Originally Posted by
mahendra raj
MGR, along with his troupe, attended a dinner function hosted by the Kuala Lumpur & Selangor Indian Hairdressers' Association, at the then Kum Leng restaurant located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. I am sure formal arrangements must have been made for this private function by the hosts taking advantage of MGR's visit to shoot Ulagam Sutrum Vaaliban. (recently I was told by my own hairdresser, an Indian citizen, that apart from MGR no other Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu went on record till todate attending any hairdressers' function in Tamil Nad).
The late P. Ramlee (who died in 1973) was the Malaysian artiste-in-attendance for MGR. He was the leading Malay film artiste and was equally popular among local Indians and the Chinese apart from the Malays.
When MGR arrived at the vicinity of the dinner function he was overwhelmed by the massive crowd waiting to catch a glimpse of him (myself included). In the melee and crowd frenzy, P. Ramlee 'lost' MGR. He just couldn't enter the restaurant whilst MGR was whisked away inside. The others like Ashokan, Nagesh, Manjula,,Chandrakala and Latha stayed put inside their respective vehicles although there were some who crowded around them too.
Seeing it was futile to wait for MGR to exit, poor P. Ramlee had to hail a passing taxi with a garland still holding in hand. Yes, he was feted along with MGR upon arrival but thats it. Thereafter, he was just a tiny speck in the crowd. Here, a local top hero who was unwittingly relegated to an ordinary persona due to MGR mania! But he took all that sportively as in line with his charisma and was even waving to the crowd with a broad smile as though acknowledging what just happened.
Inside the dinner function hall, MGR excused himself after being there for about half-an-hour only citing the safety of the other members of his troupe who could not enter due to the massive crowd, however, he did give a short speech and ate dinner. The hosts understood the situation but nevertheless were very, very happy that MGR had respected their invitation which is still unparalleled by any other VVIPs.
