Siddhas do things that even the Lord had not done

‘Kaka’ Radhakrishnan had also shared with me his experience with Sivaji. “When Dasavatharam play was staged at Melur, the drama troupe stayed in a camp raised on a large open field. There were many scorpions, lizards, cockroaches etc. They used to enter our wigs, shirts etc. and we used to get itching all over our body because of the insect bites. Once, there were many ants inside Sivaji’s wig. They started biting when Sivaji had to utter the dialogue “Swami Prananaathaa” at the first scene. He couldn’t stand the pain and in his confusion uttered “Erumbhu swami …” and started scratching his head. The curtain was downed and his wig was removed. Sivaji had donned the role of women in many plays and had attracted men! I had also played woman but it was real comedy,” said Radhakrishnan.

Thillanaa Mohanambal was a film in which Sivaji identified himself as a nadaswara vidwan. Madurai M. P. N. Sethuraman & Ponnusamy played the nadaswara behind the screen. Ponnusamy told me some interesting anecdotes when I met him few years back. “The rights for the film remained with S. S. Vasan. Director A. P. Nagarajan bought the rights from Vasan. They asked us both to come to Madras to work for the film. Nagarajan along with music director K. V. Mahadevan asked us to play and on being satisfied told us to repeat the performance before Sivaji the next day. At this, we both became nervous. I told my brother to play first so that I can watch the reaction of Sivaji. The next day Kannadasan also came along with Sivaji. Nagarajan, who understood our fear came to our rescue by telling that Sivaji would not comment in the middle and that he would give his opinion only after the playing was over. And, he asked both of us to play together. We heaved a sigh of relief”. Ponnusamy shared their beautiful experience with Sivaji…