With the demise of actor Nedumudi Venu, veteran filmmaker Fazil has lost a former college mate who has been his friend for 53 years. Venu had last phoned Fazil, just hours before the former went to the hospital, feeling unwell.
Fazil had received a phone call from Venu at around 8 am. Venu said that he was calling just to talk as they hadn’t spoken in a long time. Fazil says that Venu had called him just before going to the hospital. The filmmaker added that he soon got the news that Venu was in a serious condition. At night, Nedumudi Venu’s son Unni called Fazil and told him that the actor’s condition was extremely serious.
“Venu’s demise is a personal loss for me. Apart from a National Award, Venu has achieved everything in cinema. He shined as an actor in the generation that had amazing actors like Sukumaran, Soman and Ratheesh. He then delivered great performances alongside Mammootty and Mohnalal. Venu had also acted with the young generation of actors like Prithviraj, Kunchacko Boban and Fahadh too,” says Fazil.
“We share a friendship of over 53 years. We studied together in college; we performed mimicry together. We also acted together in plays. At one point, Venu moved to Thiruvananthapuram to concentrate in movies. Lots of filmmakers like Bharathan and Padmarajan queued up to make films with him. Meanwhile, I too became a director with Udaya – Navodaya. Nedumudi Venu is an actor who had acted alongside three generations of actors. He had done great contributions for Malayalam cinema. I had hoped that he would win National Award for his performance in Minnaminunginte Nurunguvettam. There is no other actor in Malayalam who could do the kind of roles that Venu had done when he was 35 or 36 years old. I hope that he would continue to be an artist in the other world too,” noted Fazil.
