​Malayalam cinema's Amma passes away

KOCHI: Sukumari, the benign maternal face of Mollywood, died at a Chennai hospital on Tuesday evening. The 73-year-old actor succumbed to multi-organ failure, resulting from 35% burns she sustained in an accident at the pooja room of her T-Nagar home three weeks ago.
Her condition worsened on Tuesday after a massive heart attack. She is survived by her son Suresh Bhim Singh.
Sukumari, a Padmashree, leaves behind many memorable characters in a career spanning more than six decades. She has acted in about 2,000 movies in different languages and more than 5,000 plays in Tamil and Malayalam. She acted with successive generations of actors in Malayalam and Tamil. Four of her colleagues - NTR, MGR, Janaki Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa - became chief ministers.
Sukumari made her debut at the age of 10 through 'Oru Iravu'. She never let go this freshness, hopping from sets to sets to the last one - 3G- that was filmed here.
Sukumari had suffered extensive burns but was normal in the first week. Eventually burns affected her kidneys, leading to failure of internal organs. Her body will be kept for public homage at her Chennai residence before cremation at 4.30pm on Wednesday.