Potpourri of titbits about Tamil cinema - Actor R. S. Manohar

R. S. Manohar was the foremost among the theatre personalities; he created a special place for himself by his histrionic talents and perfection. And, he won a special place in cinema also, donning major roles including the hero and the villain. He staged many social plays as well as purana and historic plays under the banner of his company National Theatre.

I met Manohar in December in the year 1984 at the Salem National Lodge. I watched his popular play ‘Ilankeswaran’ in the evening. I took an interview with him for the Tamil magazines Devi and Cinema mail. Our friendship continued since then. And, I interviewed him on many more occasions thereafter.

Excerpts from the interviews:

“My native place is Puvanur, a hamlet near Needamangalam village. But I was born in Namakkal. My father R. Subramanian was working as a postal inspector. I was named Lakshminarasimhan after the deity at the Lakshminarasimha temple. My father shifted to different places on transfer and when he was in Madras, I was put in the Ramakrishna High School. I had acted in many of the school dramas. When I was doing my degree course in Pachaiyappa College, I did the role of Rajapriyan in the play Manohara, but on the day of the program, the student who was to do the role of Manohara, didn’t come. The professors were at a loss. I volunteered to do the role, I was very confident as I had memorized the dialogues hearing the student delivering them during rehearsals. I performed very well and everyone started calling me Manohara when the drama ended. I changed my name to Manohar after this incident.

Then, I got a job in the postal department. When I was acting in the stage plays of different amateur drama companies, I got the offer to play the hero in the film ‘Rajaambaal’, produced by Modern Theatres. It was my first film (1952). Mathuridevi was the heroine. I was paid Rs. 25,000 as remuneration. Then, I resigned from my job, encouraged by my parents as well as my wife Sitalakshmi. I became very busy both in films and theatre. MGR and Sivaji Ganesan had helped me a lot in many ways. Both would cooperate with me in finishing my shots before 5 O’clock in the evening on the days when I was having stage program. MGR took me to Jaipur for the shooting of ‘Adimaipenn’. There, MGR took me to the places where I could buy antique set properties like swords, shields and costumes, required for my dramas with purana themes. At a time when the response to my dramas became lukewarm, many artistes left my company. In my frustration, I set ablaze some of my set properties. And, I blamed the government for not extending any deserving help to the theatre. MGR, who was shocked at my statement, came forward to help the theatre. I continued to stage plays at the M. K. T. Nataka kala mandap and, it was there, during one of my programs that MGR conferred the title ‘Nataka kaavalar’ on me.