Time To Meet The ‘Cool Dad’ Of Malayalam Cinema
- 23 Jun 2017
- Sunaya
- Features
No one does ‘cool dad’ better than he does!
We all know Renji Panicker. He’s the coolest dad ever, at least from what we’ve seen from his movies. WtzupKochi thought it would be a good idea to get in touch with him to see if he really is the cool dad he portrays so beautifully through his movies.. Renji Panicker is a journalist by profession who made his debut as a scriptwriter in the Malayalam film industry with his movie Dr Pasupathy in 1990. His directorial debut in the industry was with Bharathchandran IPS in 2005. Before his first full fledged movie,Om Shanti Oshana, he had appeared in cameos in several movies. He was the ultimate chill dad in the movie. One that never said no to his daughter, and one that was always forward in the way he thinks and behaves. He didn’t bother that his only child was a girl, because he never felt the need to restrict her in anything she wanted to do. We noticed a pattern in most of his movies. He seemed to play the role of a ‘father’ quite fabulously. Here’s what we found out!
You’ve played the role of a father in Om Shanti Oshana, Premam, Jacobinte Swargarajyam and recently, in Godha. How does it feel?
Though they’re all roles of a father, they’re all very different from each other. In OSO, I played a very mellow character, one that doesn’t raise his voice. In Premam, I was the aggressively liberal dad who stood by his son through his pranks. In Godha, I was the dad who took life too seriously, and went about life without so much as a smile, but the one scene where I advice Tovino on love is when the father-son bond actually came on screen. It was in Jacobinte Swargarajyam that I played the role of a father that everyone can possibly relate to. Anyway, the general feedback that I get now from young kids, especially girls, is that I am like a father figure to them, and that they relate to me easily. I’ve even had girls come up to me and say they wish their dad was like me.
Out of the four movies that I’ve mentioned, three of them were with Nivin Pauly, How would you describe your relationship with him.
The relation Nivin and I share is like father and son in real life, too. I even call him ‘mone’. We get along comfortably. The chemistry between us was very evident in Jacobinte Swargarajyam, and we’re like the ideal father-son duo!
You married your then girlfriend from college. How would you describe your love?
Aneeta and I were classmates from college, where I did my PG. I’d describe my love as a campus romance, but one that was realistic and not composed of fairy tales. I got married during my PG.
How would you describe your relationship with your father? How would you describe him in on of your own characters? Are you the same to your sons?
Oh, he was a teacher, and then a headmaster. Actually, both my parents were teachers, but my dad was the one that everyone was scared of. My dad was a very strict father, but also liberal, much more than I ever could be. I had immense freedom to do whatever I wanted to do. I’ve even borrowed smokes from my own father. That’s how cool he was. If I had to link him to any one of my roles, I would say he was the typical dad in Premam. Also, maybe a bit of OSO. I married Aneeta right out of college, and I approached him afterwards, to which he just asked why I felt the need to hide things from him, instead of just going to him in the first place, not like he was going to say or do anything against me or her. To my sons, I’ve tried to be what my father was to me, and I think I have succeeded. Though I don’t come anywhere near what my father was to me and my brothers, I think I’ve done a pretty decent job with my sons.
How would you describe your transition from script writer to actor?
Turning into an actor from a scriptwriter was the most unexpected twist, I would say. I never really had any plans of becoming an actor. If I did, I would have at least written a few roles for myself. But I must say the transition from script writer to an actor has been comfortable. I was not into writing full-time anyway. From 2001 to 2012, I’d only written three movies.
Being the cool dad in the industry, any advice you’d want to give to fathers?
Yes, there’s only one thing I want to tell them. Their lives are completely different from their child’s. In no way should they try to control them and impose things on them. Let them live their own life. You’re here to guide them, not to control them. Have some faith in them and know they will come to you if they’re in need. Don’t live their life for them. Let them live their life the way they want to.
Text:Devika V Menon Photos: Various Sources Featured image source
