Roles that you wish Sivaji Ganesan had taken up...

[groucho070]

Great thread, Plum. Awesome, I know what you are saying. It's a form of admiration and tremendous respect when we say he played every role. For example he never played the Big Bird in Sesame Street. Of course, he could've done more, but appo appadi. There were not enough from other department to complement his department.

Anyway, let's look at some of the suggestions:

Plum's Netrikan

Was explored in Vilayattu Pillai (1970). Been sometimes, but the film itself didn't have much impact.


SP
I wish he had taken lot more of EPICS and HISTORIC roles playing EMPERORS and KINGS.
Pattalaiyaa? Yabbaaa....

I wish he had done a role of full-fledged scientist and portrayed soem of their life stories.
He has done this here and there. A scientist/doctor in Pazhu Palamum. But not as in a scientiest biopic.

I wish he had done few roles which talks on abstract thinking of eccentric personalities.
Gouvaram is close. Abstract thinking would not have happened knowing the scriptwriters ability those days.

I wish he had done a typical role of "sherlock" in some mystery stories.
Cop yeah. But Holmes style detective. That was taken by Jawar Seetharam in Antha Naal. But yeah, I would love it.


I wish he had done roles like "abhishek bhachan" in 'guru' or "amir khan" in "tare zameen par"
Let me quote Rajini, "Ee-HAAA-hahahaha". Remember Kappalottiya Tamizhan? VPK? Some of the characters in Thiruvarutchelvar? baccha pannunathu appo veera mathiri bayanggarama pannunaaru.


I wish he had been in veeNai balachandar's "bommai" and similar movies.
Yeah. But he was in S.B's Andha Naal.

I wish he had done some mallu / hindi movies.
He did. Please consult Murali-sar's list.

I wish he had done E.V.R (periyaar) role (sathyaraj movie, yeah sathyaraj did a good job )
Alas his wish too. But the historical biopics he did far compensated


Hamid,
Pasupathi's role could be close to what NT had done in Nenjirukkum Varai.

[Plum]

grouch, thanks. You got the spirit of what I wanted to bring up. I havent seen Velayattu Pillai! Whats that movie like, discuss. Adhukkaga thaan thread start paNninadhu.

Ok, here's my suggestion #2
YGP in Sila NerangaLiL Sila ManidhargaL.
Small role. Bit role-nE sollalaam, in more than one way
But here's a role I wish he had done - it is not the most important character in the movie, it has absolutely no weight - but it is an ordinary man with ordinary 'weaknesses'. Considering it was Bhim Singh who directed it, wonder how it would have been if he had had the guts to approach Sivaji for it...

[Plum]

groucho, also bring on your wish list. We could add a new category given your weld movies exposure - foreign movie roles which might have showcased a different dimension of Sivaji Ganesan.

[Shakthiprabha]

//Abstract thinking would not have happened knowing the scriptwriters ability those days.//

Thats my regret too groucho

[Plum]

Concrete suggestions so far:
1. Chakravarthy in NetrikaNN
2. Pasupathy in Veyyil
3. Ajith in Varalaaru - someone must expand on this to give further consideration
4. big bird in sesame street - groucho must expand on this to bring this into consideration

[groucho070]

4. big bird in sesame street - groucho must expand on this to bring this into consideration

neengga veera serious-a edutthuttu.

Trouble is, these stuff you get to see bits and pieces in his films...that is why they gave us the impression that there is alot more that could have been done.

The clown routine in Rajapart or the Santa Clause in Thavaputhalvan going kingginikinggini kini kinikinikini yena varum (yes, I can do this) is a form of Big Bird of that time - men in costume to entertain kids. Of course, those scenes had extra layer for us viewers.

The Gopal character offers us a darker shade of a killer...something Barathiraja explored further. As would his character in Alayamani or Annaiyin Aanai. Appa ulla kalathirku eerpa eplore pannunaangga.

Roles like Veyyil seem heavier now, but if you were to take it back to time, it loses some plotline scriptwriters of those days wouldn't think of (cinema nostalgia is not that much then), and the character would put on a bit more makeup, dialogues a bit heavy handed, and voila! You get something like Nenjirukkum Varai, except the man playing the role acted his pants off in that movie.

That's why it's difficult to take contemporary roles and bring it back for NT. One he would have done a baseline version of it, and plotwise it would have been lot simpler...again the same baseline argument.

Appuram, Plum, Enakku world movies onnum theriyaathu, but I do have wish list concerning classic mainstream Hollywood which I know a bit. Athu appuram post pannuren.

[Plum]

groucho, that he would have done a baseline version of any role you can pick - agree 100%. What I'm trying to say is pick a role as it happened as it is, and I just want to, for want of a better word, *fantasise* how he would have done it. Forum irukkaradhu edhukku - vetti pechukku dhaane

We could pick from any of the following categories
1) Much acclaimed role done by someone else, and acclaimed performance by that person too - example, Netrikann
2) A potentially great role screwed up by someone else
3) An ordinary role, which could have given us a different facet of NT - example, YGP in SNSM.
I can think of another category: a movie like Naan Vaazha Vaippaen - how it would have been with Sivaji and Rajni exchanging roles?

[groucho070]

grouch, thanks. You got the spirit of what I wanted to bring up. I havent seen Velayattu Pillai! Whats that movie like, discuss. Adhukkaga thaan thread start paNninadhu.

It's about infidelty, with NT taking on the role of a naughty husband. But then it was naughty, as far as I can remember, not notorious like Chakravarthy.

As for "ordinary man with weaknesses", I'd like to know how he would have handled Madhavan's Evano Oruvan which has a story that can fit any period. Imagine Prestige Pathmanaban, younger age, taking public transport, can't take it anymore and goes on rampage!!!!

[groucho070]

I can think of another category: a movie like Naan Vaazha Vaippaen - how it would have been with Sivaji and Rajni exchanging roles?

Now you are talking, my friend. With NT, we saw nothing extraordinary. But Rajini in it, we'd be sitting up and lapping up the good performance, and when NT appears in the middle, we'd stand up and applause. We can easily see this, having had witnessed NT doing a standout guest roles in films like Kaval Deivam or even the dull Cinema Paithiyam as himself.

[groucho070]

Another thing that gets to me nowadays, and I commented again recently, is the handling of split personality. Let's put, say, Anniyan back in the early 70s.

From what I feel, we will never get to see the Anniyan character. Death will be mostly offscreen, with bad guy only shown fleeing. We might probably see notes from this vigilante character (Major Sunderajan, of course, will be the cop :P ) and NT revealed as the murdering Anniyan at the end ala Puthiya Paravai. Of course, that will be the moment when he turns really nasty...and naturally no need make up or long hair, his performance will take care of it.