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His stage performance as the Maratha leader Chhatrapati Shivaji was so electrifying that Viluppuram Chinnaiahpillai Ganesan became Sivaji Ganesan overnight, a name by which millions of adoring filmgoers came to know him in time.
Sivaji Ganesan was arguably among the greatest actors modern Indian cinema has produced, in a distinguished career of over 300 fi lms, in which he played a wide variety of roles. A product of Tamil theatre, Ganesan benefi ted hugely from the discipline and theatre of the Boys' Company tradition prevalent in Tamil Nadu in the 20th Century. Boys joined touring dramatic troupes and grew with them, graduating by stages to play lead roles, including 'stree parts' or women's roles, at a time when it was taboo for ladies of good families to perform in public.
As most of the plays were musicals, the
actors were trained in singing as well,
while their dialogue delivery had to be
impeccable. Sivaji Ganesan, who followed
this convential route to eventual acting
stardom, was a master of dialogue, capable
of remembering reams and reams of prose
and delivering them in a leonine voice that
earned him the title "Simhakkuralone",
one of several titles and honours to adorn
his career.
Sivaji Ganesan was also known for his versatility and his willingness to take up challenges to his histrionic ability. In a career spanning close to fi ve decades he was easily acknowledged as the fi nest actor in Tamil fi lms, though he also occasionally appeared in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi cinema.
Born on 1 October 1928 to Chinnaiya Manrayar and Rajamani in a Tamil middle- class family in Villupuram, Tamil Nadu, he came into the world the day his father was arrested taking part in the freedom struggle. He joined a theatre group when barely seven, without parental consent, and by ten, was travelling and acting regularly. He trained in music and dance as well.
Ganesan had a prodigious memory that helped him lengthy lines easily. His perfect dialogue delivery started earning him the lead role in the group. This made him hero of the troupe in the long run. By the time he made his fi lm acting debut in the 1952 fi lm Parasakthi, he was a famous stage actor. The former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, M Karunanidhi, also made his debut as a screenplay writer in this fi lm. His fi ery dialogues met their perfect match in Sivaji's voice and acting. A scathing commentary on the glaring social and economic disparities prevalent in Tamil society then, the movie was a runaway success, not only launching Ganesan as a frontline actor, but also roviding a launchpad for the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu's politics. The Dravida Kazhagam and later the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam used the powerful medium of cinema successfully as a propaganda tool.
In Andha Naal (1954), a crime thriller, made by another brilliant son of Tamil Nadu, the versatile genius S Balachander, better known as a veena (a classical string instrument) virtuoso, Ganesan played the role of anti-hero for the fi rst time, a daring move by a young actor starting his career. The fi lm, which had no songs, a rare distinction in Tamil fi lms, won the president's silver medal the following year.
The same year he played the antagonist in Koondukkili to the protagonist played by M G Ramachandran, whose extraordinary mass following enabled him to rival and sometimes surpass Sivaji's popularity. In fact he was to become the darling of the masses, while Sivaji's altogether more cerebral, sophisticated acting style repeatedly won him critical acclaim. MGR later became chief minister of Tamil Nadu, while Sivaji's attempts to enter active politics failed.
Sivaji's bravura performance as Veerapaandiya Kattabomman in the eponymous fi lm won him the Best Actor Award at the Afro-Asian Film Festival in March 1960 at Cairo.
Known to strike a balance between commercial cinema, mythological cinema and experimental cinema, he proved to be a thespian of the highest order. His most prolific period was during the 1960s and 1970s starring him in several outstanding roles as romantic hero, freedom fi ghter, epic character, the common man struggling for survival, conscientious police officer, secret agent, soldier, doctor, detective, thief, con-man, clown… literally every role under the sun.
While he was widely praised by his countless fans and the Tamil press, Sivaji Ganesan was criticised by some others for his over-the-top, melodramatic acting. But in the 1980s, he proved what a masterly actor he could be when properly handled by a sensitive, intelligent director schooled in contemporary cinema. His role as a lonely, isunderstood old man drawn to a much younger woman and the emotional bonding between the two in adverse circumstances in a rural setting in Muthal Mariyadai (1985) won him best actor awards. His brilliant performance, now looking stylishly handsome in a trimmed down version of himself, in the critically acclaimed Thevar Magan won him a Special Mention Award at the 40th National Film Awards. He had a rollicking role in Padayappa (1999) his last fi lm before his death, unsurprising as he always had a flair for comedy.
Suffering from a prolonged heart ailment, Sivaji Ganesan died on 21 July 2001 at the age of 72. His funeral was attended by several thousands of admirers.
Awards and honours