MGR - the Man from Marathur and Malai Nadu
MGR - the Man from Marathur and Malai Nadu
Eighty two years ago, a baby boy was born to a migrant couple, Gopala Menon and Sathyabama, in a ‘line-room’ of a tea estate in Kandy. Later, this baby boy would grow into a leader with the name Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (popularly adored by Tamils all over the world with the acronym MGR).
MGR with Velupillai PirabaharanMaruthur was the ancestral village in the Kerala state from where his parents hailed from. Many have ridiculed the uncertainty of his birth date, though MGR had used 17 January 1917 in his personal documents. One should sympathise with MGR on this matter because he was born to an Indian immigrant family in a tea plantation in Ceylon, which was then under British colonial rule. Way back in 1917, the health care facilities available for the plantation workers were atrocious, leave alone the requirements related to birth registration. That he survived into adulthood itself was an achievement.
Though as a two-year old he was taken to Kumbakonam by his mother (who had been widowed after the birth of MGR), the destiny would make it that in his last five years of life, MGR would again have close links with the Tamils in the land of his birth. After landing in Tamil Nadu, MGR would rise in his professional ranks with perseverance, hard work and the smile of Lady Luck. He reached the ‘top’, step by step; 10 years as a vaudeville child actor, 10 years as an apprentice actor with secondary roles in movies, 30 years as an ‘uncrowned king’ in the Tamil movie land and finally 10 years as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
Having experienced poverty personally during his young days and forfeiting the opportunity to have a formal education, MGR would see to it that at least one song in his movie had some educational value to the average man.
He would take a keen interest in the theme of the song, its musical composition and its exact appearance in the movie. Not surprisingly, it would turn out to be a hit song. I can recollect a dozen of these songs here:
1. Acheham enpathu madamaiyadah - Anjaamai Dravidar udamaiyadah (on Dravidian glory and heroism)
2. Thoongathe Thambi Thoongathe - Nee somberi enra peyar vaankaathe (on the consequences of idling and procrastination)
3. Chinna payale Chinna payale Chethi keladah (on character-building and self confidence)
4. Thirudathe - Paapaa Thirudathe (on prevention of bad habits, especially stealing, while young)
5. Moonrezhuthil En Moochchirukkum - Athu mudinthapin thaane Pechehirukkum (on the dignity of duty)
6. Onru Engal Jathiye - Ouru Engal Neethiye (on the unity of human race)
7. Unnai Arinthaal Nee Unnai Arinthaal Ulagthil Pooradalaam (on developing self confidence)
8. Buddhan Jesu Gandhi pirandathu Bhoomiyil etharkaaka (on the dignity of labour)
9. Atho Antha paravai pola vazhayendum (on freedom and liberty)
10. Thaayillamal Naanillai Thaane evarum piranthathillai (on mother love)
11. Chirithu vazhavendum - Nee chirikka vazhnthidathe (on dignity of the labour)
12. Poomazhai thoovi vasanthangal vaaztha oorvalam nadakkirathu.(on sibling love)
MGR would also make sure that he will teach good manners and discipline to the masses through the movies. Therefore, in the characters he played in 120-odd movies, he would never smoke or take alcoholic drinks. On top of that, he would never physically or mentally abuse women. This self-imposed rigidity restricted the character roles he would play and movie critics ridiculed him for this 'un-natural style' of his characters. But MGR would have the last word. Ultimately, he claimed the respected honorific ‘vaathiyar’ (teacher) in its proper sense of the word.
Call it a mere coincidence or the destiny of Eelam Tamils, that when the liberation struggle began earnestly in 1977, MGR would become the chief minister of the Tamil Nadu. Though his interest in the problems of Eelam Tamils remained passive till 1982, the ethnic holocaust of 1983 kindled his support for the Eelam cause. 1983 also saw the change in guard among the political leaders of the Eelam Tamils. MGR had never felt comfortable with the TULF leadership since he had perceived them as emotionally more close to the DMK leadership.
When the leadership mantle in the struggle for Eelam needed a change and a boost, MGR became the god-father of the LTTE and made sure that the ‘new born baby’ would not suffer a premature death in the hands of wily J.R.Jayewardene...
To his allies in politics, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, the link that MGR had with the LTTE proved embarrassing. But they simply had to ignore it for their own political survival in the South India. For the support that he extended to the Tamil Eelam cause, MGR became the arch-enemy of the Sinhalese power brokers from 1983 till his death in December 1987.
