Malayalam Filmmaker Siddique suffers heart attack, continues to be on ECMO support
Kochi, Aug 8: Noted Malayalam director and screenwriter Siddique has suffered a heart attack while undergoing treatment for various ailments at a private hospital here, hospital sources said here on Tuesday.
His condition is said to be critical, they said.
Siddique (63) suffered the heart attack on Monday as he was recovering from various ailments, including liver-related issues and pneumonia, at the hospital.
The filmmaker, who had helmed numerous super hit Malayalam movies, had been undergoing treatment at the private hospital for over a month for various ailments.
"He is in a critical condition and on ECMO (Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) support," hospital sources told PTI. ECMO provides respiratory support when a person's lungs and heart are not performing adequately.
Siddique delivered several hit movies along with his friend Lal, and the two were popularly known as 'Siddique-Lal'.
Lal has also acted in various hit films himself such as 'Thenkasipattanam', 'Thommanum Makkalum', and 'Salt and Pepper' among others.
'Siddique-Lal' movies such as 'Ramji Rao Speaking', 'In Harihar Nagar', 'Godfather', 'Vietnam Colony' and 'Kabooliwala' were massive hits.
Siddique is also the director of blockbuster movies including 'Hitler', 'Friends', 'Chronic Bachelor', and 'Bodyguard', among others.
He directed the remake of his movie 'Bodyguard' starring Salman Khan in Hindi, which also became a superhit. In Tamil, it was titled 'Kavalan' starring Vijay and did well at the box office.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
