Nadigar Thilagam Sivaji Ganesan

Very true Rajesh.

Of course, fans of earlier movies would cite NT and Banumathi.

But here's the beautiful truth. Performing with NT means you have work bloody hard to be in par with him. I don't think NT can tolerate slack performance in his partner's part.

That is why you can rarely see bad performance from the heroine.

I usually see this glitch in newcomers after the 70s. The lady in Gouvaram (forgot her name, Rama Prabhha?) who was really bad. Like reading off a teleprompter or something.

So, my point is this: Most of them are a treat to watch. For glamour (not contemporary but old fashioned), you have Devika. For fun, your have BS. For friction and tension you have JJ. For family emotion, you have Padmini and KR V, so on...

And thanks to their great performances with NT, we have our own little favourites. That is a gift NT and his co-stars have given us.

Marlon Brando who once said about Sivaji :
"Sivaji can act like me, but I cannot act like Sivaji!"
http://brando.crosscity.com/Brando/M...es/Sivaji.ascx

There can be many intepretation to that line. But knowing that usually Brando is kind to actors (and nightmare to some directors and producer) he has nothing but praise for NTs technique

He is a fan of Chaplin, Olivier, Gielgud...the latter did the entire recording of Marc Anthony's lines for the movie Julius Caesar and gave it to Brando who picked it up from there.

So, NTs stage-like performance may have captivated Brando.

Does anyone have any other news about these two geniuses meeting?

i missed to add my fav iruvar ullam in the NT-BS list

Well, its really disheartening to see NTs thread going lower and lower. No way. So, I am going to put in my thought for ten minutes and off to my work. We got to keep this thread alive while waiting for some REAL writing from the likes of Balaji, Joe, Murali sar and others.


I have been reading about Kannadhasan of late (plus having had just finished Vanavasam and Manavasam) and I am astonished to see how much NTs films have somehow (the stories, I mean) intertwined with what is happening in Kannadhasan's life.

I did some research (on the net) and found some old posts from this hub and others on Kannadhasan and the stories behind some of the songs. Yes, these stories are legendary. And it’s not enough.

Coming back to NT/Kannadhasan. Just look at some of NTs song and how Kannadhasan 'cashed' on it to throw in his own experience. This is 'method' in songwriting.

For example, when Kannadhasan (I refused to abbreviate to KD, because it sounds like Keedi) left DMK and there was an election where his pal EVK Sambath lost, he found the right scenario waiting for him in form of Bale Pandiya. Yes, the song was “Yaarai Enggey Vaippathendru”

This and more. Like when Panchu Arunachalam (his nephew/assistant) tried to undercut him in songwriting and when Kannadasan heard about it he was broken hearted. His poetic sensibility erupted in anger and voila! Gauravam was waiting for him to pen “Paalutti Valartha Kili”.

Many, many of NTs songs was Kannadasans little outlets to vent his frustration, love, hurt, dissapointment, joy (very little), regret, remorse (Nalanthana for his political foe and once political mentor, Anna), and any other emotion you can think of.

For nostalgia of his old romance there was Ennai Yaarendru Yenni Yenni. Kannadasan BECOMES NTs character. He is in love, when NTs character falls in love. He cries, when NTs character cries. In fact, when NTs cries on screen, I can feel that Kannadasan cried the loudest as you can feel the pain in those lyrics. Check out this line where even God was not left out:

(Enggey Nimmathi)

enna ninaiththu ennaip padaiththaan iraivan enbavanae?
kannaip padaiththu pennaip padaiththa iraivan kodiyavanae...
iraivan kodiyavanae!

I had always argued that on screen talent gives way to off screen talent. These days you can’t get quality stories, quality roles because the on screen talents are very limited.

There is only so much the writer can do, the director can do. That is why the films these days are beautiful to look at…because the cinematographer can do his/she best without having the onscreen talents involved. So what if the girl can’t act, the cinematographer can have a field day with his lighting, location and lenses and filters.

But poor director. He/she would want the characters to be three dimensional. No way. The actors can’t do it. Poor lyricists. He/she wants to write songs that are meant to tell what is happening to the character, but our current crop of roles sing only when they are dreaming…or doing some street dance.

Kannadasan was fortunate that talents surrounded him. Most importantly he had an actor who was able to do many, many three dimensional characters. He had an actor who could do roles that any mortals can relate to. Most importantly, Kannadasan himself was a very, very complex, complicated and conflicted…just like most of NTs characters. What a joy it must have been to be able to write so many things for NT.

Well, I guess I wrote too much and bored you guys. Just my feeling guys, just my feeling.

(By writing these, I am not belittling Kannadhasan’s rival, Vaali. Vaali is an entirely different story. He is a living legend that I hope people will cherish WHILE he’s still around.)

Dear Groucho070,

I can understand your feelings. See, in the other threads about present day actors, the fans(forum hubbers) are students/just out of college and they are in their 20s' and early 30s'. So they will be more in nos and they also have the advantage of talking about new releases, new projects on the floor and pipeline, status of released movies and so on. But our group is different and if you could see the age group here will be matured one and the quality here will also be more than other threads. So a chat type of posting which will just consume cyberspace cannot be found here.

