Nadigar Thilagam Sivaji Ganesan - Part 5

அவரது திறமையைப்பற்றி எல்லோருக்கும் தெரிந்ததுதான் (மத்திய அரசில் அமர்ந்திருக்கும் பணிரென்டு தேர்வுக்கமிட்டி உறுப்பினர்கள் தவிர). அதுமட்டுமல்ல, அவரது படைப்புகள் ஜீவனோடு இருக்கும் வரை வருஙால சந்ததியினர் நிச்சயம் அவரது திறமைகளை அறிந்துவியக்க நிஜமான நிச்சயமான வாய்ப்புக்கள் உண்டு.

ஆனால் அவரது திரைப்படங்கள் அரங்குகளில் ஓடிய அன்றைக்கு, எப்படியும் தொடர்ந்து 100 காட்சிகள் நிறைந்துவிடும் என்று நம்பியிருந்த வேலையில் 94 வது காட்சி கொஞ்சம் இழுபறியாக இருக்கும் நேரத்தில் முகத்தில் சோகத்துடன் திரையரங்கு 'கேட்'டைப்பிடித்தபடி கிட்டத்தட்ட ஒரு தவம் செய்வது போல நின்றிருந்த ரசிகனுக்கு, திடீரென ஒரு கூட்டம் அரங்கத்துக்குள் படையெடுக்க, அதன்மூலம் டிக்கெட்டுகள் விற்றுத்தீர்ந்து 'HOUSE FULL' என்ற போர்டு போடப்பட்டதைப் பார்த்து, முகத்தில் மகிழ்ச்சி பொங்க ஜென்மமே சாபல்யம் அடைந்தது போல சென்ற ரசிகனுக்கு.........

..........இன்றைக்கு கம்ப்யூட்டரும், கீ போர்டுமாக இருக்கின்ற ஒரு கூட்டம், வலைப்பூக்கள் எழுதுகிறேன் பேர்வழி என்ற எண்ணத்துடன், தப்பும் தவறுமாக கேள்விப்பட்ட சில அரைகுறை செய்திகளை வைத்துக்கொண்டு அவரது சாதனைகளை சிதைக்க முற்படும்போது, அன்றைக்கு தியேட்டர் 'கேட்'டைப்பிடித்துக்கொண்டு தவம் செய்த ரசிகன் மனதில் வலி ஏற்படுவது உண்மை.

அப்படிப்ப்ட்ட 'சிதைப்பு வேலைகளை' முறியடிக்க, இதுபோன்ற 'சாதனைத்தொடர்கள்' அவசியமே. இல்லையெனில் 'கணினி விளையாட்டினர்' கொஞ்ச நாளில்..... "ஆமாம் அவர் நன்றாக நடித்தார்தான். ஆனாலும் அவரது படங்கள் எதுவும் அவ்வளவாக ஓடியதாக தெரியவில்லை" என்று தங்கள் மேதாவிலாசத்தைக் காட்டி தங்கள் கட்டுரையை முடித்தால் என்னாவது...?.

dear saradha, "sivaji naditha padangal odavillai" endru appadi avargal mudithal, enna aagum? I have an answer for that.
Future generations who see Sivaji in action will reconcile this with his alleged box-office failures like the following - "namma parents, grandparents generationku konjam kooda rasaniye illaipa. Ipdi oru mahanadigan padangalaiai flop-aaga vittangale"
So, as long as his movies can be seen, infamy, if any will accrue probably only to us the fans for letting his movies flop(assuming that the future generations are brainwashed into believing that) :-)

Plum,
while you think let the future generation be brainwashed with misinformation ,we all others think it is better to change some misinformation ..Do you have any problem with that ?

Even if you think it is not necessary ,let it be and hope you don't argue it shouldn't be done .

Murali sir, Having read your "Pinnurai", I could understand your hardwork & enthusiasm in getting all these details. At first, I didn't follow your posts with that much interest since not all of us would be keen to know the box office statistics. Now, the reasons that you cited for such an effort is more than enough for me to go through them.

It is true that the current generation esp online kids post anything freely based on what they hear from others. Most of the online kids generalize many things like Sivaji, kamal na class etc. Most of them might have hardly known the mass following for these stars. They are mislead and your posts might serve as repositories and great references for others who argue for Sivaji's box office successes.

