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The last Saturday, as I was waiting for my train to arrive at the Ernakulam railway station, to take me home on my week-end visit, i saw a familiar face appearing from a distance. Yes, it was Kunchacko Boban, our own Chackochan, wheeling his suitcase and moving past the crowd that was waiting impatiently for the train to come. Chackochan, who had become a teenage sensation after his debut movie, the blockbuster ‘Aniyathipraavu’ (1997), is of course not much active in films these days. He does some films as and when they come, but he is still popular among the masses.

Personally speaking, I may have reservations about Chackochan as an actor, but I like him and like him for what he is. He has, in my view, one of the cutest faces that ever appeared on screen in Malayalam Cinema. I like the way he dances and I am sure that many of those who don’t throng to see his films too like his looks. Chackochan, who is the grandson of Kunchacko, the man who started the famous Udaya Studios at Alappuzha, still retains that charm of his, which had made him the heartthrob of many a teenager girls in the 1990′s. I had met him twice or thrice and had interviewed him and he had always appeared to me as a gentleman, calm and very much friendly. That’s what people of Alappuzha say about him; for them he is like a friend than a star.

So there was Chackochan, passing on, wheeling behind him his suitcase. Some people moved aside to let him pass. Some seemed not to notice him. Some women were whispering, pointing to him, as he passed by. Some guys were looking towards him after he had passed by. Some others, I felt, were trying to ignore him, with sort of a scorn on their face. This happens many a time with celebrities here in Kerala. People, mostly educated ones, pretend to ignore the presence of a celebrity or a star amongst them, sometimes with a scorn in their faces and looks. I don’t understand why they can’t look them straight in the face and give them a smile. We know them after all. And they want us to acknowledge their presence, with a smile or a wave of the hand. Of course going after them and disturbing them with a handshake or pinches (some people really pinch stars when they get the chance; in fact I had learnt once, on visiting the sets of a movie, that people who had gathered there had scratched on the actress’ hands with a blade) would of course be bad. But what harm is there in giving them a smile, a smile that conveys some amount of warmth and also says, “Hey, I know you and have recognised you”. Well, a few years back, another actor, the veteran and much popular Balachandra Menon, had commented while speaking to a gathering at Thiruvananthapuram, on this rather strange trend shown by Malayalees. He was saying that just before coming into the auditorium he had gone to the loo and there had met people who were deliberately trying not to look at him. He was saying, “We are also human beings like any of you. So, if you know us, why don’t you look at us and pass a knowing smile as you’d to any of your other acquaintances?” A genuine and much relevant question indeed.

Standing on the platform at the Ernakulam railway station, I was anyway impressed with the fact that a star like Chackochan could at least walk past people so coolly, without being mobbed and without being a victim of the kind of euphoria that’s shown by admirers in other states. (But then, here in Kerala, I had heard of people, especially women running, leaving behind their kids, to catch of glimpse of Mohanlal, when he appeared a few years back to take part in a Children’s Film Fest in Thiruvananthapuram and college students mobbing and even pinching actor Mohan-known popularly as ‘Chattakari’ Mohan- in the early 1970′s after the release of the film ‘Chattakari’). Still, it was a thing of relief to see that stars could travel and walk freely here, of course barring some of the very leading ones. But the question that still remains in my heart is, why can’t we acknowledge their presence with a smile or a cordial look?

I saw the same attitude today morning too, when I found Chackochan and of course another known figure too, an ex-minister and a very leading political figure, travelling in the same train, same coach as mine. While I won’t want people to mob stars, I’d like them to greet them, known figures as they are, with smiles and gestures of warmth and friendliness. I bet they too want people to acknowledge their presence and pass them a smile or a knowing glance.