Veteran movie maker MO Joseph, popularly known as Manjilas Joseph, passed away at Chennai on Friday. He was 80. Malayalam movies produced by Joseph under the Manjilas banner are considered as all-time greats. Satyan, Prem Nazir, Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair, Madu and Adoor Bhasi, the Malayalam matinee idols of the 1960s and 1970s made it big through the family entertainers churned out by Manjilas.
Some of the Malayalam movies produced by Joseph have been remade in Hindi. Julie, the Vikram and lakshmi-starrer was a remake of Chattakkari, produced by Joseph. He was active in the movie industry from 1951 to 1985. Joseph had a permanent team of script writers, lyricists, cinematographers and actors working for him. Most of the 37 movies which he produced were directed by K S Sethumadhavan. “It was a great experience to work with Joseph. Those were the days when movies took shape under the watchful eyes of the producer. He was strict that nothing obscene and not ideal for family viewing should be their in the films he produced,” said writer and poet Mankombu Gopalakrishnan, who had worked with Joseph for many years.
Most of the movies produced by Joseph won national and State awards, a rare honour. He was the first producer in Malayalam, who made eminent writers like Parappuram, Malayatoor Rakmakrishnan, P Bhaskaran to pen stories for his films. Mammootti, one of the reigning stars of Malayalam movies got his first break through a film produced by Joseph.