Everyone likes your movie, as you wanted: Manju Warrier

Kochi: Death may have lost its sting, with so many bidding goodbye so soon. Yet the demise of the portly and pleasant Rajesh Pillai is perhaps the most tragic of all deaths. He struggled to realise his dream called Vettah and closed his eyes before his film saw the light of day.

As Manju Warrier, the protagonist of his last movie, writes, in a touching tribute that is sure to bring a tear to every eye, "If only you could open your eyes for a moment, you would have known that everyone likes our movie, just the way you wanted. But just one regret. That big director who decides everything could have delayed your sleep by just a day. Then you would have gone to bed as the happiest person on earth."

Manju, arguably the best actress Mollywood has ever seen, begins the FB post with, "Rajesh, sleep in peace, after all, you went to hospital after receiving the first copy with trembling fingers and after ensuring that all imperfections are removed."

Manju remembers how he held her hands close to his chest at the hospital ICU, called her his younger sister and insisted that she give him a mouthful of water. Some past life bonding must have been at work, she muses. "February may have hunted you down but your own hunt is way above all that," she concludes.