Sankaradi

Chandrasekhara Menon, better known by his stage name Sankaradi (Malayalam: ശങ്കരാടി; 1924–2001), was an Indian actor. He was a veteran Malayalam comedian and character artiste, who had over 700 Malayalam films to his credit. He was one of the first realistic actors in South Indian cinema. He dominated the Malayalam film scene in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s as comedian along with Adoor Bhasi and Bahadur. Later, he switched to character roles.

Early life

Sankaradi passed intermediate from Maharajas College, Ernakulam. Before entering films, Sankaradi briefly dabbled in politics, journalism and theatre. He had earlier joined the Indian National Congress, but later became a cardholder of the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI). However, he returned his party card after the CPI split in 1964 and turned to theatre. Sankaradi joined the trade union movement at Baroda Railways while he was studying Marine engineering at Baroda. He abandoned his studies to pursue job as a journalist in The Literary Review a newspaper from Mumbai.