Makkal Thilagam MGR Part -19

[Richardsof]

MGR at Ratmalana airport shows that he was walking with a sun glass, probably with his writing assistant Ravindar to his left. Saroja Devi, follows two steps behind. He has his wrist watch in his right hand. The white cap (with which his image came to be known in later years) was missing. He was then 48. Unfortunately, MGR himself has failed to record a word about his Ceylon visit, in his two volumes of autobiography. Why? No one knows for sure. MGR and Saroja Devi were invited by the Davasa Newspaper Group of Newspapers (Sinhalese ownership), based in Colombo. Though the owners were Sinhalese, the group also had a Tamil language daily named Thinapathi, with its weekly Tamil edition called ‘Chintamani’. To cater to the semi-literate working class, it also brought out a tabloid with the name Radha filled with cinema news, court stories of murder and divorce. Thinapathi’s editor was S.D. Sivanayagam from East Ceylon, who jumped ship from Federal Party’s organ Sutantiran, over personal issues with the then young star politician A. Amirthalingam. The question of why MGR’s wife Janaki Ramachandran did not accompany her husband on this trip remains unanswered too.

When MGR and Saroja Devi visited Colombo, their super hit color movie Enga Veettu Pillai (Our Own Child), of Vijaya Productions, was released for Deepavali festival. In Tamil Nadu, the same movie was released in January 1965 for Thai Pongal festival. Few titles of MGR’s movies are difficult to translate into English. Literal translation can be done, but it doesn’t do justice to the essence of the plot summary capsulated in Tamil title. Enga Veettu Pillai is one of these. While I opt for ‘Our Own Child’ (a figurative translation), fellow biographer M.S.S. Pandian opted for ‘The Son of Our Home’ (a literal translation). On the plot construction, prominence and significance of this movie in MGR’s film and political careers, Pandian had covered much ground, though one should be cautious in accepting all the reasons he trots out to de-base MGR’s profile. Another MGR movie which offers this translation dilemma was Petral Thaan Pillaiya (1966), which would subsequently lead to the MGR – M.R. Radha shooting episode in January 1967.