‘Sowcar’ Janaki had a memorable role in Malayalam in Soorya Manasam

Veteran actor Sankaramanchi Janaki, aka ‘Sowcar’ Janaki, who passed away at a private hospital in Chennai on Friday at the age of 94, was active mostly in Tamil and Telugu films, but one of her rare forays into Malayalam cinema was a memorable one. In Soorya Manasam (1992), she played Mariya, the loving mother of Putturumees, an intellectually challenged man played by Mammootty.

Even as Urumees bears the brunt of the ridicule of those around him, Mariya is one of the few who understands him fully. Janaki was able to convincingly portray the mental strength of that character. Janaki, who got the screen name ‘Sowcar’ from her debut Telugu film Shavukaru (1950), has played a wide variety of characters in a long career that spanned all the way till 2023, with short hiatuses in between. She was conferred the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2022 at New Delhi.