![achuvinte amma achuvinte amma](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QbpIDJaNwYY/S-XKA5SKAaI/AAAAAAAAAi4/91-GRDp5KKU/s1600/image015-1.jpg)
Ironically, Lalitha returned to this role-that of the daughter-in-law with a truant husband coming to natal taravad for help-throughout her long career. Throughout the film, the couple keep pestering the karanavar (the joint family head) for help. She made her debut with Koottukudumbam (Joint Family/1969) by KS Sethumadhavan playing a small but significant role-that of a married daughter from a joint family, whose husband is a rustic farmer, always in need of money. And throughout her life, Lalitha wore the suffix ‘KPAC’ very proudly, like a badge of honour. Her passion for theatre, the thrill and inspiration from acting on stage in front of a huge gathering, often politically mobilised, the long journeys with the drama troupe to perform in different parts of India-all these experiences were to influence her deeply, both as an individual artist who knows her audience, and as a team person who could easily vibe with co-performers. Her mentors and peers in theatre like the playwright Thoppil Bhasi and co-actor KP Ummer were already popular in cinema. It was also the time when many of the gifted theatre artists-scenarists, lyricists, singers and actors-were migrating to the tinsel world. It was by the end of 1960’s that Lalitha entered movies. During her stint at KPAC, Lalitha was also an active in the communist party and was one of the State Joint Secretaries of the party’s women’s wing. KPAC was formed in 1950 along the lines of IPTA, to propagate and mobilise popular support for communist ideology, and it was through their songs and plays like Ningalenne Communstakki (You Turned me into a Communist) and Mooladhanam (Capital) that revolutionary ideas were propagated and popularised among the masses. Starting her career in her teens as a stage actress, she soon became member of the prestigious KPAC troupe (Kerala People’s Arts Club), which was one of the most popular theatre groups in Kerala. But throughout her life, Lalitha found refuge, exhilaration and freedom in acting, both in theatre and cinema she took to acting like fish to water. Her personal life was an endless struggle-to make both ends meet in the beginning and then later, a story of coping with the vertiginous ups and downs in the creative life of her husband Bharathan, an extremely talented artist and director who died in 1998 at the peak of his career. She had to fight endless battles within and without. In an acting career of more than half a century and over 500 films that spans three generations of artists and directors, she had carved a niche for herself both in entertainment industry and in public mind.Īs she recounts painstakingly in her autobiography- Katha Thudarum (The Story Continues)-hers was not an easy journey through life or art. For she had built up such an ubiquitous, warm and neighbourly presence through her performances in plays, films and later, television serials. When KPAC Lalitha finally succumbed to her ailments on 22 February, every Malayalee felt as if they have lost an elder sister or aunt, an intimate friend or relative.