Sivaji Ganesan: Profile of an Icon, S. Theodore Baskaran, Wisdom Tree Publication, p.106, price not stated.
In his book, Sivaji Ganesan: Profile of an Icon, Theodore Baskaran takes you on a fascinating journey. A 10-year-old boy smitten by theatre runs away to join a drama company. Young actors were treated like bonded labour and thrashed if they did not remember their lines. Can you imagine walking 60 km, all the way from Palakkad to Pollachi, because he did not have the money even for a bus ticket? Sivaji suffered a life of penury at a young age, refusing to get into any other profession save the one he was obsessed with.
It was when he acted in Annadurai’s “Sivaji Kanda Indhu Rajyam” as Sivaji that he was christened Sivaji Ganesan, a name given by Periyar who was impressed with his performance. The author tells us that he continued his links with stage even after his successful foray into films. He founded his own drama troupe called Sivaji Nataka Manram and staged plays in different cities, sometimes using them as fund raisers for deserving causes. Some of his plays like “Thanga Padakkam” and “Vietnam Veedu” were made into films.
After intensive training in all aspects of theatre, Ganesan moved to films, morphing into a colossus that strode the screen. “Parasakthi” in 1952 broke all records and Ganesan won accolades with his “new wave” acting and body language which defied old conventions. The dialogue was written by Karunanidhi who used it to aim barbs at the Government.
Larger than life
Whenever Sivaji Ganesan acted in a film, his presence became larger than life, dwarfing the director and other actors. Masterpieces, like “Pasa Malar”, “Vietnam Veedu” and “Navarathri” (in which the versatile actor played nine roles), ushered in an era of lengthy rhetoric and the script writer had scope to play with flowery language,
Sivaji Films was born in 1956 and produced successful films like “Puthiya Parvai”, “Vietnam Veedu” and “Pava Mannippu”, and even today the company is managed by his son Ram Kumar. Despite his proximity to the DMK party, Ganesan was slowly sidelined, and MGR was promoted instead. Deeply hurt, he withdrew into a shell, when Director Bhimsingh took him to Tirupathi to provide what turned out to be a welcome diversion. This move sealed Ganesan’s fate and he was considered to have “betrayed the party’s rational ideology”. Kamaraj influenced him to join the Congress party which he did finally in 1961.
Ganesan worked three shifts a day, often living in the studios. He was unmindful of the strain, and this probably caused a deterioration in health. Baskaran talks of Ganesan’s vigorous campaigning for the Congress. He tried his best to bring the Kamaraj and Indira Gandhi factions together, and he did so, finally. He floated a new party and canvassed for the Janata Dal, but was soon to realise that politics was not his cup of tea.
Awards and politics
Ganesan was an honest and plainspoken man who lived by his ideals. The National Award which he rightly deserved eluded him because of his political stance. When the Best Supporting Actor for “Thevar Magan” was offered to him in 1994, he turned down the award He was given the Dada Saheb Phalke award in 1997, but what he valued most was the Best Actor Award in 1960 at Cairo. When the Government of India wished to bestow on Ganesan the Best Actor Award, he turned it down, because he felt it was merely a gesture which came too late and the action was fraught with political overtones. In 1995, the French Government conferred on Ganesan the title Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Letters. The book is a must buy for all Sivaji fans and those who wish to know more of him.
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