Nadigar Thilagam Sivaji Ganesan

Joe Anne

Idhu pondra postings galai thamizil padikka migavum nandraaga irukkiradhu

One could get the maxium impact only when you post in tamil ......

Great !!

Wish to add what Director Ravikumar K.S. said once ......

while he was directing Padayappa , there is a scene wherein Rajini, Lakshmi, Manivannan, Radharavi all will participate........

NT was very particular and he asked for the entire scene in advance for which KSR wondered Yen Anney ketkareenga ??

for which NT responded :

indha scene oru mukyamaana scene endru naan ninaikiren...... ovvoruvarum thannudaya thiramayai kaanbikka pogiraargal.....

naanum muyandru enaal aanadhai seyya thaan unnai mudhalil ketten !!!

Thats what NT is all about.....DEDICATION AND COMMITMENT ..

Another aspect of NT...... he was always the first to reach the spot for the shooting ....always on time..... and this has made other artists to rush to the spot most of the times as a mark of respect to the Lion of acting !!

Murali Srinivas

Looking forward to the second leg of NT in politics.....

Let the interesting discussion on NT's Politics go. I wish to know why few directors from NT's camp have joined MGR camp.

Already about C.V.Sridhar, it is mentioned by some one. Sridhar told once that directing MGR brought some gap in the relationship with NT. But even after directing the 2 films with MGR, he was directing NT and said he would be always a good friend of NT.

Director B.R.Bandhulu who directed NT for the films Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Kappalottia Thamizhan, Karnan, Bale Pandiya etc. left NT's camp and directed MGR for Aayirathil Oruvan, Thedi vantha Mappillai, Ragasiya Police 101. I don't know whether he came back to NT's camp or not.

A.P.Nagarajan who gave all great Bhakthi films, Thillana Mohanambal & Navarathiri with NT joined MGR camp at the end and gave films like "Navarathinam" (a flop) & "Madhuraiyai Meeta Sundara Pandiyan". He did not come back to NT's camp, I think.

Pa. Neelakandan initially directed few films of NT, joined MGR's camp (from the beginning of MGR's raise) directed a lot of commercial hit films of MGR. He did not come back to direct NT.

Has any other director joined MGR camp like this after directing NT for few films? I have read in some newspaper long time back that: Karnan and Vettaikaran released at the same time. Karnan did not do well and B.R.Bandhulu had a huge loss of money; but Vettaikaran had good collections and Thevar made a huge profit out of it. Then Bandhulu drifted to MGR's camp directed "Aayirathil Oruvan" etc. Was it true?

Was it based on commercial reason? I doubt. Because APN made tons of money with all Bhakti movies, lost heavily in MGR's Navarathinam. Did APN direct MMSP?
BR Bandhulu was successful with one MGR movie, but average to flop with others.
Also NT had his own directors like P.Madhavan and others. I believe they did not make any movies with MGR. Actor Balaji produced all his movies wiht Sivaji. That might because he is a very close friend of sivaji.
Did thevar films make any movie with Sivaji? But Thevar made plenty of movies with MGR such as Tharmam thalai kaakum, thai sollai thaththe, etc. Are all these movies successful?

I believe the separation of some these directors with NT must be purely on ego clash.

