How Pavanayi, Malayalam cinema's cult killer, sprang from Kasaragod's Ravaneshwaram
Years later, while writing Nadodikattu and searching for a backstory for the villain, Sreenivasan remembered Ravaneshwaram.
Years later, while writing Nadodikattu and searching for a backstory for the villain, Sreenivasan remembered Ravaneshwaram.
Years later, while writing Nadodikattu and searching for a backstory for the villain, Sreenivasan remembered Ravaneshwaram.
Kasaragod: In 'Avihitham', a black comedy released in 2025, award-winning director Senna Hegde paid homage to Sreenivasan's craft by planting a sly visual tribute, a 'Pavanayi Flour Mill' in Ravaneshwaram, Kanhangad, 671315.
The 'professional killer' Pavanayi, played by Captain Raju, was immortalised in Sreenivasan's Nadodikattu (1987), ironically at the moment of his death, when Thilakan’s Ananthan Nambiar delivers the line that refuses to age: "Angane Pavanayi shavamaayi"- 'And thus, Pavanayi perished'.
But how was Pavanayi born, and how did Sreenivasan chance upon Ravaneshwaram, a back-of-beyond village named after Ravana, home to a Ravana temple, and a place that also witnessed communist struggles against feudal landlords hoarding paddy in the 1940s?
In 'Nadodikattu', Thilakan's character Ananthan Nambiar asks Pavanayi this same question. "Up north. There is a place called Ravaneshwaram near Kanhangad. When I was very small, I left my village and reached Bombay," Pavanayi replies.
Sreenivasan later revealed the real story behind the name in an interview with a private television channel.
While studying at Pazhassi Raja NSS College, Mattannur, Sreenivasan struck up a close friendship with Ravi Kodoth, a native of Ravaneshwaram. Ravi was an artist and actor. After college, and before entering cinema, Sreenivasan came to Kanhangad in search of his classmate. All he remembered then was Ravi's hometown; he did not know the way to his house.
Ravaneshwaram, at the time, had sparse transport links. Even today, buses are few and far between. Sreenivasan reached Chalingal from Kanhangad and walked the rest of the way. It was the first time he had seen a landscape made up almost entirely of cashew plantations. He stayed with Ravi for three or four days.
Years later, while writing Nadodikattu and searching for a backstory for the villain, Sreenivasan remembered Ravaneshwaram. As a quiet nod to his friend Ravi Kodoth, he made it Pavanayi's hometown.
"So how did a man from Kanhangad end up with a name like Pavanayi," Ananthan Nambiar asks the villain. "My real name is PV Narayanan. But that didn't sound right for a professional killer. So I changed it to Pavanayi."
That is how Pavanayi and Ravaneshwaram entered Malayalam popular culture through 'Nadodikattu'. The role gave Captain Raju a breakthrough. He passed away in 2018.