Many Eelam Tamils also did not expect much from MGR after his skirmish with the TULF leadership at the 1981 Madurai Tamil International Conference. But, now in hindsight, one can see how vital was the support of MGR for the Eelam cause from 1983 till his death.
That the admiration Tamil masses had for MGR was not purely a ‘cinema craze’ was proved in India, when movie stars of equal stature such as Sivaji Ganesan, N.T. Rama Rao and Amitabh Bachehan could not transfer their popularity in movies to the political world. The political careers of Sivaji Ganesan and Amitabh Bachehan never took off from the ground.
Only N.T.Rama Rao was able to become the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh and he too lost that position subsequently. To my friends in the USA, when I tried to explain the unusual career of MGR, I called him a "three-in-one". He had the movie magic of John Wayne, the political success of Ronald Reagan and the messianic appeal of Martin Luther King Jr.
How could one explain the extraordinary career of MGR, which began in Kandy and ended in Madras? Though not considered a native in the place of his birth or in Tamil Nadu where he grew up and called it home, he became the adored leader, who would be envied by every local politician.
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At least Kavi Arasu Kannadasan (who had been a close friend and sometimes harshest critic of MGR) had an answer. In 1980, Kannadasan noted that MGR was blessed with an "Asura jathakam" (devil’s horoscope). Not everyone will agree with that assessment. But, considering the unfavourable odds he faced in his life and the ‘fights’ he won, definitely there should have been a blessing from the devil which protected him in so many trials.
Like other great leaders and revolutionaries, MGR also had his weaknesses. But these do not detract the good deeds he did for the down-trodden in Tamil Nadu and for Eelam Tamils who landed in India as refugees after 1983. MGR was neither an intellectual nor a folk philosopher. But his life-time teaching was short and simple; "Fight for your Rights". That’s what he preached in his 100-odd movies. ...We miss you, Vathiyar.
Biography Of MG Ramachandran:The King of the South
Biography Of MG Ramachandran
The (Celluloid) King of the South
M.R. Radha, a leathery actor well known for playing the villain in Tamil films, had a grouse. There had been a fight with the matinee idol of millions of Tamilians, only a low days ago, in the studio.
Radha drove straight to the vast mansion in the suburbs of Madras and fired three shots at point blank range at its owner. I he bullets just grazed the neck of the victim. He was rushed to the Royapettah I lospital. The doctors called it a miraculous nscape. Before the victim reached the hospital, the news of the shoot out had loached the very length and breadth of Madras. Thousands and thousands of fans reached the hospital. The police got worried nbout the assailant. They had to protect him.
When the crowd was informed that their idol has won over death, there was a thunder of applause. The idol had proved once again what he had been proving in all his films. Invincibility and the victory of good over evil.
This happened about two months before the 1967 elections. I he assailant, after a lengthy trial, was sentenced to seven years ngorous imprisonment. And the victim?
He went on to head the Government of Tamilnadu. And his name was Maruthm Gopala Ramachandra Menon, popularly known as MGR.
MGR’s is a typical rags-to riches story. From a childhood of plain starvation to an adulthood of un-crowned kingship of theFilm World and crowned “Kingship” of a state, MGR travelled i long long road, full of ups and downs…
Maruthm Gopala Ramachandra Menon was born in Kandy? Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) on 17January 1917. But this is a controversial date; some people say that MGR was born at least seven years earlier. His elder brother, M.G. Chakrapani, himself a retired actor and producer, is certain that MGR’s actual date of birth cannot be more than six months removed, either way, from the official date.
It is an interesting contradiction that MGR, a Malayalee, should have risen spectacularly within the DMK—a Tamil chauvinist party. But the fact that his mother-tongue is Malayalam, and not the alliterative Tamil he practises on political platforms, was largely forgotten—till his rivals raked up the issue in 1973 when he broke away from the DMK and formed his own party. In all fairness, it should be said that Tamil was the only language MGR could read, write and speak fluently.
As with his birth date, the question of what his father did for a living gets conflicting answers. Was he a magistrate? Or a college principal? A tea plantation labourer? Chakrapani himself does not remember, but he is inclined to accept the popular version: that his father was a junior civil servant. Whatever he was, MGR’s father did not leave any savings behind. After his death, his family—bereaved and pennyless—was brought to Palghat, a town in Kerala, by an uncle who left the widow and her three children, the first of them a girl, to their own devices as soon as they reached Palghat. “We never saw our uncle again,” says Chakrapani. “Nobody knows what happened to him after he reached us to Palghat.”