NT’s Political Career – 1967-1975

This was the most active and aggressive period of all the four phases, wherein NT & his fans plunged into active politics. As I said earlier, Congress was defeated and what shocked many Congressmen and public in general was the defeat of PT in Virudhunagar. Many stalwarts of Congress lost and PG Karuthiruman became the leader of the opposition. Annadurai had not contested the assembly elections, but he had contested the South Chennai Parliament seat and won. (Elections starting from 1952 till 1971 were held simultaneously for both Parliament and assembly in TN). Annadurai who had lost the assembly election on 1962 had become the Rajya Sabha MP in 1963. The DMK right from its inception was pressing for Dravida Nadu, but after the Chinese aggression, came the news that all outfits propagating secession will be banned and DMK famous for it’s volte faces when it comes to crunch, dropped that demand. The stint in Rajya Sabha also mellowed Annadurai and he assumed Chief Ministership, by becoming an MLC. The South Chennai seat, which became vacant, saw the candidature of Murasoli Maran (The seeds of MuKa family rule was sown). PT wished DMK the very best and said he will not open his mouth for 6 months. Rajaji too after having achieved his goal gave 6 months to the new ministry and after that he said, “The honeymoon is over”. He also started realizing that he had committed a mistake. Annadurai was suffering from cancer and he knew this even before elections. Very few people were privy to this info and MuKa was one of them. There began the diabolical act of MuKa to capture power after Annadurai. (Joe & Balaji, you were saying that Annadurai was good, but he was as good as (or) as bad as MuKa, it depends on how you look at it. I will give my detailed opinion separately later). The functioning of Govt was ordinary and only gimmicks like changing Madras State to Tamil Nadu, conducting the second Ulaga Tamizh Mahanadu and legalizing register marriages were happening. The much proclaimed assurance Rupaikku Moondru Padi; Illayel Musanthiyil Niruthi Savukkualadi was thrown to winds. The Rupaikku Moondru Padi scheme was never implemented but for once in Coimbatore on Pongal day of 1968 and then discontinued. Annadurai’s illness was also getting worse and he visited US for treatment. MuKa now wanted to establish himself as the next heir and for this he used Si.Pa.Adithanar, who was the founder of Dina Thanthi. MuKa used to address many meetings and his speech used to be reported in full by Thanthi. There were only 2 main Tamil newspapers at that time and Dinamani was perceived to be an educated man’s paper and Thanthi was for the commoner. So MuKa was slowly getting into the leader’s slot in the minds of the ordinary DMK men and Nedu unaware of all these plans was so casual that he thought that his accession to power after Annadurai was just a formality.
But fate was against him. Annadurai passed away in Feb 1969 and immediately the power struggle started. MuKa and Maran transported people from all over TN and they converged at Gopalapuram and started raising slogans in favour of MuKa. (See, vaadakaikku aatkalai kooti varum kodumaium MuKa than arambithu vaithathu) and Nedu was no match to all these manipulative politics of MuKa. But he was getting support from people who were there in DMK right from the beginning. But at this time MGR decided to side with MuKa. The reason was Nedu and MGR were not the best of friends and Nedu was cut up with even Annadurai, whom he thought was giving undue importance to MGR. This made MGR support MuKa and the rest of the MLAs also fell in line. MuKa became CM and Nedu did not join the cabinet. Now Nedu wanted at least the General secretary post of DMK. MuKa, the manipulator he is also refused to this. Nedu after 8-9 months joined the ministry and was also made as the General secretary, but MuKa created a post of President for himself. MGR was made the treasurer.

People going thro’ this post might be wondering why there is no mention of NT, our Kathanayagan? I thought you should know the political background of TN during that period. Before going to NT, let us also see what was cooking in Delhi. Indira Gandhi who assumed Prime Ministership in Jan 1966, barely managed to get a majority of her own in 1967 general election. She had difficulty in coordinating with the old guard of the party. Morarji Desai was the Finance Minister and his budgets had become unpopular due to the tough taxation measures. Indira had a feeling that Morarji who had lost the race to the Prime Minister’s office twice (once to LB Sasthri & second to her) was creating problems for her. She eased him out of the ministry and the old guard did not take this lightly. So a confrontation was brewing in the party.

Now after 1967, NT’s fans attitude began to change and they were beginning to be more vociferous and aggressive. Even during the screening of NT movies, the atmosphere inside the theatre began to change. It was more of a festival. The fans wanted to show their political leanings in public and even the name of Kannadasan (now in Congress) when shown in the titles of NT movies was drawing huge applause. The defeat of PT & the fact that their archrival had become an MLA rejuvenated the NT fans. During that period there were verbal clashes between the fans’ in every town, which at times was escalating into physical clashes. In the intervening period there were two by elections. There was one at Tirumangalam (Madurai) and NSV Chithan, a close friend of NT (now he is the MP from Dindigul) was elected. NT canvassed for him and his victory was a shot in the arm for Congress. NSV went on to secure the distinction of having asked the maximum no of questions in assembly during that assembly’s life time (1968-1971). The second was at Tenkasi and DMK having tasted defeat at Tirumangalam did not want to take chances and the job was entrusted to MGR. He immediately asked the Tenkasi brothers (PKV Sankaran & Arumugam), who were in Sathya Movies to start a movie and in a start to finish call sheet, Puthiya Bhoomi was completed. The Tenkasi DMK candidate name was Kathiravan and if you notice MGR character’s name in PB was also Kathiravan. The movie was released just before the elections and DMK strained every nerve to achieve victory. So both were equally placed. At this time (1969) there came another by election and this time it was for Parliament and the seat was Nagerkoil. PT decided to contest and NT and his fans just plunged into the campaign. Nagerkoil people
atoned for the mistake of Virudhunagar people and PT won handsomely.

