Saranya Ponvannan's father and veteran Malayalam director AB Raj passes away

Veteran Malayalam director AB Raj (Raj Antony Bhaskar), who is the father of acclaimed actress Saranya Ponvannan passed away in Chennai yesterday, due to cardiac arrest. The noted director who was 95 years old had made over 70 films mostly in Malayalam and couple of Tamil films namely, Thulli Odum Pullimaan and Kai Niraya Kasu starring late veteran actor Nagesh. The veteran director AB Raj, who hails from Alappuzha, lived and studied most of his life in Tamil Nadu and has made films in the period of 1951 to 1986. He died at his daughter Saranya Ponvannan’s residence in Virugambakkam, Chennai at around 8 pm and the last rituals is said to be performed today at 3 PM.Interestinghly, he had co-directed David Lean’s famous film Bridge on the River Quay. He had also made 11 Sinhalese film when he was in Sri Lanka for 11 years. He had big commercial hits with Prem Nazir, Jayan & Mohanlal in Malayalam. Filmmakers like Hariharan, IV Sasi, P Chandrakumar, and Rajasekharan are disciples of AB Raj.