At 87, V.K. Kanchana won her first Kerala State Film Award for Best Supporting Actress this year.
This was for her performance in the pivotal role of a grandmother in Malayalam film, Ola Peepi. The film marked Kanchana’s return to acting after fifty years.
At an age when most grandmothers put up their feet and relax, Kanchana is doing what she enjoyed in the past. Kanchana has acted with the likes of Sharada, Padmini, Ragini, Prem Nazir and Satyan.
Look out for her in C/O Saira Banu. She plays a Tamilian Brahmin who much to the annoyance of her son, eats egg omelette.
Over the phone from Kerala where she lives with her son Premlal, Kanchana talks clearly despite her age. She remembers well the time when she stepped onto the stage as an eighteen-year-old member of the Marxist Party of India. She met her husband, Kundara Bhasi, also a party worker there. Drama plays led to cinema. Kanchana quit after her last film, Inapraavugal in 1965 where she played Sarada’s sister.
Ola Peepi marked her return to films.
Her upcoming film is Cross Road, an anthology of ten films made by ten directors and consists of stories celebrating womanhood.
Clearly, there is no stopping this grandmum.