Biography

Puthiyara Maliyekal Taj,(1956 January 03) popularly known as P.M Taj , was a born theater artiste: within his short span of life Taj made a mark as a creative writer, actor, and director bringing a fresh whiff of air to the malayalam stage. Those familiar with the cultural scene of the city of Kozhikode in the post emergency era would always remember Taj. His lean,hungry-looking frame, his mocking eyes, his eternal friendship. those were tumultuous days and his a generation which faced a blank future.

He wrote about 30 plays during this one and a half decades, and won laurels including the sakthi awrd in memory of the great progressive writer cherukad, and the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akadami award twice.

His best Plays includes :

• 'Kudukka Athava Vishakkunnavante Vedantam
• Kanallattom
• Ravvunni
• Pavathan Nadu
• Perumpara
• Mary Lawrence
• Thalasthanathuninn Oru Vaarthayumilla
• Kurukan Kunjaammante Vaal
• Perumkallan
• Priyapetta Avivahidhan
• Chakram
• Aalmarattam
• Ambalakaalla
• Uthram Thirunallinte Kalpana Pole
• Ennum Ennum Priyapetta Amma
• Agrahaaram

Films :

• Uyarum Njan Nadake (1985)
• Atham Chitira Chothy (1986)
• Kurukkan Rajavayi (1987)
• P.C. 369 (1987)
• Njan Piranna Nattil (1985)
• Bali (1991)

He came to the world of theatre when the traditional images and folklore had started influencing the Malayalam Stage, but many of them carying a message of return to the roots. And the myths and folklore did have their great influence on Taj also, but he used them to bring home a different message, a positive one. Some of his charactors like Ravunni, a developed a philosophy of being indebted in a country hypothecated to some foreign powers, are part of a modern follore, a sad and bitter commentary on the world we live in.

Taj was progressive to the core, and he never refrained from an open declaration of his leftist political learnings but unlikemany others progressive writers, his greatest virtue, perhaps, lay in the fact tht he never assumed the role of preacher, and he himself was a seeker.

P.M Taj, who died at the age of 34 on july 29 in Kozhikode, and his father P.M Alikoya, mother K.T Asiya(sister of K.T Muhammed) wife Bichu and his two son's - Sonal and Vishal.