He was a laughing bird who would often reach out through a phone call wherever he was, Manju Warrier wrote about Innocent a day after his passing. The two Malayalam actors were in several movies together, a picture from one of these attached to Manju Warrier's post about him. It is from Ennum Eppozhum, where Innocent, playing Manju’s neighbour, is behind her on a scooter, both laughing together. Innocent, a veteran actor and politician, was a cancer survivor who succumbed to COVID-19 complications on Sunday, March 26.
"Our conversations would last for hours. He would fill me with laughter sometimes. At other times, he would dig out the secrets I have locked in the deepest corners of my mind. Sometimes he would remind me what a complicated puzzle life was and teach me how to solve it," Manju wrote.
Innocent was most known for the effortless humour he brought on screen, and to those who knew him personally, off screen as well. In his autobiographical books, he spoke of greeting cancer with a smile, because he didn’t want cancer to take that away from him or those around him. After his death, touching tributes came from actors across film industries.
Manju Warrier said that she came to know of Innocent's illness when she was in Dubai. Even on the call that Innocent made, she expected him to start another funny story. When she visited him at his home in Irinjalakuda afterward, he began to narrate a story but lost track of it in between. He could not remember the rest however hard he tried. "I was seeing Innocent chettan like that for the first time. He had promised to tell me the rest of the story the next time we met. What would have been that story? The next time we see each other again, Innocent chettan will surely tell me," Manju’s note said.