Malayalam cinema’s ‘youngest’ hero turns 90

From acting in Hollywood films to running a successful seafood business, the nonagenarian continues his association with films

When Thomas Burleigh Kurishingal starred, as hero, in 1953, in the popular Malayalam film Thiramala (The Waves), the 21-year-old was perhaps one of the youngest heroes in Malayalam films of the time. Today, as he turns 90, on September 1, he is busy penning scripts for films and finishing a novel.

In the seven decades after his first film, Thomas went on to study theatre and film at the University of California and acted in several Hollywood films. His 14 years stay in America saw him play roles of “mainly Mexicans”, in Hollywood serials like Gun Smoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Wanted Dead or Alive and such. He also did character roles in feature films like The Old Man and the Sea and Never So Few (1959). He acted along with stalwarts like Frank Sinatra and Spencer Tracy.

Though he continued to dabble in films, on return, he also set up one of Kerala’s earliest seafood companies, A to Z Foods, and went on to establish a successful seafood trade with the US.

“Art has been at the core of all my activities,” says Thomas looking back at his voluminous output of art and literature. A cartoonist in his own right, (he drew for The Current Magazine and The Chatterbox, the inhouse University magazine in California), an artist, a writer, a theatre actor and a magician, Thomas has worn all hats, he says.  

Thomas produced two feature films, a comedy Vellirakka Pattanam and a serious film, Idhu Manushayan in the late 70s. early 80s. “We were making two types of films, tragedy for the people of Kottayam and Trivandrum and comedy for Malabar,” he says with a laugh, adding that songs were important for a film and that he had 12 songs in his film.

His recently published books are The Sacred Savage, The Inverted Man and his yet-to-be-published novel about a lonely Dutch lady in Fort Kochi.

“Writing is fulfilment for me. At 90, I feel just as good as I was at the age of 20,” says Thomas relaxing on a cane chair on the verandah of his home in Fort Kochi, with butterflies flitting in the flower bushes around him.