KOCHI: Hundreds of people including prominent figures from the state’s political and cultural spheres gathered at the Town Hall to pay last respects to M K Sanoo in Kochi on Sunday. The celebrated critic had passed away on Saturday aged 97.
The mourners described him as Malayalam’s “private pride” and as a person who could speak on any topic under the sun, reflecting his widespread impact. The consensus was that his presence enriched literary functions and cultural events and that gatherings would never be the same without him.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan, and Ministers M B Rajesh, V N Vasavan, P Rajeeve, and R Bindu paid homage to ‘Sanoo Mash’, as he was affectionately called, at the Town Hall.
Mayor M Anilkumar, MPs Hibi Eden and K C Venugopal, MLAs T J Vinod and K J Maxy, Ernakulam Collector N S K Umesh, writer Sunil P Ilayidom, political leaders M V Govindan, M A Baby, M Swaraj, Vaikom Viswam, C N Mohanan, A Satheesh, Gopi Kottamurikkal, V M Sudheeran, A N Radhakrishnan, Jose Thettayil, bureaucrat Muhammed Haneesh, actors Devan, Siddique, and Renji Panicker, District Police Chief Putta Vimaladithya, Gokulam Gopalan, Sreedharan Pillai, and Varapuzha Archbishop Joseph Kalathiparampil were among those who paid their last respects.
“It is an irreplaceable loss,” CPM state secretary Govindan said. “People like Sanoo Mash are born, maybe, once in a century. We were lucky to have him with us and will have to wait for an eternity to get another stellar personality like him,”
He recalled meeting Sanoo for the first time when he had come for a conference associated with the AISF. “He welcomed everyone with open arms. He was a person who studied, imbibed, and practised the teachings of Sree Narayana Guru,” Govindan added.
Satheesan remembered Sanoo as a teacher revered by every student in Kochi. “That was so till his death. He was a teacher who showered all of us with love. For me, he was the number one orator in Malayalam. I have heard no other oration that can be considered better than his,” the Congress leader said.
He said Sanoo spoke calmly without histrionics but with authority. “His speeches were infused with knowledge that he gleaned from the vast number of books he had read,” Satheesan said.
CPM general secretary Baby spoke about how he first met Sanoo during an elocution competition at St Joseph’s College, Devagiri. “There would be no one in the Malayalam literary scene who hasn’t become a student of Sanoo Mash in their hearts,” he said.
In Sanoo Mash’s death, Kerala, especially Kochi, has lost a person who had been a big part of the socio-cultural scene, said actor-screenwriter Renji Panicker. “As a writer and critic, he had been trying to refine Malayalis’ sentimentality. He had the ability to shake the thought process of his listeners,” he said. When the mortal remains of Sanoo Mash was consigned to flames at the Ravipuram crematorium, Kochiites also bade goodbye to a person who played a huge part in improving life in the city through his work as a member of the Justice V R Krishna Iyer Movement.