The director who made such memorable films such as Abhinandana and Neerajanam in Telugu, Ashok Kumar (full name Ashok Kumar Agarwal) passed away on Wednesday in Chennai. Few Telugu film lovers can forget such lovely songs as ‘అదే నీవు, అదే నేను, అదే గీతం పాడనా’, చుక్కలాంటి అమ్మాయి, చక్కనైన అబ్బాయి’, ప్రేమ ఎంత మధురం, ప్రియురాలు అంత కఠినం’ , made immortal by Ilayaraja in Ashok Kumar’s Abhinandana. Another of his classics is Neerjanam, for which OP Nayyar composed music. Ashok Kumar started his career as cinematographer and has in over 100 feature films mainly in South Indian languages. He is a recipient of the National Film Award for Best Cinematography for Nenjathai Killathe (1980) and numerous state awards.
