{"id":32315,"date":"2020-10-07T18:09:20","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T23:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=32315"},"modified":"2020-10-08T00:37:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T05:37:00","slug":"sivaji-ganesan-tamil-cinemas-versatile-actor-par-excellence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=32315","title":{"rendered":"Sivaji Ganesan: Tamil cinema’s versatile actor par excellence"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

D.B.S. Jeyaraj<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n( The great Tamil film actor Sivaji Ganesan was born on October 1st 1928. This article written in 2014 is re-posted here without any changes to commemorate the “Nadighar Thilagham”s Birth anniversary)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

T<\/strong>he first Tamil film which impacted on me greatly during childhood was \u2018Veera Pandiya Kattabomman\u2019. It was a kind of bio-picture about a \u2018Paalayakkaaran\u2019 or Polygar (feudal chieftain) who defied the British during the last decade of the 18th Century and paid the supreme penalty. Kattabomman whose full name was Veera Pandiya Kattabomma Karuthaiyya Nayakkar governed an area known as Paanchaalankurichi which is in the Thoothukkudi District of Tamil Nadu state in India.<\/p>\n

\"Sivaji\"<\/a>

Sivaji Ganesan (1 October 1928-21 July 2001) in “Veera Pandiya Kattabomman”<\/p><\/div>\n

I was five years old when I first saw the film with my parents at Elphinstone Theatre. The upper portions of the theatre were encased in hardboard, resembling the structure of a fortress. There were two cut-outs on either side of two men with upraised swords on horses. In the middle was another cut-out of a man literally taking a bull by its horns. The two horsemen were Kattabomman played by the actor Sivaji Ganesan and his brother Kumaraswamy alias Ommaithurai played by OAK Devar. The man taming the bull was Vellaiyhathevan, the commander of Kattabomman\u2019s forces. The actor was Gemini Ganesan.
\n
\nMy family was living in Hulftsdorp then. The film which played at Elphinstone, Maradana moved on to Gaiety, Kotahena. I can recall seeing the film four times at Elphinstone and twice at Gaiety. <\/p>\n

This was because several relatives and family friends took me along when they went to see the film as those in our family circle knew how crazy I was about this particular film Kattabomman. Even in later years I never missed seeing it when an old print was screened in a theatre. Nowadays in Canada I have a DVD of the film which I view occasionally if not regularly.<\/p>\n

The magic of the movie<\/strong><\/p>\n

The magic of the movie to me at that time was the portrayal of Kattabomman by the doyen of Tamil actors, Sivaji Ganesan. The highlight of that performance was the powerful delivery of fiery dialogue by the film hero Kattabomman played by Sivaji. I memorised the dialogue (written by Sakthi T.K. Krishnasamy) from \u2018Veera Pandiya Kattabomman\u2019 in those days and repeated them with appropriate mannerisms to entertain family, relatives, classmates and friends.<\/p>\n