When Malayalam stage and screen artist Rajan P. Dev died in a Kochi hospital last week, the family announced he would be buried the next day at Karukutti, near Ankamali, 33 km north of the city. The body had to travel more than 120 km to reach the designated resting place.

From the hospital, the body was taken to his birthplace, Cherthala, 42 km south of Kochi, to enable residents of the town to pay their respects. It was then carried back to Kochi to lie in state at the Ernakulam Town Hall. From there, it was transported to his home at Karukutti for night halt. The last lap from there to the St Xavier's Church cemetery was the shortest.

The thespian's last journey was typical of the newly evolved Kerala practice of turning its famous sons' funerals into veritable road shows. At every halt, members of the public had the opportunity to file past the body.

Kerala's political establishment and media leadership recognised the immense potential of a VIP funeral when former chief minister and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader E.K. Nayanar died in New Delhi May 19, 2004. His body was kept at the A.K.G. Bhavan, the party's headquarters, and at the Kerala House before it was flown to Thiruvananthapuram in an air force plane.

At Thiruvananthapuram, Nayanar's body was displayed at the A.K.G. Centre, the state party office, and at the secretariat, the seat of the government. It was later taken by road to Payyambalam, near Kannur, for cremation. Such was the rush of people who turned up for a last glimpse of the leader all along the route that the 500-km-long journey took five and a half hours more than the scheduled time.

Overwhelmed by the tumultuous scenes witnessed en route, a correspondent of the party journal People's Democracy exclaimed: 'The great mass leader had become even greater after his death.'

Nayanar's was the first VIP funeral since the dawn of the age of satellite television. The first private Malayalam channel, Asianet, was in operation when Kerala's - and the country's first - Communist chief minister E.M.S. Namboodiripad died in 1998. As mourners poured into his Thiruvananthapuram residence, the channel set up a camera there and started relaying the proceedings. However, in the absence of facilities for uplinking from Indian soil, the live transmission over the cable system could be seen only by viewers in the city.

By the time of Nayanar's death, the government of India had permitted uplinking of programmes directly from India. Also, there were now several competing channels. The extensive coverage they provided helped Keralites everywhere to follow the leader's last journey closely.