V. T. Aravindaksha Menon

V. T. Aravindaksha Menon was an Indian actor from Kerala. Apart from performing lead roles in several plays, he has acted in 17 Malayalam films and sung two Malayalam film songs. He received the National Drama Award for acing in 1965, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for theatre from Sangeet Natak Akademi, Government of India, in 1965 and the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Fellowship for drama from Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi, Government of Kerala, in 1993.

Biography Aravindaksha Menon was born on 22 July 1921, to Kochurama Warrier and Parukutty Amma at the Thaiparambu house in Vadassery, Kodungallur in present-day Thrissur district of Kerala. He belongs to the lineage of the Kodungallur (Cranganore) royal family, from which many people in the field of art and literature were born. He participated in many musical and drama competitions during his school days and won. After completing his high school education, he studied classical music and conducted concerts.

Personal life Menon was married to L. Sarasamma, and they have two sons Jayasankar and Krishna Kumar.

Aravindaksha Menon joined Kalanilayam, one of the famous theatre companies in Kerala at that time, in 1951. His lead roles in the plays produced under Kalanilayam were the role of Kadamattathu Kathanar in the play Kadamattathu Kathanar, and the lead roles in the plays Ilayidathu Rani and Devadasi. He also played the character Duryodhana in the play Kurukshetram based on Kurukshetra War, and the title character of Pazhassi Raja in the play Pazhassiraja by Kozhikode Raja Theatres. In it, the title character Kochunni was played by Aravindaksha Menon. He received the National Drama Award for Best Actor in 1965 for this role.

Singing The film songs sung by Aravindaksha Menon are the two songs from the 1970 film Sabarimala Sree Dharmashastha, starting with "Ellam Ellam", written by P. Bhaskaran and composed by V. Dakshinamoorthy, and starting with "Tripura Sundari Natanam", written by Sreekumaran Thampi and composed by V. Dakshinamoorthy.