Another factor that antagonized NT and his fans was the behaviour of TN Govt in the matters of cinema. After coming to power DMK Govt established cinema awards and in that they began to pressurize. MGR was selected as the best actor (!) for 1967, for Kavalkaran. Remember NT had Nengirukkum Varai, Thiruvarutselvar and Iru Malargal to name a few that were miles ahead of Kavalkaran in that year. So in the next year when NT was awarded the best actor for Thillana, he refused the award. In the cinematic front also MGR had a mediocre run. In 1967 there was no Super hits for him and Kavalkaran, which was widely publicized as MGR’s comeback movie also, did not have a great run. His other movies like Arasa Kattalai, Thaikku Thalaimagan & Vivasayee were just average. Come 1968, except Kudiyirantha Kovil and to a certain extent Rahasiya Police 115 & Oli Vilakku, others (there were 5 other releases) failed to strike it rich. So NT’s graph was rising. But in 1969, MGR came back strongly with Adimai Penn & Nam Nadu (he had only 2 releases) and the clash was becoming big.

In 1969, Zakir Hussain, the President of India had passed away and there was going to be an election. The Congress working committee had deliberated on many names and decided on Sanjeeva Reddy. Indira was against his candidature but finally agreed. But there was uneasy calm. VV Giri had filed his papers as an independent. (Grapevine was, Indira had asked him to file the nomination) and suddenly she asked the Congress MPs to vote according to their conscience. This was bolt from the blue for the old guard who immediately categorized this as indiscipline and stated that Reddy’s candidature stands good. But Indira was firm and there were two parallel sessions of Congress working committee. Morarji, Nijalingappa, SK Patil, Ashok Mehta, Tarakeswari Sinha, Sanjeeva Reddy along with our PT were on the one side and Indira along with the young brigade was on the other side. The old guard came to be known as Congress (Organization) & Indira’s was known as Congress (Ruling). The election took place and Giri won. The DMK (MuKa was the CM) supported Indira. The split in Congress did not affect the TN unit as 99% of the party was with PT. Only a handful of people like CS, MB, KTKosalram, Gboovaraghavan, RVSaminathan & PChidambaram had gone to Indira’s fold. NT when asked about his choice said “ Raman irukkum idame seethaikku Ayodhi. Perunthalaivar irukkumidame enakku Congress.”

From here NT’s active politics started. He decided to make use of his fans in a constructive manner and all Mandrams that were operating were brought under a single umbrella- Akila India Sivaji Ganesan Rasikar Mandram. Sivaji Rasikar Mandram was the first one of its kind to become more organized. Chinna Annamalai was named the President and office started functioning in Teynampet Congress Building. The primary aim was to form a solid base for Congress and all these Mandrams worked as Congress utkilaikal. Only after seeing this, the MGR Mandrams were organized and there also the Potti Manapanmai came out when MGR named it as Akila Ulaga MGR Rasikar Mandram. Musiri Puthan became its President. (It was another comedy story that after some time MGR himself became the President of this. When the anomaly was pointed out, MGR changed the name to Akila Ulaga MGR Mandram).

