How can any Malayali forget that mischievous smile, one that made every girl of his time fall in love with him? Abdul Khader aka Prem Nazir was the heartthrob of Malayalam film industry since 1950’s. The late actor’s 90th birthday was celebrated recently and to coincide with it, a huge fan of him had organised a photo exhibition in Kozhikode named ‘Nithyaharitham 2017’ exhibiting 90 photographs.
Rajan Thadaayil had single-handedly collected Prem Nazir’s pictures with his heroines from different magazines. “It was my dream to conduct such an exhibition. After all these years, there are no memorials or any trust formed for Nazir. We are planning to form a trust in his name. We have talked to Prem Nazir’s daughter Laila and her husband and they have shown a great interest in setting it up,” Rajan says. The exhibition was conducted for three days at Kozhikode Lalithakala Academy Art Gallery.
“He was a person who had a secularist attitude and led a humble life,” reminisced renowned writer K.P Sudheera after inaugurating the exhibition. He also narrated an incident: “There was a close friend of Nazir named Muthayya. He was an Alzheimer’s patient and there was nobody to take care of him. It was Prem Nazir who supported him even though he was a total stranger. At the time of Nazir’s death, he cried his heart out. Memory loss gave way to love.”
