
director .He was associated with the communist movement in Kerala Born Thoppil Bhaskara Pillai, on April 8, 1924
at Vallikunnam in Alleppey district, Kerala, Bhasi was the eldest son of Thoppil
Parameshwaran Pillai and Nanikkutti Amma.His elementary education was at the S.N.D.P School,His deep and endearing friendship with
Kambissery Karunakaran that extended through
all spheres of their lives, also saw them at the forefront of some of the most
significant political agitations in central Kerala. Once a staunch supporter
and activist of the Indian Congress, Thoppil Bhasi soon distanced himself from
the same on matters of principles and found his direction in the neo movement
of Communism via the Communist Party of India He was associated with the communist movements that took place in
Kerala during 1940s and 1950s. Branded a Subversive and a Wanted Man by the
government, he was on the run and went underground during the period of
1948-52, as a top priority suspect in the infamous Sooranad Incident, with a Rs 1000 bounty on his head. He
was later acquitted, and went on to contest the first Panchayat elections in Kerala. He won, becoming the first
president of the Vallikunnom panchayat. He was elected twice to the state
assembly contesting the Sate elections, from Bharanikavu in 1954 and Pathanamthitta in 1957. Thoppil Bhasi never contested any more
elections post his 1957 win, in order to devote his entire energies to this new
direction his life has set course on – theater. He had written his first
One-act play Munnettam {The Advance}while on the run from the state, and based
on the feedback received from the underground collective, had revisited,
refined and re-energised the plot from a different perspective, creating the
historical Ningalenne Communistaakki, both under his pseudonym Soman, for fear
of revealing his true identity. The drama helped KPACto become a force to reckon with on Kerala’s theatrical arena.
Later,he wrote scripts for 110 Malayalam film starting from 'Mudiyanaya Puthran' in 1961,most of them mega hits
His association with KPAC started with the staging of Ningalenne
Communistaakki, and the entire proceedings from the show were donated towards
the attorney fees needed to free the rest of accused in the Soornad Incident.He
wrote the play Ningalenne Communistakki while in hiding in connection with the Sooranad
case, which resulted from a revolt by agricultural workers against a landlord.
Bhasi had to write the play under the name, Soman. Ningalenne Communistakki was first staged (under the banner of KPAC in Chavara in Kollam district on December 6, 1952. He wrote 16 plays, for
KPAC, each more spectacular and socially relevant than its predecessor and it
used to be said in the 60′s and 70′s that there wasn’t a day where at least one
of his plays was not staged at any part of Kerala ! Such was the influence
of his creative power. From KPAC, he slowed moved to the film industry ( some
say it was a natural progression ), authoring over 100 Screenplays and turned
to directing 16 movies in Malayalam language, most of them box-office successes
Thoppil Bhasi’s wedding with Amminiamma, the niece of C
Shankaranarayanan – ex-Speaker of the Kerala Legislative Assembly was
solemnised when he was on the run, a wanted man for the government ! In a
moving tribute, aptly titled ‘My Comrade’, Amminiamma, amongst other nuggets,
shares her husband’s principle of simplicity and frugality in every aspect of
his life. She recalls Udaya studio‘s Kunchacko asking her to buy him a new
shirt as he was fed up of seeing Thoppil Bhasi in the same shirt everytime! Thoppil
seems to have famously remarked, “Chackochen, I have 8 shirts of the same color
and type, and all eight have the same ‘beedi-burn’ patch at the left side of my
breast-pocket !” He was the quintessential socialist, according to her.
Thoppil Bhasi has 4 sons – Ajayan, Soman, Rajan and Suresh, and daughter Mala .
Ajayan went on direct the award-winning Malayalam film Perumthachan in 1991.Thoppil Bhasi’s dramas, Mudiyanaya
Puthran and Puthiya Akasham, Puthiya Bhumi were awarded the Kerala Sahithya
Academy Awards, and the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy awarded him its
Fellowship in 1981. He is also the recipient of the Professor N Krishna Pillai
Award and the SovietLand Nehru AwardThoppil Bhasi was prolific in terms of his
creative output during his active years in theater and movies. He authored 16
full-length plays, screenplays for over a 100 movies, directed 16 movies and
his autobiography was titled, Oliviley Ormakal. He was a regular contributor to
the Janayugom Magazine and short stories to various publications which are yet
to be collated and archived.Thoppil Bhasi died on December 8, 1992. .
Prof. John Kurakar
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