Hero of another era: Remembering Prathap Pothen

I wonder if actor Prathap Pothen, who passed away on Friday, would have become that popular celluloid hero that he was in his heyday if he were to make a debut today. Another memorable film of Pothen was ‘Moodupani’, again featuring Shobha as the lead actress and Balu Mahendra holding the megaphone and the camera. However, about four years prior to that classroom meeting, Pothen had floored me by essaying the role of a student in love with his female lecturer in the Malayalam film ‘Chamaram.’ The film directed by the late Bharathan created a sensation across campuses, particularly co-ed colleges where women lecturers taught men. As a responsible teacher, driving sense into the heads of a pair of adolescent lovers trying to elope from a public school, Pothen appeared in the film ‘Panneer Pushpangal,’ another beautiful love story that unfolded on the screens in those times. Another celluloid fare of that era that featured Pothen and was glowingly spoken about was ‘Nenjathi Killathey’, a slow-moving beautifully narrated story by the late Mahendran, who had once said that he developed the storyline after seeing a woman jogging one fine morning while he looked out of his hotel window in Mumbai and wondered if she would able to continue her exercise after marriage.