|
We
all know what a great onscreen
performer Sivaji Ganesan was.
Having played many roles in
films under different directors,
it is easy to assume that Sivaji
or Nadigar Thilagam (loosely
translated as Greatest Actor
& abbreviated in online
forums as NT) seriously requires
many entries in the Guinness
World Book of Records. As such,
I want to throw light on the
amount of sadistic physical
and emotional torture his characters
had to endure in his films,
while at the same time put the
directors responsible in the
stand.
Let’s start with his first
film, Parasakthi, directed by
Krishnan Panju and team. As
soon as the rich, beaming youthful
and very handsome NT finds himself
in the home soil of Chennai,
he was duped, robbed, rendered
penniless and later became mentally
unsound. The final blow came
when he had to attack the temple
priest. If the conscientious
torture of having committed
a crime is not enough, he had
to be brought to the court and
in that famous moment, he had
to recount the entire incident
again to the bemused judge and
crowd. NT was only 24 at that
time.
I don’t think
in any Tamizh film, other stars
have had their characters endure
such a predicament in their
very first role itself. Well,
Rajini comes close in Apoorva
Ragangal, where he appears towards
the end in an extended guest
role as a leukemia patient who
returns only to see his former
wife frolicking with a man much
younger and hotter than him.
In addition to that, he dies
standing there.
In Moondru Mudhichu, Rajini’s
first leading role, he successfully
becomes the killer, indirectly,
of the same younger hotter looking
fellow to reclaim his girl only
to find that she got married
to his own dad. Poor man! |
