HARIDAS VERSUS CHANDRAMUKHI
BY
S. MAHESHKUMAR
BY
S. MAHESHKUMAR
HARIDAS was the Tamil Cinema’s First Super Star Thyagaraja Bhagavathar’s magnum opus which saw three consecutive Dheepavalis and was a classic. It ran to packed houses most of the time and even in its very last show there were plenty of people to bid their farewell. It is dishonest to claim that Chandramukhi has broken the record of Haridas by running for more than 800 days! Haridas was screened 3 shows per day as against Chandramukhi for only one show per day most of the time, for the benefit of empty chairs and echoing walls due to the over-gratitude of Mr. Rajnikanth’s binami Producer Mr. Prabhu, alas at the loss of their Shanthi Theatre! Harischandra was noted for his speaking the Truth. There was later told the story of Chandrahari who was reputed for speaking the False. If Haridas was considered in line with the greatness of Harischandra, Chandrahari would match the scandal of Chandramukhi.
Mr. Rajnikanth’s modesty was praised at Chandramukhi’s 804th day celebrations for having said among other things that no body knew who the Producer of Haridas was, who its Director was, etc apart from Thyagaraja Bhagavathar. For our Tamil Satellite Channels, old Tamil movies conveniently mean only those belonging to the Period 1950-1970, especially, the MGR & Sivaji films. Chiefly for commercial reasons, these TV Channels have been simply ignoring the best movies of the 1930s & the 1940s. Podhigai Channel has been broadcasting some films of the suppressed period in late night hours nowadays. Those were the eternal Tamil classics and we must cherish them for the artists’ and technicians’ dedication and skill for having etched such remarkable impressions with far less resources by filming simultaneously alongside spot recording the actors enacting and singing on their own with live orchestra, etc. It is a disgrace to boast like Rajni in defence of Chandramukhi’s fake success without clearly knowing about the true greatness of the works of his predecessors. Rajni’s demeaning remarks about Haridas only indicate his ignorance, immodesty and egotism!
Some noteworthy personalities of the cast and crew of Haridas were: N. C. Vasanthakokilam (as Bhagavathar’s wife), T. R. Rajakumari, ‘Kalaivanar’ N. S. Krishnan, T. A. Madhuram, ‘Pulimoottai’ Ramasami, Pandaribai, et al were co-starred in Haridas with Bhagavathar as Haridas and the Great G. Ramanathan was its Music Director along with the renowned composer & lyricist Sri Papanasam Sivan. Haridas was produced under the banner Royal Talkie Distributors and directed by Sunder Rao Nadkarni. It was released in 1944 and ran for 768 days continuously in the Broadway Theatre, Madras, with sufficient audience attendance!
When M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar’s successful film ‘Ambikapathi’ of the 1940s was remade in the 1950s, starring Sivaji Ganesan in the title role played by Bhagavathar, Sivaji had also tried like Rajni to tease Bhagavathar by offering the role of Ambikapathi’s father Kambar which in the original version was enacted by Bhagavathar’s friend Serukalathur Sama. Bhagavathar declined Sivaji’s mischievous proposal citing that after seeing his justifiable portrayal of Ambikapathi, his fans would not accept him as Kambar.
Bhagavathar was the only superstar who excelled as a musician-actor and carved a niche for himself with his platinum voice contributing few but ripe films to posterity! P. U. Chinnappa was also a musician-actor but he was not a superstar and was the forerunner of Sivaji and Kamalhassan. Hence Thyagaraja Bhagavathar was the precursor of M. G. Ramachandran and Rajnikanth in terms of superstardom among the masses! With his legacy of Gandharva Ganam, Bhagavathar was the only actor who reigned as undisputable monarch among the class and mass audiences of his time. Like J. S. Bach who continues to inspire and is being continually rediscovered & revived for his musical perfection, M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar also continues to inspire and is being continually rediscovered & revived for his enchanting music!
Already the cinema houses have been over taken at present by home theatres and the television has ousted cinema as the latter had done the same to drama slowly after its advent. At this juncture, to brag in defence of a remake of a remake film by the way of under-estimating the earliest achievement of the maiden Super Star of Tamil Films was a pity! If Rajni really wanted to know the details of Haridas, he must have seen the film in the first place or he might have asked Mr. Film News Anandan—the mobile encyclopedia of Tamil Film Industry or Mr. Randor Guy or his veteran film colleagues or made a little effort in finding it for himself on the net or in the books.
