Venneer with Panneer -3

VKR—that much laid back actor

I chanced upon V.K.Ramaswamy's (VKR) autobiography (I think it was titled “enathu thiraipayanam”) at the Velacherry Government Library. The book had forewords by many leading men of Tamil cinema, like AVM Saravanan, Cho, Rajini, Kamal and others . All of them had something good to say about VKR. What Kamal had written piqued my interest. The result is this post, a recollection of the VKR I have enjoyed on screen.

Kamal had compared VKR to Groucho Marx and Oliver Hardy. I have not seen much of Oliver Hardy, so can't say anything about that comparison except that VKR sharing his girth with Oliver probably shared the same stand and deliver style.(Sve Sekar is another actor who used this style to good use). But comparison with Groucho was both surprising and (coming to think of it) very apt. Groucho though starting in the silent era depended heavily on dialogues. He was a master at ad-libbing, with an ability to be devastatingly insulting and humorous at the same time. From the outside that looks very unVKRish. But then Kamal's comment probably was motivated by VKR's tendency to be surprisingly sarcastic and funny without even faintly making the effort to be so. A case in point is the scene in Unnal Mudiyum Thambi. VKR is a MP passing through a village with his coterie of assistants. Their car stops near the fields. And VKR gets down from the car and tears open a biscuit packet and throws the covering paper on the road. A villager standing nearby objects to this and asks him to throw the paper into the dustbin. VKR's assistant bends to pick the paper, but the villager stops him and asks VKR himself to pick it up as he had dropped the waste on the road. So VKR bends to pick the paper and while doing so comments nonchalantly...... “Unga oorula maadu thaanoda saanaththa thane kondu poi kuppa thottiyila poduma ....???” Yet another example is from Ooty Varai Uravu,one of the many Sivaji Muthuraman starrers. VKR, (Muthurman's father) wants Vijayalakshmi(Muthuraman's lady love, acting as amnesia patient) out of his house. Sivaji and Muthuraman try to cajole Vijayalakshmi to sit and eat something .

Vijaya:. Ninnute sapaddalame? (Can't I stand and eat)
Sivaji: Oh yes... Ninnute sapaddalame (Yes you can stand and eat)
Vijaya:. Nadanthute sapaddalame? (Can't I walk while eating)
Sivaji : Oh yes Nadanthute sapaddalame (Yes you can walk and eat too)
Vijaya: Oditte Sapadalame? (Can't I run and eat)
VKR : Sappataparam Odidalame ? ( You can eat and run away too..)

The last line by VKR comes as a surprise and the sarcasm strikes a bit slowly but when it does one just can't help laughing out loud.

Unlike Nagesh, VKR was not very keen to use the screen space. A typical Nagesh scene would involve him moving around a lot. Like Saqlain Mushtaq, Nagesh was a master in using the space available to him. VKR was more like John Emburey. He would just stand in a place and talk. VKR fans might not like the comparison though. Emburey was after all an English off spinner, a species as pathetic as an Indian fast bowler or a West Indian leg spinner. But that comparison was only regards their mobility and not their quality.

VKR typically would sit on the sofa/chair or at the most stand at the same place throughout the scene. But that was more than enough space for him, because his skill lay in the outstanding sense of timing. He would always be spot on in his timing and his dialogues in tandem with Nagesh would invariably be a riot, what with both trying to out do each other. In Rudra Thandavam(VKR's home production) VKR plays Lord Shiva and Nagesh a poor priest. Their conversation is very humorous, engaging and also gives an insight into VKR's political views. Dravidian politicians of that time clamoured for a separate Tamil land. Nagesh questions Lord Shiva(VKR) on this. VKR proceeds to use the slightly flawed but very humorous example of the Masala Vadai to ridicule the seperatists argument.

My personal favourites are his classic role as Nambi Anne in Fazil's Arangetra Velai( remake of Fazil's Ramoji Rao Speaking) and the cameo as an MP in Vikram. When the missile (Agniputra) is stolen, the chiefs of the armed forces and the intelligent bureau get together for a top secret meeting. VKR enters the room and welcomes the Navy Admiral with ...”Enna Kappal, Sowkiyama” and then gives the classic reply on being informed about the stolen missile (or rocket as VKR is told by the chief of staff)..... ”Rocket'a....athu Sivkasi samcharam”. But then Sujatha (dialogue writer for Vikram) reserves the best till the last. A visibly worried VKR enquires about the missile....”Antha Missile inga vedicha Ambur vara kekkuma...”...This perplexes the Chief of Staff... Then VKR proceeds to explain...”....illai anga ennakku oru karumbu thottam irrukku, athan ketten”.