இணைய உலகம் தமிழகத்தின் யதார்த்தத்தை உள்வாங்க மறுக்கிறது அல்லது மறுத்து வருகின்றது. இது நடை முறையில் நான் கண்ட ஒரு கசப்பான உண்மை. இதற்க்கு ஒரே மாற்று, தகுந்த சான்றுகளும், ஆதாரங்களும். அதை அழகாக தொகுத்து அளித்துள்ளீர்கள். அடுத்த முயற்சி என்ன ? :)

saradhaa_sn,
That was again a good post. Mostly you write from the perspective of the fans and that is helpful for us to connect with your thoughts.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Plum

dear saradha, "sivaji naditha padangal odavillai" endru appadi avargal mudithal, enna aagum? I have an answer for that.
Future generations who see Sivaji in action will reconcile this with his alleged box-office failures like the following - "namma parents, grandparents generationku konjam kooda rasaniye illaipa. Ipdi oru mahanadigan padangalaiai flop-aaga vittangale"
So, as long as his movies can be seen, infamy, if any will accrue probably only to us the fans for letting his movies flop(assuming that the future generations are brainwashed into believing that) :-)

---

Dear Plum and my beloved friends,
Pls forgive me for interfering in your interesting discussion. As Saradha said, Murali has expressed not his personal views, but has reflected the millions of die hard fans of Sivaji, (mind we fans are fans of NT for not a few years but for a minimum of 3 to 4 decades). Like NT, we too have been mutely witnessing the calculated misinfo on NT by various media. While I agree that NT's acting would go beyond many generations, we feel it is our duty to establish that he is the "real" Box office King. Now while there are so many channels telecasting either the songs or movies of NT, none of them allows a single word in praise of HIM. May be it is NT's fault to have born as a Tamilian. Murali's postings and analyses give true picture of how NT was a darling of the directors and producers. I can ask one question to any lover of Tamil cinema for which there will be only one answer, that is Sivaji Ganesan. The question is, has any other hero in Tamil cinema (except of course, Prabhu, his son), has given so many pictures as more than 10 in a calender year, or academic year or financial year, or for that matter any cycle of the year? Can you imagine what would have been the plight of those so called Box office kings, had they been bold enough to give 10 films in a year. This is only a sample. As Saradha said, there were moments when we would eagerly look forward to the Houseful Shows at the Theatres where NT's films were released.
Coming to the point, most of the channels and comperers least bother about NT's achievements as a hero and do not utter a single word. Leave alone Box Office matter, when a philosophical song, or when a social message song of NT is telecast, they do not utter a single word about the contents of that song or on Nadigar Thilagam. This kind of attitude to such a great artiste, particularly belonging to Tamil land. is highly painful.
And if only our Film Society in emerges successfully, it would definitely pave way for us to bring out the real glories of NT as a Box Office Thilagam.
Thank you and with kind regards to all of you,
Raghavendran.

Thanks Ragavendar Sir for your kind words.

Rakesh, it is my pleasure. The very purpose of writing this series was to set the record straight as you rightly put it.

Thanks Kalnayak. Yes, I also hope for the same.

Senthil, welcome and start sharing.

Thiru,

Thank you so much.

நன்றி செல்வா. அடுத்து என்ன என்றெல்லாம் யோசிக்கவே இல்லை. தானாகவே ஏதாவது வரும்.

சாரதா,

மனங்கனிந்த நன்றி. தனி மடலும் பார்த்தேன். எல்லா புகழும் நடிகர் திலகத்திற்கே.

Plum,

I am neither hurt nor feel bad about your frank views. In fact I am happy (and I mean it) that you, like your father has chosen to be a NT fan. As I said many times, we do understand that for some people who love NT, BO success doesn't matter and they love to discuss more about the characterisation and his performance. Nothing wrong in it. But as Saradhaa and Ragavendar put it, the fans who were there in the field, especially in the 60s and 70s feel very bad and deeply hurt when calculated misinformation is spread about NT's BO power.

As Ragavendar Sir rightly pointed out that nobody in the Tamil film industry had the guts to release so many films in a single year and that too year after year. What I had pointed out about future generation being fed with false information is totally valid. One blog writer had recently said that the highest grossing film of 1972 is not Vasantha Maaligai, not Pattikkaada Pattanamaa but --- some thing else. I didn't know how to react, when I read that.