Rajni’s home productions were Padayappa and Baba. With the gross that Rajni’s company gained at Padayappa’s success, he celebrated it with his then political affiliates, DMK and its then Sun TV culminating in the orgy of Rajni 25! He constituted a foundation with crores of money reaped out of Padayappa’s commercial success and announced that with the interest incurred from the foundation’s deposit, Rs. 1 lakh would be donated to each district of Tamil Nadu for the benefit of poor students’ education. It went as said for 1 or 2 years but after that that promise of Rajni dissolved into thin air! There were aggressive protests opposing the release of Baba by those who wanted to ruin Rajni’s political ambitions. As expected, Baba was forced to be a flop. To set right the bankrupt distributors and theatre owners, Rajni returned their monies. For 3 years that followed after Baba, he mulled over the hindrances and came up with a solution. He even changed camps and supported AIADMK for safety. It was to produce his films not in his own banner but by a binami who would be loyal. The first such binami was Prabhu followed by AVM Productions. Sivaji Films and AVM were reputed enough to guard Rajni from his expected rivals, if any.
Rajni is neither dedicated to his profession nor to politics nowadays! If he was truly dedicated to his acting calibre, he must have disapproved the story of Sivaji in the beginning stage itself. But he did not do that. He was interested in the unexpected accumulation of advance payments from the distributors and theatre owners as soon as Rajni-Shankar-AVM combination’s Sivaji was announced. These trio envisioned the fate of Baba and masterminded to sell their worthless Sivaji by releasing it world wide in more than 700 theatres. A short-lived hype was created by Rajni’s visiting many times the Thirumala Temple followed by his exhibiting Sivaji to some senior politicians separately. There was poll build-up in the Indian English TV channels too as to who was the real superstar, Rajni or Amitabh. At the close, Rajni denounced the result in his favour modestly! All these roused his fanatics who thronged for few days at the theatres where Sivaji was released. After that the mist was cleared and the scam about Sivaji was exposed. Rajni has been in self-ruining course nowadays!
In speaking at the celebrations of “Mouna Ragam” for its successful run in 1987, Mr. Rajnikanth had remarked: “When people decide to convene meetings in order to appreciate a persons’ achievements, it is an indication that the career of that person or star has come to en end!”
What about a reputed person who organise meetings in honour of his present bogus achievements that are in contrast against some of his erstwhile genuine accomplishments? People not only forget such persons but also never forgive them!
—S. Maheshkumar.
{Final Draft Composed on 19th September 2007, at 1.24 PM, Indian Standard Time.}
Mr. Rajnikanth’s modesty was praised at Chandramukhi’s 804th day celebrations for having said among other things that no body knew who the Producer of Haridas was, who its Director was, etc apart from Thyagaraja Bhagavathar. For our Tamil Satellite Channels, old Tamil movies conveniently mean only those belonging to the Period 1950-1970, especially, the MGR & Sivaji films. Chiefly for commercial reasons, these TV Channels have been simply ignoring the best movies of the 1930s & the 1940s. Podhigai Channel has been broadcasting some films of the suppressed period in late night hours nowadays. Those were the eternal Tamil classics and we must cherish them for the artists’ and technicians’ dedication and skill for having etched such remarkable impressions with far less resources by filming simultaneously alongside spot recording the actors enacting and singing on their own with live orchestra, etc. It is a disgrace to boast like Rajni in defence of Chandramukhi’s fake success without clearly knowing about the true greatness of the works of his predecessors. Rajni’s demeaning remarks about Haridas only indicate his ignorance, immodesty and egotism!
Some noteworthy personalities of the cast and crew of Haridas were: N. C. Vasanthakokilam (as Bhagavathar’s wife), T. R. Rajakumari, ‘Kalaivanar’ N. S. Krishnan, T. A. Madhuram, ‘Pulimoottai’ Ramasami, Pandaribai, et al were co-starred in Haridas with Bhagavathar as Haridas and the Great G. Ramanathan was its Music Director along with the renowned composer & lyricist Sri Papanasam Sivan. Haridas was produced under the banner Royal Talkie Distributors and directed by Sunder Rao Nadkarni. It was released in 1944 and ran for 768 days continuously in the Broadway Theatre, Madras, with sufficient audience attendance!