Great Indian Cinema Quiz

Too many sappai questions in the Great Indian Cinema Quiz. The questions were based on only Tamil and Hindi films, with probably 3 exceptions. Both Sana and I knew next to nothing about the Hindi filma questions that were asked. But the Tamil movie questions were generally very very answerable. Atleast I got a lot of answers in the finals. A big pity we didn't have a third member with some Hindi fundaes. We might have made it to the final.

There was not a single question asked on Vijaykanth or the Maestro. Now that is a big time sin. Otherwise it was good fun at Tatvaloka on Sunday morning.

PS: Now I shall never understand this concept of corporate religiosity or corporate spirituality. Tatvaloka had huge pictures of Shringeri Acharyas and a sculptor of Adi Shankara. But it is a fully air conditioned hall with smooth flooring, slick chairs and car parking basement. Somehow I fail to see what is Hindu or spiritual about all these things.

kathai keLu, kathai keLu

Story telling is a passion with me. It is not that I am an expert narrator. I certainly do not enthrall my audience. People have criticised that I am a downright bad speaker, what with a craving to push in as many words as possible within the unforgiving minute and a tendency to mix my own insights with the actual story. (Intha insight, outsight ellam where disappearing when it comes to my research is something which my guide would like to know). But inspite of my critics and the hostile attitude of listeners I literally live to tell a tale.

I have found children to be the most stringent examiners of my narrative abilities. They love listening to stories and they keep me on my toes by reacting spontaneously. If they don't like a story or think they would be better off else where, they don't suddenly remember that they forgot their keys and ask to be excused. They just leave. But when they are enjoying it, their shining faces are a sight to behold. Many have been the happy hours that I have spent telling stories to my little cousins, nieces, and other kids.

Narration is an art. The audience has to be under the narrator's spell. One has to ensure that not a word is missed, not an emotion lost and not a joke unlaughed. Kodambakkam directors are invariably master story tellers. What they can't get right in the movies, they actually do when they narrate the story to our heroes. And so confident are they of the different fare they are providing, that when interviwed on sets, they invariably say: "Ithu oru different'ana subject...tamil'la intha mathiri kadhai vanthathe kidyadhu......." The Friday review would reveal this different movie to be a college campus love story between a rich girl and poor boy, with the love triumphing at the end. Very different indeed.

But maybe that is doing an injustice to these master narrators. Many a hero falls for the narration skills of these men. The best illustration of how a story is told in Kodambakkam is the scene from Kadhalikka Neram Illai, where Nagesh narrates a horror story to Balaiah. By the end of the scene Balaiah is no more knowledgable about the story than he was at the beginning, because Nagesh's narration actually narrates nothing. He just descibes the scene and describes it well enough to frighten Balaiah big time, just the way any Kodambakkam director/story teller worth his salt would. No wonder Vijaykanth keeps remaking so many of his movies.

And this capacity to mesmerise through real/virtual story telling comes as no wonder, because story telling is something Indians have always been very good at. Indians have a rich heritage of story telling. Stories have been always been a medium of instruction. Stories were used to pass down values from one generation to next. In the bygone ages when values and morals did not change as fast as they do today, stories no doubt helped patch up small gaps between generations. When he sits down to create and narrate stories, sky is the limit for the Indian story teller. He lets the horse of imagination free to wander. Stuff like censor, morals, values actually take a backstage as the horse gallops across the rich terrain of imagination. And the resulting output is a rich collection of stories ranging from the fantastic to the absurd. From the educational Panchtantra, to romantic Kadambari(which is a story labyrinth, what with story inside a story inside a story inside a....). From the Hindu Mahabharata, to the Buddhist Jataka. From the intellectual Vikram and Vetal tales to the deeply sarcastic Parmartha Guru tales by Veera Maamunivar.

Ofcourse story telling is not every one's cup of tea. There is a large population out there who can't tell a tale crisply and engagingly. Many a wannabe story teller can only do a "avan enna sonnanu'na....athu vanthu.....ithunuttan....athavathu vanthu...aven...." type job. If this person is your guest or social superior or worse if he is your boss, you are in big trouble. But actually in the Industrial age, there exists a separate industry for the employment of such human rambams. Mega serials, they call it.


PS: After reading the prepost one of my friends asked me whether the last paragraph was autobiographical. Maybe he be torn apart by a Velociraptor.