The days in Palghat were worse than the days in Sri Lanka. The only person whom the family knew well enough to trust was a retired police constable Velu Nair. An old friend of MGR’s father, he arranged for the family to stay with his sister in Kumbakonam, a town in Tamil Nadu. Kumbakonam did not result in any miracles; Velu Nair’s sister was barely making a living herself and feeding a family of four was just beyond her meagre means. Velu Nair his mistake soon enough and moved the family to a .npiirate house. And in spite of his age and indifferent health, he looks up a job to support the three children and their sick mother.
MGR, around seven then, and Chakrapani, were studying in i Government school when Velu Nair’s employers were forced into bankruptcy—and the family slid from poverty to plain iinrvation. Provisions ran out a few days after Velu Nair lost his juh, and the boys knew they had to choose between getting an . ( location and getting a job for the survival of the family. MGR still nmiembers those terrible days. When his political opponents played up the allegation that he knew little or nothing about managing government finances, MGR said: “I may not know the intricacies of high finance and I do not claim to be a pundit in economics. But what I do know is hunger and starvation. I have h Ht them for days on end when my mother had nothing to offer us children when we returned home from school. I also know how it loels to be without work, without the money it brings in. I have i |one up and down countless steps looking for a job and I have heard a thousand times the dreaded words, ‘no vacancy’. I will do everything I can so that mothers in Tamil Nadu don’t suffer as my mother did years ago.” That was not the first time he said that, either. For years, MGR has been turning his past into a powerful weapon.
A travelling drama troupe, quaintly named Madurai Original Boys’ Company, was camping then at Kumbakonam and playing to packed houses from ten in the night to four in the morning. MGR and his brother, the former only ten years of age, went backstage one day and were immediately hired as apprentice actors. “In those days, young boys were in great demand by travelling troupes since young girls and women refused to go on stage,” recalls Chakrapani. “Boys were dressed up in colourful sarees and were taught to play all kinds of female roles with impunity—if they had a trilling voice that could pass off as a girl’s.” The young boys, fair and handsome saw some hope at last. But their luck ran out when their voices ‘broke’ and took a deep, manly ring. They could not sing or deliver high-pitched marathon monologues anymore, and they were politely shown the way out.
Bent on a stage career, MGR soon landed himself a m sized acting job in another company. Quite different from In. earlier song and dance routine, the new act demanded a lot ni mock-fighting and fairly dangerous stunts. Doggedly, MGR leami all the tricks of the tumbling trade. Chakrapani, who also found i job for himself in the same company, says: “Many people wantci to learn the stunts but most of them found the training very rigorou. and quit the company in no time. MGR is one of those who staye* I till the end.”
So good was MGR, that when the company toured Burma, entertaining the Tamil settlers, MGR was given star billing Returning from the tour, MGR went back to the old company and played more adult roles. When a popular play Sati Leelavatiwas made into a film in the early ‘forties, MGR got his first movie break—with a minor role lasting a few screen minutes. Over the next few years, he continued acting in costume plays-and in listless movies. In 1947, MGR acted in Rajakumari, a film that lifted him from the obscurity of andextra’ to genuine stardom.
MGR had started taking interest in politics by the time Rajakumari had hit the silver screen. Like most Indians of that time, MGR’s political awareness was limited to admiring Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru. Sharing the prevailing feeling of patriotism, he was briefly attracted to the Congress Party, and attended a few meetings wearing homespun khadi cloth. But it was E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker (EVR), a “blasphemous” rabble-rouser, who stirred MGR’s political imagination. A Brahmin-baiter and a loud-thinking atheist, EVR initiated the ’self-respect’ movement that sought to liberate the low castes from the tyranny of ostracism practised by the upper castes. EVR’s militancy extended to accusing the Aryan North of imposing their rule on the Dravidians. Dravida Kazhagam, EVR’s Party, was more interested in reformation than in politics; it attracted many talented young men and women, prominent among them were Annadurai and Karunanidhi.
