A potpourri of titbits about Tamil cinema

'Kaka' Radhakrishnan continued, "Sivaji Ganesan's father Chinnayya Mandrayar was a great patriot. He took part in the freedom struggle. He plotted with some other men to blow up the train with dynamite that was carrying the British army. But the team was caught by the police and Sivaji's father was also put in jail. Sivaji was born on that particular day, on 1 October 1928. His father, who was released after seven years of imprisonment, took Sivaji, a seven-year old to watch Kattabomman drama. In those days, small boys required for one or two scenes in the drama would be picked up from among the audience, they would not be regular artistes. On that day, Sivaji, who was sitting in the front row, was picked up for stage appearance. He was to stand as part of the British army. Sivaji’s first stage experience was an accident, not planned. But, on returning home, Sivaji’s father beat him severely censuring him for having joined the British army (on stage only, of course)! Sivaji’s mother Rajamani Ammal gave her son fomentation as Sivaji had red patches all over his body due to the beatings."

Radhakrishnan recalled some anecdotes that happened when Sivaji worked with M. R. Radha. “M. R. Radha left our troupe and returned after sometime on his own. Both Radha and Sivaji had a lot of affection for each other. Radha used to comb our hair, clean the rooms and even the bathroom as he was always particular about cleanliness. And he knew to repair electrical goods and automobiles. Sivaji donned the role of a woman in a drama ‘Pathibhakthi’. Sivaji was required to push down Radha and hit him with his leg in a particular scene. But Sivaji hesitated because he had great respect for Radha and looked upon him as his own father. Radha tackled the situation cleverly by falling down on the floor and shouting ‘iyayyo …iyayo …’, signaling to Sivaji to hit him with leg. After the scene was over, he censured Sivaji with harsh words for having failed to act. Radha was always for competitive performance. During the next staging of the play, Sivaji excelled Radha in that particular scene. Radha inculcated in Sivaji the feeling of identifying oneself with the character he acted.