Actor, Kathaprasangam artiste, and parody singer V.D. Rajappan is no more. He was 69.
Rajappan who took a lonely path of presenting parodied versions of popular songs in his comedy-based Kathaprasangam recitals at a time when veterans of the art form were presenting classics, soon became the reigning star of the stage shows of the 1970s and 1980s.
Backed by the fame bestowed on him by the stage, Rajappan also entered the tinsel world and has acted in over a hundred movies.
The veteran of the parodies found himself being pushed out of the market with the arrival of the new brigade who were supported by new technologies and media and more professionalism. For the past four years, he was confined to his house, following failing health.
Rajappan had a humble beginning and had no formal training in any of the art forms he practised. Like Kalabhavan Mani, who met with a tragic end recently, Rajappan too was trained by the harshest of the masters, hunger. As a young boy, his parodies were liked by the patrons of a local teashop and he would get half a glass of black coffee in return, for singing a parody song, he once said.
The first ‘stage programme’ was years later when he was allowed to present a parody Kathaprasangam at Thirunakkara Mahadevar Temple during a festival when there was an inordinate delay in the presentation of the day’s dance programme. His body will be cremated in his house compound at Peroor, near here. Rajappan leaves behind his wife and two sons.