MGR was close to Annadurai; their friendship lasted till Anna died in ‘69. But when Anna and his friends quit the Dravida the following EVR’s marriage to a person 25 years his iii ii, MGR decided to join the newly formed Dravida Munnetra i/liiujam (DMK). “There were several reasons why we walked ii Ni the Dravida Kazhagam,” recalls Chakrapani. “EVR had iniixl one of his own pet social codes that old men should not my girls several years younger. And then EVR was not a bit iiuciatic; he also did not want participation in the politics of MGR’s movie career started moving upwards in the ‘fifties, lion-filled capers like AH Baba and the Forty Thieves and inliiiknllan kept the box-office full for weeks at a stretch. Annadurai t I Karunanidhi had just then realised the importance of celluloid ililics and MGR was only to happy to drum up popular support 1 ‘i IIio DMK through many of his films—a line here on Anna’s i ililical strategy, a song there on the party symbol (the rising mi) When colour came to Tamil films, MGR often wore a red hhl tucked into black trousers, with more regard to his Party i hull the costume designer’s feelings; black and red are the two Hours of the DMK flag.
No one can accuse MGR of preaching “immorality” in his movies. For instance, he did not drink, smoke, swear or gamble— on the screen or off it. Women merited his undivided respect; ovon though you see him indulging in hectic romance in any number of films, one does not remember any film in which he hns gone further on the logical road. Even when a wicked plot i hove him into spending a lonely night with a young woman, MGR would rather curl up with a book written by Anna than make umorous advances. Or he would suspend a makeshift curtain (with a red and black border, perhaps), between himself and the “lomptation".
For older women, especially his screen mothers, MGR 11 (served an equally solicitous attitude. He was all that any mother could ever hope for in her son: loving, responsible, reverent-and fio obedient, he was always sacrificing his own happiness for MGR’s concern for mothers had a personal parallel; lm mother lived long enough to see him succeed as an actor—I ml not long enough to see him as a superstar. His popularity rose ti > stupendous heights only in the ’60s. MGR could not help feelimj that life dealt his mother a raw deal what with the early widowhood, and the death of her first surviving daughter—MGR’s sister wlm died of tuberculosis when she was just 20.
Fur-capped (because he was bald), and wearing dark glasses all the time, MGR was a demi-God dispensing promises of happiness to thousands, women in particular. His public meetings got as many women as men; in some rural pockets, the women outnumbered men. Young mothers brought in their newborn babies to be named by MGR, hoping the children will have a bright future. Housewives cheered him lustily whenever he aired his life-long aversion to alcohol—and promises to keep Tamil Nadu dry. MGR’s popularity as a romantic hero-cum-benefactor is still alive today.
In his late years, too heavy around the midriff and too old to be dashing, MGR nevertheless teamed up with a number of teenage girls. The heroines of old MGR films, Bhanumati, Saroja Devi, Padmini, and E.V. Saroja, ceased to play romantic roles a long time back. But MGR never faced a problem getting young heroines: he had Manjula, Latha and Padmapriya. Among them Latha became his favourite. When a journalist asked MGR about the possible miscasting, MGR had a ready answer: “I only act with them,” he told the Bombay-based journalist. “I don’t marry them.”
On the screen, MGR wooed and married his heroine with much fanfare. Colourful, with a fairly good musical score, MGR movies featured him in a medley of roles; factory worker, farmer, rickshaw-puller, trade union leader, village bumpkin, CID officer, landlord, boatman and poet. MGR played each role to a Robin Hood formula—champion of the underdog, who is truthful, generous and totally honest.
MGR’s first marriage was short lived; even the second Miimiage did not last all that long; both wives died. His third wife Jiuiaki, a former actress, divorced her husband Ganapati Bhat, Id marry him. None of them could give him a child. When MGR dcicided to set up his own political outfit, the DMK sought to tell I it tuple that a man who has not had a child is not fit to be a ruler. A cruel thing to say. Equally cruel was calling him Ramchandra Monon (referring to his Malayalee origin) when he formed his own putty.
About his place in films and politics, he once said:
“I first made contact with the people through my films. Now in politics I find that I can contact more people than before and II10 people are more attached to me. Politics, like films, is a matter l communicating with the people.
“For any man it is not enough what he thinks of himself. The people should believe what he is. If I was not really what I am projecting on the screen, then the people would have abandoned me long ago. For more than 30 years I have been trying to project what I really am. This should be understood in perspective. I have acted the part of a handcart puller or coal miner in two of my most popular films. Well, if you asked me if I actually lived like the characters I have portrayed, the answer would be obvious. In the circumstances, I would not be able to live like I want to. But I live with as much simplicity as possible, despite what I could otherwise afford."A ‘true’ heartthrob of the millions!!