Nambiarswami by M.N. Dipak Nambiar

Author:M.N. Dipak Nambiar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India
Published: 2019-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Sathyaraj: Ace villain and Kattappa.

[Author’s note: Much thanks to Sathyaraj aiyya for taking time off from his busy schedule (from shooting for Baahubali 2 [2017]) to grant my mother and I an audience. It’s small gestures that reveal the greatness of a man. He and his wife saw us off to the gate once we had completed the interview and waited for us to drive off. His humility and lack of airs are what make him great.]

I had the privilege of meeting Nambiarswami back when I was in class eight. First of all: I am an atheist and, rather than God, I believe in the butterfly effect; the concept of small causes having large effects. But I believed in Nambiarswami and that’s the reason why I had no qualms about calling him Swami, the only person or entity I referred to by that name. My first cousin Arjun Mandradiar was a very good friend of Suku Anna’s, and I was keen on following Arjun to Madras to meet the great thespian in the flesh and get his blessings. Vettaikaran, Enga Veetu Pillai, Ayirathil Oruvan … he epitomized the perfect villain [in them all]; menacing but as strong as any hero, simply because he believed that only a strong villain could bring out the best in a hero. He set the gold standard for me to follow.

There were no star trappings about Swami; he spoke to one and all about everything under the sun. On a lighter vein, some of the true stories he told were so funny, but they can’t be printed lest people turn up with pitchforks to string up the author of this book.

When I met him at the age of thirteen, acting in movies was the furthest thing from my mind. As for sharing screen space with a legend like Nambiarswami? Forget about it – that was the stuff of dreams. But the dream did come true and my first film with him was Sivaji Productions’ Needhiyin Nizhal (1985). I was begining to get noticed in the industry and I told the director (P. Vasu) specifically that I wanted equal billing with the main villain (Nambiarswami). Vasu sir assured me that I was a ‘joint main’ villain, along with Sivachandran and Nambiarswami, but I realized who the ‘only main’ villain was very quickly into the shoot.

So, in order to steal some scenes from the veteran thespian, I smoked a cigarette and put my leg up on the table to convey menace in every scene. After tolerating this method acting for a few scenes, Swami patiently asked what I was trying to pull. I explained that since we were such evil smugglers (and equal in this business of reel villainy), I’d convey to the audience how nasty I was. Nambiarswami looked at me with a tired face, rolled his eyes upward and said, ‘Next shot.’

During the fight scenes, I insisted I didn’t need a dupe and instead flew off the wall every time Sivaji sir or Prabhu sir touched me.

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