SIVAJI GANESAN - The end of an era

21st July 2001 will always be remembered as a tragic day in the history of Tamil cinema. The death of Sivaji Ganesan, unarguably the greatest actor ever to be part of Tamil cinema, brings to a close the most read chapter in Tamil cinema.

Born as Villupuram Chinnaiah Ganesan to Chinnaiah Pillai and Rajamani Ammal at Sirkali in 1928, he ran away from home in search of his passion, acting. His first theatre appearance was a female role, that of 'Sita' in the stage play Ramayana. He became famous and established himself as an actor through sheer hard work and talent. His excellent performance as Maratha warrior 'Sivaji' in the play Sivaji Kanda Hindu Samrajyam, impressed Periyar E V Ramasamy Naickar, the great social reformer of modern times so much, that he conferred the title of 'Sivaji' and thus V C Ganesan, became Sivaji Ganesan.

In 1952, after acting in various small roles in different movies, Sivaji got his first breakthrough as a hero in the movie, Parasakthi. Thanks to the fiery and tingling dialogues of M Karunanidhi for Parasakthi, Sivaji carved a place for himself in the hearts of the Tamil audience. This heralded a new era in the Tamil film industry. One would not be exaggerating by saying that Tamil film history can be divided into two eras -the pre-Sivaji and the post-Sivaji era.

In a career spanning more than four decades and over 300 films in various languages, no actor perhaps has achieved as much as Sivaji did. Right from characters based on mythology to those on the freedom struggle, from a king to a commoner, Sivaji has played them all. Sivaji's uncanny ability to portray his characters is legendary. He gets across every shade of emotion with fascinating ease. And yet, is the Director's slave. His performances as Karna, Raja Raja Chozhan, Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Kappalotiya Tamizhan etc., have had such impact on viewers, that the characters have become synonymous with Sivaji. His movie Paasa Malar, which was based on the relationship between a brother and his sister, with Savitri playing his sister, has audiences in tears even to this day. Their (Sivaji's and Savitri's) performance in the movie has become a benchmark for all such future movies.

There is perhaps no actor in the Tamil film industry, in the post Sivaji era who has not been influenced by his acting style, dialogue delivery and histrionics. Modern day actors from Rajnikanth to Kamal Haasan, Vijay to Ajith and innumerable comedians have paid tribute to him by trying to copy his style in one form or the other. Even when Sivaji accepted cameo roles in films like Thevar Magan with Kamal, Padayappa with Rajni and Once More with Vijay, he emerged as the scene-stealer.

Although Sivaji has received innumerable awards from various associations and the film industry, the one coveted award that eluded him was the National Award for the Best Actor. He was awarded the Best actor award at the Afro-Asian film festival in 1960 for his portrayal of the legendary freedom fighter Veerapandiya Kattabomman. Although a bit late he was awarded the Dada Saheb Phalke Award by the Indian Government in 1996, after he became the first Indian to be conferred with the title of 'Chevalier' by the French Government, which is conferred to honour the most original and talented personalities for their remarkable contribution in the field of Arts and Literature in France and all over the world. He was presented the Chevalier Title and Medallion by the French Ambassador to India, Philip Petit in 1995. Some of the other awards received by him were the Padmashree, Padmabhushan, Special Jury award for the movie 'Thevar Magan'.

With his passing away, his wish to play the role of Periyar E V Ramasamy Naickar has remained unfulfilled . Perhaps the greatest tribute to Sivaji was paid by the great Hollywood actor, Marlon Brando, who spoke of him saying,"He can act like me but I can't act like him."

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