Sangeeth Sivan, maker of super-hit Yodha, passes away in Mumbai

Sangeeth Sivan's legacy in Malayalam cinema was cemented by Yodha (1992), a film with high repeat watch value.

Some works leave a lasting impression in the entire career of a filmmaker, eclipsing everything else he or she would go on to do later in their career. For Sangeeth Sivan, who passed away at a private hospital in Mumbai on Wednesday at the age of 65, that work came quite early in his career.

Yodha (1992), his second film, would cement his name in Malayalam cinema as one of the films with the highest repeat watch value.

Despite having done quite a few films in Malayalam and also achieving reasonable commercial success with a string of masala flicks in Bollywood in the 2000s, he could never again hit the high that Yodha achieved.

Although liberally influenced from a Hollywood film (The Golden Child), like many of his other works, the film written by Sasidharan Arattuvazhi had some original humour, elevated on screen by memorable performances from Jagathy Sreekumar and Mohanlal.

Three decades after its release, their repartees from the film are still a part of everyday conversations in Kerala. Sangeeth also brought in A.R. Rahman, whose debut musical Roja was yet to release, to score a wildly successful album for the film.

Son of photographer and filmmaker Sivan (who shot the stills for Chemmeen) and Chandramani, cinema has always been a part of Sangeeth’s life.

Beginning his career assisting his father in documentaries, he was inspired by filmmaker and cinematographer Santosh Sivan, his younger brother, to shift to feature films.