I very well remember you exclaiming in Paadalgal Palavitham thread when you learnt that Paava Maniippu, Pasa Malar and Paalum Pazhamum were released in the same year. So there were some in Tamil cinema who had only some BO success to show off. There were some who could show that they are good actors. But NT was the only person who could prove that he is not only King of acting but also a King in BO. He was the only one who could combine quality and quantity without any difficulty.

So we accept your view point and at the same time let us also talk about his BO achievements at regular intervals to drive home the point. We will always be primarily discussing about his acting.

Regards

"Even if you think it is not necessary ,let it be and hope you don't argue it shouldn't be done .
"
As if I have the audacity to think even that I am that significant !- like I said I am amazed by the dedication of people like Raghavendra, Saradha and ofcourse Murali - I cant even begin to understand the levels of their fandom for SG so where is the question of me even thinking that :-)

Murali, absolutely agree. As I said, I read and enjoyed reading this thread so no questions at all on that - I just made a few additional points on why a fan shouldnt be disheartened by misinformed or malformed minds twisting facts - because we have the ultimate brahmastram that any sensible movie fan who sees NT in the future would become a fan automatically and box office records wouldnt even matter to him.

Even the so-called Box office kings- my point is that the future generation wouldnt even care for such so-called box office records of them either. They would be arguing about why their current boxoffice king is better than the so-called box office king of 60's, 70's or 80's and 90's - beyond a point that fame wouldnt last for them no matter how much conspiracy is hatched but NT's fame would last because the beauty is that proof for that would be instant and as simple as watching him in his movies so my point was intended as a balm for the great fans here that there is no need to worry about, like I said, misinformed and malformed minds :-)

Hope that clarifieds my stand and like you said, we all agree with each other. Lets move on

The only problem with releasing so many movies in a year was that some had to be removed before they could create the box office records - that is something I can relate to the pain of fans here because that is something my father used to crib about, too - and partly, I think I inherited his gripe about the less-glittering gems of sivaji because he felt that without them the biggies would have gone on to create even bigger records

Who are these people who are spreading calculated misinformation or twisting facts? What is the reason to do that? I didn't grow up in the MGR-Sivaji era to know the real box-office results but the general perception among the public was that MGR was the box-office king of that era. Not that Sivaji didn't have any box-office appeal but that MGR had bigger box-office clout. Murali has presented lots of interesting data and I am not disputing that but why does the public perception differ? What would be interesting is an analysis into why people think to the contrary. A reasonable analysis (with data) has better chance of convincing people rather than just presenting data.

Another question that I have had was why NT never won a national award and also asked it here. With so many die-hard NT fans, I thought people would jump all over it but no response. As hard-core fans, I am sure this would have been discussed thread-bare in those days. If not here, is there a link or article where this has been discussed?

Being NT's thread, I guess I expect(ed) a little more critical analysis but the discussions here somewhat border on blind hero-worshipping associated with some other actors who have nothing else to talk about other than the box office. Of course, all IMO.

Comment,

The issue you brought up is old. You got to track back hundreds of page to look at that discussion. We are over. Most of us agree that National Award is a joke. Its not about which film deserves the best, its about who’s sitting there and what they want.

NT’s accolades are far and varied, going all the way to France, beginning with Egypt in the late 50s. We have covered that.

There is no blind worshipping. That is data backed praising. Call me a blind worshipper if I say NT’s performance in Chitra Pournami deserves an Oscar. In our reviews, we explain the good and the bad. Too bad, in retrospect we choose good films to share. He has done some really poor one, and mostly it is not his fault. Why? It has been explained. If you want we can go back and look at some really bad films and review them. Do we need to do that? The man left behind a legacy of great performances and it is only apt that we share it with the current generations…many are even aspiring actors and actresses. They may not appreciate these efforts yet…so it is the duty of us, the fans who know what is NT’s best aspects as far as his talents are concerned, to share with them. This thread has converted many non-NT fans as one now.

If NT is here now, and active, I’d have been sharpening my critics pen and analyse him real time. Its different. He is a monument to the Tamizh film industry. This is how we look at him now.

As for your analysis accompanying data…haha…there are things that people just can’t take. It may involve finger pointing…and frankly, most are no longer around and it is unfair if we start revising history and start blame game. The datas are they for us to see…we do our own analysis.

Thanks for your comment, err…Comment.