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Dr. Mani’s snobbish view on MGR’s films
Dr. Mani, belonging to the elite and educated class among the Tamil Nadu residents, did in fact wrote his snobbish view on MGR’s films in his autobiography. To quote,
“I had never seen an MGR movie before, and I was astounded at the audience reaction. There was a burst of applause when his name appeared in the titles, and then, whenever he appeared on the screen, applause, whistles, cheers, brought the house down. He always appeared in the nick of time to save the damsel in distress, he never hesitated to sacrifice his all for the poor. I wonder whether he had his eye on a future in politics even then, for he never accepted the often more challenging role of a bad or weak person. Our simple audience felt he was not acting, but was living a part of his real life, on the screen, and what he displayed was his own true character.” (p.113)
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MGR’s Life Phases and his Autobiography
MGR’s life can be conveniently separated into four phases. These are as follows: (1) Poverty-tinged Pre-Hero Years (1917-1947), (2) Film Hero Years (1947-1967), (3) Double-Role Years (Film Hero and Politician Apprentice, 1967-1977), (4) Political Hero Years (1977-1987). In his 70 year life span, he spent 30, 20, 10 and 10 years in each of these four phases.
Most of the published writings by his friends, friends turned rivals, close acquaintances, journalists, few academic critics and fans focus only the last 40 years of MGR’s activities. Not much is known or written about his first 30 years. One of the reliable works in this respect was the four volume autobiography of M.Karunanidhi (MGR’s friend-turned-political rival), who was a predecessor and successor to MGR in the chief minister stakes in Tamil Nadu. MGR makes his entrance in Karunanidhi’s autobiography only around 1946 (chapter 19 of volume 1, 1975), when Karunanidhi assisted in script writing for Rajakumari (Princess), MGR’s first movie as a hero. How, Karunanidhi had described his early acquaintance with MGR:
“As there was no hindrance for my party work, I accepted script writing for the Rajakumari movie and with the permission of Mr. A.S. A. Samy, I began writing the script. That was the movie, Puratchi Nadigar [Revolutionary Actor] MGR played the hero role for the first time. Our acquaintance began around that time. He wore kadhi dress with a thulasi bead necklace and was a fan of Gandhi. I used to give the books authored by Anna. He used to give me books by Gandhi. We used to have debates occasionally. The result was that, he later joined the Kazhagam (party) clique.”
Thus, for the poverty-tinged pre-hero period of MGR’s life, one has to rely strongly on MGR’s reminiscences and interviews. Fortunately, MGR did contribute an autobiography series entitled, ‘Naan Yen Piranthaen’ [Why I was Born?] to the popular Ananda Vikatan weekly between 1970 and 1972. As per this writing, some questions arise. Was it ghost-written? Or was it dictated into a tape, and transcribed by one of his trusted writers? Considering the fact that he was a busy film star, it is a no brainer that he would have taken the trouble to write this series for two years on a weekly basis.
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Makkal Thilagam MGR & Actor Jaishankar
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Makkal Thilagam MGR Rare Pic
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg-uR...g&index=31
M.G.R's Nephew M.C.Chandran's Interview about Nadodi Mannan
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