Actor-director Cochin Haneefa, best remembered for his character Hydrose in ‘Kireedom’, passes away.
Hydrose, the funny goon who struts with a knife in hand and utters loud and empty threats and changes sides as and when needed, taking care to be always on the safer side- who’d forget this character played by Cochin Haneefa in ‘Kireedom’, a film that’s among the all time favourites of film lovers in Kerala?
It’s indeed sad to think that the actor who had given life to Hydrose and many such funny characters, emoting with ease and delivering dialogues in his characteristic style (mimicked so often on the stage) is no more. My early memories of the actor, like many others of my generation, happen to be of the many negative characters that he played in so many films. Little did I know that the guy would metamorphose into one of the most loved of comedians in Malayalam (Another actor who underwent such a surprising kind of transformation of course is Janardhanan). I didn’t know either that Cochin Haneefa was a scenarist and a director.
Anyhow the man who played the funny Mahout in ‘Narendran Makan Jayakantan Vaka’, Eldo in ‘Mannaar Mathai Speaking’, Philippose in ‘Swapnakoodu’ and those many interesting characters in films like ‘Punjabi House’, ‘Pathram’, ‘Dubai’ etc is no more. The man who directed films like ‘Valsalyam’, ‘Veenameettiya Vilangukal’, ‘Bheeshmacharya’, ‘Oru Sandesham Koodi’, ‘Oru Sindoorapottinte Ormaykku’ etc breathed his last yesterday at a hospital in Chennai, the city that earned him many friends, both in the film industry and out of it.
Lots will be said about Cochin Haneefa today and for the next few days in the very same papers and TV channels that dared to ‘kill’ him a few hours before the end actually happened. So, instead of dwelling on his biographical details and his evolution as an artist, I’d prefer to remember him and his many characters along with you all and bid a silent adieu.
Adieu Hydrose!! Yes, you remain, forever our favourite Hydrose. Can’t say about the new generation, but my generation will continue to remember you for those umpteen funny characters that you have left behind.
