Forever Nagesh

The very mention of the name Nagesh is enough to bring a smile and more. This unassuming veteran has entertained generation after generation of Tamils. Of course all of this may sound very clichéd. But as a quote I read in Reader’s Digest goes, there is a reason certain thing are cliché-it is because they are true. As a child in the pre-cable T.V. era (i.e, before 1992 when we got cable at home for the Cricket World Cup) I used to look forward to the movies they played on Doordarshan.Whenever there was a movie with Nagesh in it the whole household would come to a standstill .Everyone from my attai(father’s sister) to my short tempered chitappa(father’s younger brother) to kids like my cousin Indu and myself simply loved Nagesh. Several of his roles be it in a Sivaji tragedy(offering much needed comic relief) or in one of M.G.R’s movies(whose sole saving grace was Nagesh’s presence)are unforgettable. How can anyone forget his role in Kadalikka Neramillai(No Time for Romance) with his ‘Oho Productions’ and the ideas he gets? The scene with Ballaiah in which he narrates a ghost story with which he scares the latter is the stuff of legends. Everyone from Mehmood to Mr.Rajni-cant-act has imitated it. My favorite Nagesh roles are all from K.B movies. Maddi Padi Maadu(Under the Staircase Maadu),the role he essays in the bittersweet Yadir Neechal(Swimming Against the Current/Tide) is one such role which comes to mind. He plays an orphan living in a mansion where several families live. His struggles to study and come up in life. His eternal optimism even when faced with dire circumstances is so touching. He short of begs for alms and yet is so dignified going from door to door saying “nan Maadu vandriken”(I, Maadu have come). There is a sense of detachment to this character. The Malayali neighbour(portrayed by Mutturaman) brings out the turncoat nature of people when he announces that Maadu is the only heir of a millionaire.Maadu with amusement notices his neighbours ploys to gain his attention and their subsequent disinterest when they find out that the whole thing of Maadu being a millionaire’s son is a hoax. In Navagrahangal(The Nine Planets)a satire of a dysfunctional family Nagesh is the adopted son of the family’s head trying to sort out their differences. In reality he is the illegitimate son of the head of the family. He goes all out to bring his family together, even going to the extent of pretending to be an opportunist who is after the family wealth, which unites the family, but results in his abandonment. Server Sundaram is my favorite Nagesh role/film. He plays a hotel server who goes on to become a famous film actor. Can anyone forget the scene where the producers of a film production company patronizingly consent to let him audition for a role? Nagesh tells them exactly what he thinks about them, that they are hypocrites who know nothing about the travails of life.The producers are shocked, angered and their ego is hurt. Then Nagesh promptly claims that he was only acting. Somehow, my favorite Nagesh roles have been his tragic ones (maybe because of my preference for this genre). In more recent times whether it is as Avinsashi Maama(Uncle Avinash) in Michael Madana… or as the father in Vasool Raja(his most recent role)he still manages to more than please the audience. In Vasool Raja, which is far inferior to the original, the interaction between Nagesh and Kamal(father and son) is far better than the original. Nagesh has nothing left to prove to anyone. After the passing of Sivaji he is the father figure of the Tamil film industry along with K.Balachander.In the multi coloured pageant that is Tamil Cinema Nagesh marches a few steps behind Sivaji Ganeshan but way, way ahead of everyone else. We all preserve our favorite images based on our likes and biases. My favorite image of Nagesh is that of the forlorn lover in Server Sundaram.