Innocent, a well-known Malayalam cinema actor and former Lok Sabha Member, died on Sunday after being hospitalised earlier this month. He was 75 years old at the time.
“He was infected with Covid and had respiratory difficulties as well as multiple organ failure resulting in heart failure,” the hospital stated in a statement, according to news agency PTI.
According to the hospital, the actor was on cardiopulmonary support, which involves a machine pumping and oxygenating a patient’s blood outside the body.
In 2012, Innocent was diagnosed with cancer. Three years later, he revealed that he had beaten cancer and wrote about his experience in his book “Laughter in the Cancer Ward.”
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan mourned the former Lok Sabha MP’s death. “Innocent captured the hearts of people with his unique style of acting and as a public figure he touched the lives of people, taking up their issues,” Mr Vijayan said.
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also condoled Innocent’s death and said that he was a brilliantly inventive and gifted actor.
“Mourning the loss of character actor, comedian & one-time Kerala MP Innocent, who has just passed away at age 75. Aside from being a brilliantly inventive and gifted actor, he was a fine human being whom it was a pleasure to interact with in the Lok Sabha. RIP. Om Shanti,” Mr Tharoor said on Twitter.
Innocent- Actor of his own Kind
Innocent Vareed Thekkethala was born on February 28, 1948, in Irinjalakuda, then a small village near Thrissur, as the fifth child of his parents, who had eight children. His childhood was not memorable. He only completed the eighth grade because he found studying tough to manage.
Later, as a Revolutionary Socialist Party-backed candidate, he ran for and won the Irinjalakuda city council elections in 1979. He is also the author of five books, including ‘Njan Innocent’ and ‘Cancer Wardile Chiri’ (Laughter in the Cancer Ward), in which he recounts his experiences with throat cancer therapy.
From 1985 to the late 1990s, Innocent, who forged his own style, peaked as an actor, playing a string of roles as a comic, character roles, and even a few villain roles for filmmakers such as Priyadarshan, Sathyan Anthikkad, Fazil, and Kamal. His roles in blockbuster films such as Kilukkam (Priyadarshan, 1991), ‘Azhakiya Ravanan’ (Kamal, 1996), ‘Ramji Rao Speaking’ (Siddique-Lal, 1989), ‘Nadodikkattu’ (Sathyan Anthikad, 1987), and ‘Devaasuram’ (I V Sasi, 1993) are still remembered decades after.
But, his breakthrough came in the 1989 film ‘Mazhavil Kavadi,’ directed by Sathyan Anthikad, for a serious character as ‘Kalarickel Kizhamkamthudiyil Shankarankutty Menon,’ in a full-fledged role opposite the film’s star Jayaram.
