KOCHI: Maverick orator, public commentator and critic, Sukumar Azhikode was loved for his oratory and writings and hated for the controversies he created. He produced ripples in the literary, political and cultural spheres, but triggered controversies with poet Balachandran Chullikad and Mohanlal. The brawl between Mohanlal and Azhikode started when the latter hit out at the actor saying that he had become old and should limit himself to the roles matching his age and figure. Mohanlal’s appearing in an advertisement for a popular jewellery brand showed that he was looking for money, he commented. Mohanlal returned the compliment saying that Azhikode must be having a ‘hallucination’ and that he considered Azhikode’s statements as an ‘aged uncle’s joke.’ Whether he should stop acting was not a matter for Azhikode to decide, Lal said.Soon after, Azhikode filed a defamation case against the actor asking him to either apologise or face legal action. But the controversy ended after Azhikode agreed to withdraw the litigation against Mohanlal.Azhikode landed in a controversy with the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) and its president Innocent. The tussle was on the Thilakan issue. Azhikode tried to don the role of a mediator when AMMA banned Thilakan, but Innocent said that the issue was entirely an internal matter of the Malayalam film industry and that Azhikode, who was not one of them, had no say in it. He also advised Azhikode to settle down in life, chant ‘Ram-naam’ and watch good movies. Azhikode retaliated saying that Innocent was totally ‘innocent’ (ignorant) of anything related to film or art. Stating that Innocent was not as innocent as he seems, Azhikode said the dictionary also attributed other meanings to the word ‘innocent;’ like one who has no sense.However, the issue was also patched up in the last days of Azhikode when Innocent visited the hospital where the former was hospitalised.The real-time romantic drama witnessed in Malayalam literature was when Azhikode in his autobiography published in a Malayalam weekly disclosed that it was not owing to his mother’s objection that he had backed out of the marriage with G Vilasini whom he loved. The real reason was an anonymous letter that he had received depicting the woman as a ‘woman of loose morals’. Vilasini sent a legal notice to Azhikode asking him to withdraw his defamatory statement casting aspersions on her without naming her. Vilasini said that Azhikode, taking advantage of his position as a teacher and consequential acquaintance, sent love letters proposing marriage when she was a BEd student in 1967. After sending her around 54 letters in a year, he paid a visit to her house in Anchal in 1968 and made a formal request to her parents to give her in marriage to him. But he later backed out saying that his mother was against their marriage and, therefore, the marriage would not materialise. Deeply moved by this, she decided to remain a spinster. However, this romantic drama ended on a positive note when Vilasini paid a visit to him at the Amala Hospital where the critic was hospitalised. She said: “This is our destiny. Come with me. I will take care of you.”Azhikode also had a tiff with SNDP general secretary Vellappally Natesan after the former rejected the Padma Shri in 2007. Azhikode stated that such honours were against the Constitution. Vellappally alleged that Azhikode rejected the award because he did not get the honour he desired. Azhikode replied that it was unfortunate that the SNDP Yogam, the greatest social revolutionary movement in the state, had Vellappally at its helm. But this controversy also died down after Vellappally visited ailing Azhikode at the hospital. Vellapally regretted all the controversies that had erupted.The feud with Balachandran Chullikad occurred when Azhikode said that he did not heed the words of a drunkard. He also called Chullikad an anarchist. Chullikad retaliated by saying that he was not concerned with the words of a bachelor.
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