Vinduja Menon is a former Malayalam cine actress and dancer from Kerala. She was active in Malayalam movies during 1985-1999. She is now more active in teaching and performing classical dance.
Vinduja was born in Trivandrum to K.P. Vishwanathan Menon and Kalamandalam Vimala Menon. Vinduja’s mother, Kalamandalam Vimala Menon is a renowned dancer and Mohiniyattam exponent. As a child, Vinduja got training in Indian classical dance from her mother and also received training in classical music. She participated in dance competitions right from her school days and won many prizes for both dance and music. She was “Kalathilakam” in Kerala State school youth festival in 1991 and the first artist from Trivandrum to have this honor. She studied at NSS college for Women at Karaman, Trivandrum. Dance continued to be passion and priority for Vinduja till now.
Vinduja entered Malayalam film field as a child artist in Priyadarshan’s movie Onnanam Kunnil Oradi Kunnil, in which Mohanlal and Shankar played the lead roles, in 1985. Following this she did supporting roles in Padmarajan’s Nombarathi Poovu (1987) and Njan Gandharvan (1991). In 1994 she played the role of Mohanlal’s sister in two movies, Pingami and Pavithram, directed by Sathyan Anthikkad and TK Rajeev Kumar. Her role in Pavithram as Meenakshi, sister 30 year younger to Unnikrishnan (Mohanlal), is the most recognized of all the roles that Vinduja played in her career. She was heroine in movies Bheeshmaachaarya (1994) and Kanchanam (1996) opposite to Manoj K Jayan. Vinduja’s last movie was Devadasi in 1999.
After her career in films Vinduja started doing TV serials starting with Sthree in Asianet since 1998. She played a notable character in that serial alongside
Vinaya Prasad
. Vinduja was also a part of Vayalar Madhavan Kutty’s celebrated serial, Jwalayayi which was produced by Megastar Mammootty and broadcasted in Doordarshan Malayalam in 2000-2002 over 500 episodes. Her latest serial was in Kathayariyathe which was broadcasted in Surya TV and concluded in February 2014. Vinduja played a mature role of a Thresya, the protagonist. She has also done other serials like Sneham and Ishtamaayi on Asianet and Sassneham in Amrita TV.
Apart from being an actress and dancer Vinduja has done some play back singing, like the female version of the song Kaavum Kovilakavum ,from the movie Aabharanachaarthu (2002), written by Bichu Thirumalai and music by MG Radhakrishnan and Kamalappoovu Neeyalle from Raajamudra (2008), a dubbed Telugu movie starring Rishi and Gopika. Vinduja was also appeared as celebrity judge in kids reality show, Munch Star Singer Junior, on Asianet and as main judge and groomer in the dance reality show,
Dance Party
, on Kairali TV.
In personal life, Vinduja is married to Mr.
Rajesh Kumar
and the couple has one daughter, Neha. At present Vinduja and her family are settled in Malaysia, where she is running a dance school for young aspirants. Vinduja is also a part-time teacher in her mother’s dance school, Kerala Natya Academy,at Thiruvanathapuram. Vinduja is now fully concentrating on her dance shows, for which she travels to India and other parts of the world.