KOCHI: He broke onto the silver screen with his wicked looks, thuggish gestures and gruff voice. A career spanning more than 30 years and 150 films certified him as a perfect popcorn villain. But Rajan P Dev was more than that. While his stardom and reel life started with Indrajalam, playing the bad man par excellence, in the years to come he broke free from the web of that image surprising his viewers with his range and flair.
From inane caricatures to diabolic villains he carried every character he played with ease and élan. Corrupt police officer, greedy minister, master of intrigues - there has been repetition, but in no frame did he appear out of place or deliver a poor performance.
He never trod a singledimensional route as he could alter and diversify his style when required.
He rendered his comic best in a number of films ranging from Chettan Bava Aniyan Bava to Thommanum Makkalum.
He played oracle and feudal serf, don and patriarch, moron and drunkard, not to forget the countless fathers, good and bad, he played on screen. Many of his villains chilled our blood with their baneful animosity as he could easily manage it with the long years he spent on stage. He had thunderous entries and gimmicks in his films and possessed the savage beauty of a wild horse like his character Kochu Vava in Kattukutira, a landmark play in Kerala theatre.
Though he played the vengeful hero to perfection, he was replaced with Thilakan when the play was made into a film, marking his major professional letdown.
Though he belonged to the brigade of theatre artists who later became an inevitable presence in Malayalam film industry like KPAC Lalitha and Thilakan, he always suffered a shortage of potent screen space he duly deserved.
Dev and Thilakan are the only villains on Malayalam cinema who could play the essential knave with mere sound and expression without resorting to any other paraphernalia, not even body language. Dev is an actor who was quite brilliant in a range of roles and performances on celluloid.
But he was and will be remembered as a pure performer on stage.
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