Now having brought the fans under one fold, NT wanted them to get a clear message. He wanted to meet all and a conference was thought of. Every year the fans were celebrating NT’s birthday on Oct 1st and that was considered to be the apt date and the next day being Gandhi Jayanthi, a holiday, and a 2-day conference was arranged on 1st & 2nd of October 1970. The venue was Salem. The first day celebrations were for cinema people and the second day was political in nature. The crowds that thronged Salem were unprecedented and NT by this conference had sent out a message that he and his fans will give their heart and soul to Congress. (Another interesting info on the sidelines was, it was in this conference that JJ participated and told the gathering that she did not know what was acting till she acted with NT. She having been sidelined by MGR for USV and just days before this conference, he was shooting at Expo-70 at Osaka, Japan and she further went on to say while some heroes will suppress others in their movie, NT will encourage every artist in the movie. She asked the people to watch out for her performance in Engiruntho Vandhal, which was getting released on Deepavali (ie) 29th October 1970). The conference was filmed and shown along with Engiruntho Vandhal, during movie’s interval and Major did the background voice.

Meanwhile the conference had caught the imagination of everybody and the opponents could not digest its massive victory. MGR fans wanted to show their might and they organized a reception for him, when he came back after the Japan shooting. From the airport, he was taken on a procession and deliberately they reached Mount Road and when they reached Shanthi, they started throwing stones and whatever they could lay their hands on. The Police was a silent spectator and on hearing this NT fans were outraged and there were widespread protests. Some aggressive fans were ready to go on a warpath and I remember a poster in our neighbourhood that warned “ Naangal Thiruppi Thakkinal Sathya Studio-ve irukkathu”. Again a point on the sidelines is MGR’s Engal Thangam released just after this (10.10.1970) received an average reception, whereas NT’s Engiruntho Vandhal & Sorgam both released on Deepavali day (29.10.1970) went on to complete 100 days.

While such things were happening in TN, at Delhi Indira was bringing in legislations such as Nationalisation of Banks and abolition of Privy Purses to the royal families. The DMK was supporting her and so were the left. But since the Congress was split she was just scrapping thro’. In Rajya Sabha, she had just half way mark and when the bills were put to motion, it was defeated by a single vote. The culprit was none other than our SSR. He later gave the reason that he was suffering from Dysentery and that’s why he could not be present during voting. But unconfirmed sources said something else as the reason.
The Supreme Court had also struck down the legislations and Indira took an Adhiradi Mudivu. She recommended dissolution of Parliament and fresh elections were announced. On seeing this MuKa also recommended dissolution and fresh elections.

The Congress (O) leaders in other states may or may not have been ready for elections, but in TN, Congress was ready and now Rajaji realizing his earlier mistake of supporting DMK made common cause with PT and the whole of TN welcomed the joining of these two leaders. The Congress workers were on the field and NT fans fresh from the Salem conference started doing fieldwork. NT announced his election campaign, taking a break from shooting. He started from Tiruthani, and he was presented with a Vel in the abode of Lord Muruga and NT said, with this he will complete the Soora Samharam. The crowds that NT drew throughout his campaign were unprecedented and people were waiting past midnight to see and hear NT (No deadline of 10 pm, during those days) and wherever he went it looked like people wanted a change. PT was getting huge crowds and the joint meeting of PT & Rajaji at Marina was supposed to be the biggest ever. Why, even Cho who took up campaigning (his Thuglak was just 1 year old at that time) drew a mammoth crowd at Marina. Of course MGR & MuKa were also on tour and they were also getting big crowds. But there was news that Intelligence report (now the much accused Ulavu Thurai) gave Congress an edge. Indira, now on the mission of political elimination of her opponents made the first cardinal mistake of aligning with DMK. She started the downfall of Congress by this and till now Congress is unable to come out of this vicious circle of aligning with either of the Dravidian parties. Her only aim was to defeat PT and DMK sensing this treated Indira Congress in the worst possible manner. MuKa refused to give even a single assembly seat to IC and offered just 10 Parliament seats to it. Even Indira’s intervention did not help and people like CS and all accepted this. Indira met the elections with the slogan Gharibi Hato and the Congress old guard was unable to match the firepower of Chandrasekar (who later became PM) and company who were called as young Turks (Yuva Thurukkiyar). The elections were held in March 1971 (in fact NT had a release on the election day itself (i.e.) Arunodayam on Mar 5th, 1971) and the results were out in a couple of days. To every NT fans’ dismay, Congress alliance was routed and it could secure just 16 seats and Swatantra just 1. DMK finished with 184, a record till now. In parliament election results, Indira swept the polls and got two-thirds majority and in TN, out of 39 Parliament seats only PT emerged successful from Nagerkoil. It was unbelievable. People talked about malpractices and the use of Russian ink was widely talked about, in the sense the indelible mark was fast vanishing and this helped bogus voting, it was alleged. Nobody could really tell what went wrong. PT the ever-genuine person he is, dismissed these talks with his customary response (Maiyellam summanen, Makkal namakku vote podale, avvalauthanen). So Indira and MuKa assumed power with brute majority.

