Potpourri of titbits about Tamil cinema
Sarojadevi, endearingly called ‘Kannadathu pynkili’ and ‘Abhinaya Saraswathi’ achieved the status of the heroine of great heroes, acting simultaneously with the three uncrowned kings of the Tamil cinema – MGR, SivajiGanesan and Gemini Ganesh. Sarojadevi was born as the fourth child to Bhairappa – Rudramma couple in Bangalore. Her father was a police officer. She was introduced by producer-actor Honnappa Bhagwadhar in the Kannada film Mahakavi Kalidas. When she was becoming busy in Kannada industry, she was picked up by MGR for his film Naadodi Mannan. From that day, till date, Sarojadevi has been an ever-green favorite of Tamil cinema.
Sarojadevi is my favorite among the heroines of MGR. Her Tamil accent, conduct, smiling face, everything endeared her to the Tamil lot. MGR’s adopted daughter’s husband Vijayan introduced me to Sarojadevi, who, in return, introduced actress Kanchana to me. My friendship with them continues even today. Whatever question we put to Sarojadevi, she’ll give a crisp and clear answer. When I asked her to share with me some of the interesting incidents involving her heroes during shooting, she immediately agreed.
“’Thirudathe’ was my first film with MGR. As the shooting got delayed, he introduced me in Naadodi Mannan, which was released before ‘Thirudathe’. During the shooting of ‘Thirudathe’, I hurt my foot with glass pieces but I continued work not revealing it as I felt that the shooting shouldn’t be cancelled because of me. But MGR found out the thing and wiped the blood on my foot with his handkerchief and sent me to a hospital. During the shooting of ‘Naadodi Mannan’, a scene with a python had been conceived for me. I was very much frightened to do the shots. But it was MGR, who encouraged me to go ahead. The python encircled and almost squeezed me; I fell unconscious due to fear. After this experience, I made it a point not to accept scenes with snakes. ‘Kalyana parisu’, released in the year 1959 won me big fame and name. In this film, there was a song sequence which required me to do cycling. I didn’t know cycling at that time. Gemini Ganesh and director Sridhar taught me cycling. During the shooting of the film ‘Bagapirivinai’, many interesting incidents took place. There was a scene in which I had to hit M. R. Radha with a broomstick. But I was scared of him after seeing his film ‘Rathakanneer’. I refused to do the scene and left the sets. On learning about this, Radha came rushing to me and told me that it was only acting and so I shouldn’t hesitate. But I was firm. Then, Radha conceived an alternative shot. He shouted from inside a room as though being hit by me and rushed out of the room, creating the required impact! And, there was another scene in which I had to show labor pain on my face. I couldn’t do it properly. Sivaji Ganesan helped me by enacting the scene. I was able to repeat only 50% of his performance. But that itself earned me good name and fame.