When M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar’s successful film ‘Ambikapathi’ of the 1940s was remade in the 1950s, starring Sivaji Ganesan in the title role played by Bhagavathar, Sivaji had also tried like Rajni to tease Bhagavathar by offering the role of Ambikapathi’s father Kambar which in the original version was enacted by Bhagavathar’s friend Serukalathur Sama. Bhagavathar declined Sivaji’s mischievous proposal citing that after seeing his justifiable portrayal of Ambikapathi, his fans would not accept him as Kambar.
Bhagavathar was the only superstar who excelled as a musician-actor and carved a niche for himself with his platinum voice contributing few but ripe films to posterity! P. U. Chinnappa was also a musician-actor but he was not a superstar and was the forerunner of Sivaji and Kamalhassan. Hence Thyagaraja Bhagavathar was the precursor of M. G. Ramachandran and Rajnikanth in terms of superstardom among the masses! With his legacy of Gandharva Ganam, Bhagavathar was the only actor who reigned as undisputable monarch among the class and mass audiences of his time. Like J. S. Bach who continues to inspire and is being continually rediscovered & revived for his musical perfection, M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar also continues to inspire and is being continually rediscovered & revived for his enchanting music!
Already the cinema houses have been over taken at present by home theatres and the television has ousted cinema as the latter had done the same to drama slowly after its advent. At this juncture, to brag in defence of a remake of a remake film by the way of under-estimating the earliest achievement of the maiden Super Star of Tamil Films was a pity! If Rajni really wanted to know the details of Haridas, he must have seen the film in the first place or he might have asked Mr. Film News Anandan—the mobile encyclopedia of Tamil Film Industry or Mr. Randor Guy or his veteran film colleagues or made a little effort in finding it for himself on the net or in the books.
Rajni’s home productions were Padayappa and Baba. With the gross that Rajni’s company gained at Padayappa’s success, he celebrated it with his then political affiliates, DMK and its then Sun TV culminating in the orgy of Rajni 25! He constituted a foundation with crores of money reaped out of Padayappa’s commercial success and announced that with the interest incurred from the foundation’s deposit, Rs. 1 lakh would be donated to each district of Tamil Nadu for the benefit of poor students’ education. It went as said for 1 or 2 years but after that that promise of Rajni dissolved into thin air! There were aggressive protests opposing the release of Baba by those who wanted to ruin Rajni’s political ambitions. As expected, Baba was forced to be a flop. To set right the bankrupt distributors and theatre owners, Rajni returned their monies. For 3 years that followed after Baba, he mulled over the hindrances and came up with a solution. He even changed camps and supported AIADMK for safety. It was to produce his films not in his own banner but by a binami who would be loyal. The first such binami was Prabhu followed by AVM Productions. Sivaji Films and AVM were reputed enough to guard Rajni from his expected rivals, if any.
Rajni is neither dedicated to his profession nor to politics nowadays! If he was truly dedicated to his acting calibre, he must have disapproved the story of Sivaji in the beginning stage itself. But he did not do that. He was interested in the unexpected accumulation of advance payments from the distributors and theatre owners as soon as Rajni-Shankar-AVM combination’s Sivaji was announced. These trio envisioned the fate of Baba and masterminded to sell their worthless Sivaji by releasing it world wide in more than 700 theatres. A short-lived hype was created by Rajni’s visiting many times the Thirumala Temple followed by his exhibiting Sivaji to some senior politicians separately. There was poll build-up in the Indian English TV channels too as to who was the real superstar, Rajni or Amitabh. At the close, Rajni denounced the result in his favour modestly! All these roused his fanatics who thronged for few days at the theatres where Sivaji was released. After that the mist was cleared and the scam about Sivaji was exposed. Rajni has been in self-ruining course nowadays!
In speaking at the celebrations of “Mouna Ragam” for its successful run in 1987, Mr. Rajnikanth had remarked: “When people decide to convene meetings in order to appreciate a persons’ achievements, it is an indication that the career of that person or star has come to en end!”
What about a reputed person who organise meetings in honour of his present bogus achievements that are in contrast against some of his erstwhile genuine accomplishments? People not only forget such persons but also never forgive them!
—S. Maheshkumar.
{Final Draft Composed on 19th September 2007, at 1.24 PM, Indian Standard Time.}
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