Potpourri of titbits about Tamil cinema - B. Saroja Devi

In the series I am going to share an interesting write up appeared in August 1960 issue of Pesum Padam. It was written by the Ms. Gnana Soundari daughter of Vettaikaran Puthur Amaravathi Koundar, wife of Pollachi Mirasdar Sivasubramania Kalingarayar and sister of Prabhuram Films partner Muthu Manikkam. She has written about her best friend and cinima actress Saroja Devi of yester years.

I recently saw the movie Kalyana Parisu in which Saroja Devi acted in the role of Vasanthi. It was a tailor made role for her and I am doubtful whether it would have suited anyone other than her.

Impressed by her performance in the movie I was longing to meet Saroja Devi and befriend her. My husband even teased me that I had showed greater affection and love towards Saroja Devi than to him. My life time dream and ambition was fulfilled when the song sequence ‘Thazhayam Poomudichu’ was shoot for the movie Bagap pirivinai in a forest owned by my father Amavaravathi Kounder. The cinema troupe camped at the forest for a week and Saroja Devi stayed with us at our house.

Though I never had any previous acquaintance with her, the amount of friendship and love I had towards her, gave me the courage to call her as Saro when I met her for the first time and invite her to our house. Without any hesitation and to my shock she also has called me Gnana (my nick name known only to my family) how are you?. Later I came to know that she has collected every detail about me including my nick name before meeting me. We became very thick friends during her stay with us.

I got attracted to Saroja Devi, due to her innocent and child hearted nature. She never showed haughtiness or pride about her being a famous cinema actress. She was talking like a child, very modest in approach and had the temperance to consider everyone as greater than her. After completing the shooting schedule she left for Chennai.