Coming to other points, there are so many things to be written on NT-Kannadasan combination and I fell that will flow soon. Infact Mohanram sir is having something on these lines and he will come out with it soon.

Infact, I had started to say something about Yaar Indha Nilavu from Shanthi when Mohanram sir asked me to wait. So we can expect some good news.

I started the political phase just like that but that had grown bigger than I initially expected. In the same manner a casual remark by me regarding the favourite pair had elicited responses from many people and see different choices have sprung up. There are regular people like tacinema, Shakthi Prabha,uma ramesh etc who will also come out with their views.

When you talked about NT- Kannadasn combo, I remembered a question answer that came in a Film monthly called Filmalaya that was widely read. I think this particular thing came during 1974 -75. It was called Genius Bathilgal. It was like this

Q: Tamil cinemavin inimayana vishyam enna?

A: Kannadasan paadal ezhuthi, Viswanathan Isai amaithu, TMS paadi Sivaji nadippathai vida inimaiyana vishyam Tamil cinemavil irukiratha enna?


Regards

What an answer. Well, the golden age is gone. That is why it's a golden age. I hunger for more info on those trio (you can add KVM occasionally).

By the way, sar, I am thirty three years old. But I guess inside I have a much more matured taste.

I was never an NT fan during my younger (meaning in Teens) days. I was into MGR. Then, I stepped out into the real world and started to be interested in Hollywood. I started reading about filmmaking, both the technical side and philosophical side.

Then...slowly...interest in MGR waned (zero, except I am fascinated with him as a person, the intelligence, the shrewdness, the way he built himself). And as I began to see the more intelligent side of talents in front and behind camera, I began to appreciate NT more and more.

Now I am mad about him. Its not the fascination with acting that brought me to him. But its the immense contribution an actor has to make to give space for the director/composer/etc to fill in that fascinates me. NT gave rise to that. As I wrote in the post before this, his collaborators were at their Peak. Referring to your articles, we can easily compare the brilliance of APN, Sridhar, Banthulu when they were with NT and then with others. Never can you see creativity graph shooting down that low.


We have to keep this thread alive and afloat...so that it can attract more interested readers. Lets make this thread exclusive so that those participating will feel special being in a company full of special intelligent contributors like you and others.

Here's what I say to the others:

The likes of Vijay and Ajith are big fans of Kamal and Rajini.

Kamal and Rajini - both NT fans first- refers to Sivaji as mentor AND father figure.

That makes us rank the same as Kamal and Rajini as fans. We can sit with them and talk about NT while the others would be left out.

Damn I feel special.

Dear Groucho070,

I am very happy to learn that a 33 year old is such an avid fan of NT. Ofcourse I know 2, 3 guys in their early 20s' (working with me) who are great NT fans courtesy their father.

It was also interesting to note that you migrated(!) from MGR to NT. Though I used to see MGR movies at the time of release, I started observing his films/songs/dialogues etc only after 1987 Dec. I had posted one detailed writing about MGR in his thread in this forum.

Don't worry.NT has the capacity to stand for centuries and the same way this thread can also go on.

Regards

PS: I liked your comment of equating Kamal,Rajini and all of us in front of NT.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Murali Srinivas

Dear Balaji,

In my reply to your post, I wanted to answer only questions that required an answer and while doing so, I sort of confused the technical part of quoting and replying. That's why it is posted in that manner. Sorry.

Regards

---

Murali Anna

Thanks a lot for your replies :D

Dear Groucho070

Happy to see your presence & enthusiasm & your active participation :D

My wife was a MGR fan when I got married :)

On seeing me enjoying watching every STEP & REACTIONS of NT, she has become a full fledged NT fan now ! :D

Well as Murali Anna said, I became a fan of NT as my Father was a BIG FAN OF NT !

Those days, NT had several categories of fan following :

1. Our Father group - Those who must have crossed 75 years now !
their favourite movies were :
Parasakthi, uttamaputhiran, Andhanaal, Manohara , Thooku thooki etc
2. The famous Paa series group - The Bheemsingh movie followers

The above Paa series were liked by Our Mother group

3. Sridhar group

This is an extension from the 2nd group.

4. The end 60s and up to mid 70s - P.Madhavan, Vietnam veedu Sundaram, ACT, Muktha srinivasan group

From here most of my set of fans start

I learnt a lot from my Father about NT & his acting , especially his styles in Uthamaputhiran , Manohara etc

Can you believe this, my Father had seen Manohara more than 25 times ! and his favourite time pass during weekends was to say all the dialogues of famous NT movies !

Sadly, the entire fans lost interest virtually after the mid 70s... the reason is obvious. The age factor...
NT was not given suitable roles to get the best out of him

Ultimately after a looong time, Barathi raja gave an outstanding role ! if you observe this movie, NT would have spoken very few dialogues but look at his impact !

To summarise :

NT had / has fan following from different age groups which IMO no other artist had till date !

AND NT WILL CONTINUE TO HAVE FAN FOLLOWING FROM THE NEXTE GENERATION ALSO

Pl continue to share information with us .

Pl dont feel sad that this thread is weakening. THIS IS THE STRONGEST THREAD WHICH WILL LAST FOREVER