Theatre of the absurd The grossly apocryphal reportage on the death of actor Anil P Nedumangad once again revealed the deep chasm that exists between cinema and other art forms and the undue hegemony it maintains over them. A few roles that Anil portrayed impressively in films were enough to bracket him as a ‘promising’ actor, which in cinema lingo is an artful term for an ‘upstart’ talent. What followed his untimely death in the glimmering green waters of Malankara Dam on Christmas Day was a deluge of reportage that not just lifted him out of the wavy, vile waters of the mundane world, but placed him up above the cycloramic sky, among the diminutive stars who suddenly lost their shimmering lights.