One reason that could point to the reversal of fortunes may lie in the fact that our TN people always voted for the same party in Parliament and assembly elections, if elections for both were held together. See they voted for Congress for both Parliament & Assembly in 1952,1957.1962. People voted for DMK alliance in 1967 & 1971. They voted for ADMK alliance in 1984 & 1991. They gave their verdict in favour of DMK-TMC alliance in 1996. Joint elections happened in the above mentioned years. When it was held separately, people gave a different verdict, like voting for DMK-Congress alliance in 1980 January for Parliament and voting for ADMK for assembly in 1980 June. Same way people voted for DMK in 1989 Jan assembly elections and for ADMK-Congress alliance in 1989 Nov Parliament elections. Well this is my thinking.

As the results were out, one question loomed large in front of Congress (O) people and NT fans. What next? What is our job hereafter? People were waiting for directions.

Friends, as this phase covers a lot of happenings, it is becoming too lengthy. I will break here and post the 1971-1975 happenings separately in 2-3 days time, which was also an important phase in NT’s political career.

Joe,

What Tamil font should I download to read your postings in Tamil?

Regards

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Murali Srinivas

Joe,

What Tamil font should I download to read your postings in Tamil?

Regards

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Tsc avarangal or Avarangal font or install ekalppai tool.

Btw,Between just to read my posts ,unicode support is enough,since I post in unicode.

Dear Joe Anne and Murali Srinivas Anne and others

Tamil ofcourse will be the most beautiful thing to read but a request to you all....

I wish this thread gets read by friends from all languages and hence please post in English only

This will enlighten friends who cannot read tamil to know more about OUR NT

Thanks

Murali Srinivas

Thalai suthudhu !! so many events have happened !!

Pl continue with your stupendous work !

THIS THREAD IS REACHING ITS PEAK I FEEL NOW !

Just one digression....

when did RV stood for South Madras Constituency ....was it during 77 elections ? I think Murasoli Maran was the opponent .....

digression ends....

Murali,
Just to read tamil unicode ,no need to download anything if you are using win XP and above.If you are using IE ,just choose View-encoding-Unicide(UTF-8) in IE

This thread has not even taken off....what do you mean peaked.? Let us stick to NT....I feared that we were getting into politics...thank god...During one of my visits to Boag Road(as it was called then)...after the political/election disaster - he had spent over 1.5 crores...he told me,'ellarayum kadankarangala vittuttu porein."...I told him that he is not going anywhere and that everything that is there is his blood,sweat and tears,so he shouldn't feel bad about it and that the family will easily overcome this setback.In fact after he finished the election campaign and retired to his "thottam" in soorakottai, he told my friend..."pochchuda,onnumey theiradhu...ellarum ennai rasikuraanga...nambamattaanga pola irukkuthu."
He knew the pulse....
Regarding the memorial,I had mentioned earlier...the memorial site is very close to the residence of Judges/Ministers etc and the Road leading to their Residence passes through the memorial and had to be relocated....there are some problems,they are being addressed,albeit a bit slowly,probably because of the elections....the family,the fans and friends of NT are well aware of it.In fact I am confidant that post elections work will soon commence.Porumai.....Bhoomi aluvome.
I am fascinated by Mr.Murali Srinivas,must meet him. :!: :D :!:

Welcome back Mr. Mohanram .....vanakkam

Atleast visit us once in 3 days pls ....

Murali Srinivas....... NOW ITS VASHISHTAR VAAYAL BRAHMARISHI

Oru artist ungalai paaraatumbodhu yetru kollungal ....

continue with your splendid work