Veteran Malayalam actor Mamukkoya suffered a heart attack on Monday, April 24. He was taken to the Nims Hospital in Wandoor of Malappuram district from where he was referred to the Meitra Hospital in Kozhikode. He is in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital where his condition is said to be stable.
"He is in sedation and has not regained consciousness since yesterday. But the doctors say that his condition is stable. This is the second time he has had an attack," his son-in-law Zakeer Hussain said.
Mamukkoya was in Malappuram to inaugurate a Sevens Football tournament when he collapsed. An employee of Nims Hospital said that his condition had become stable before he was shifted to Meitra, where he was earlier undergoing treatment for his heart.
Mamukkoya has been in the industry for decades, making a name for himself as an actor who could pull off comedy and serious characters with equal ease. He is known for his strong Malabar dialect and many memorable characters like in the films Ramji Rao Speaking (as the man chasing 'Ramarshna' for the money he owes him), Vadakkunokki Yanthram (for the scene where he shows Sreenivasan how to smile for the camera), Thalayanamanthram (as the man frustrated of teaching his superior officer to drive) and most famously for Nadodikkaattu where he played the infamous Gaffurkka, tricking two young men who wanted to go to the 'Gulf' by dropping them off on the shores of Chennai (then Madras).
Mamukkoya is also one of the few actors of the old generation who regularly found a place for himself in new wave cinema. He was part of movies like Ustad Hotel, Minnal Murali and Godha. He has acted in a few Tamil films, including the Vikram starrer Cobra, and in a French film called Flammen in Paradies. Two memoirs of Mamukoya have also come out, in which the first person accounts of the actor were written by Thaha Madayi after detailed interviews.