Govardhan off screen is the opposite of the Govardhan you used to see in movies. The boy, going to class eight in an Adoor school, doesn’t talk a lot. But the moment he faces the camera and becomes the characters his dad writes for him, Govardhan forgets all inhibitions. In his newest release, he becomes the son of a municipal corporation worker played by Suraj — Perariyathavar, the movie that had won Suraj the national award for best actor. There was also another national award for best film on environment. What Dr Biju, the director and Govardhan’s dad, didn’t expect was for it to fetch an award for his son at the Iranian Film Festival.
Govardhan was only 10 then, and Perariyathavar was his third film. “By then I had some idea about acting,” says the shy boy. His dad’s tip had been to not to say his lines by heart.
So when Govardhan spoke, he said his lines like a typical little boy does, with all his loud innocence and natural curiosity. In Perariyathavar, he becomes the narrator, talking to his dead mother about the daily incidents his dad and he go through. Through the little boy’s eyes Dr Biju had made a simple portrayal of the everyday lives of the poor, without drama. “I am not scared to act in dad’s movies,” says Biju Jr.
His first one had been Veetilekkulla Vazhi, where he played a terrorist’s son. “He was really small then. I had auditioned other kids, but their parents were apprehensive about the many places and climates we’d go through for the filming. So like an experiment, I got him to act and realised that he had talent,” says Biju.
Govardhan kept acting. His second role had been an important one in Akashathinte Niram. “I played an orphan in it,” he says. During the shooting, he celebrated his birthday with the crew and remembers Indrajith got him a toy. “In my first film too, I got a gift from Prithviraj uncle — another toy.” There have been a fourth and a fifth film — both again by Dr Biju, Valiya Chirakulla Pakshikal and Kaadu Pookkunna Neram.
Not that he will only act in his dad’s films. “When another offer came, I had fallen ill and couldn’t do it," he says. Biju also doesn’t want him to lose focus on his studies. “If he gets offers for good films, we will be up for it. We are just not so keen about him doing a lot of commercial cinema,” Biju adds.
Govardhan is still a child but he is used to cinema and would like to be an actor, not a director like his dad. However, he would like to become a homeopathy doctor like Biju.
