Back home, lived the versatile actor - Vettaithidal Chinnaiahpillai Ganesan remembered as Nadigar Thillagam. He progressed from a stage actor since his childhood to the filmdom and in a career spanning close to five decades he acted in nearly 300 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi. Known for his stylish dialog delivery, Ganesan was the first Indian film actor to win a "Best Actor" award in an International film festival, the Afro-Asian Film Festival held in Cairo, Egypt in 1960.
Ganesan’s portrayal of the character of Chhatrapati Shivaji in
the stage play Shivaji Kanda Hindu Rajyam earned him the name "Sivaji”. Today’s Times of India, Chennai edition, has
an article titled - ‘Cong to celebrate
Sivaji Ganesan's birth anniversary’.
Here
is that article : Congress has made preparations to celebrate thespian Sivaji
Ganesan's 87th birth anniversary on Thursday with an evening of entertainment
at Kamaraj Memorial Hall owned by the TNCC charitable trust. The event was the
brainchild of former MLA and Sivaji Ganesan fan club general secretary V
Rajasekharan. He said clips from old Sivaji films and songs from Sivaji
starrers will be screened on the occasion. Sources said the party had to put
off plans to host Sivaji's birthday festivities with participation of the
actor's family members for the past few years as his sons were unable to come.
This time his admirers decided to go ahead on their own without the involvement
of Sivaji's sons -Prabhu and Ramkumar, who have not shown any inclination in
politics, sources said.
After a stint in DMK in the 1950s, Sivaji quit the party after
his visit to the Tirumala Tirupati temple. DMK leadership had felt he had
tarnished the party's atheist and rationalist image by visiting the temple. He
joined Congress in 1961 and staged plays in various parts of the state to raise
funds for the party to set up offices. “The Congress office building in Salem
was built by Sivaji with the proceeds from his drama shows,“ said senior leader
S Thirnavukkarasar. Sivaji also campaigned for the Congress-AIADMK alliance in
the 1984 assembly polls when MGR was admitted in a hospital in the USA. Sivaji was a party member for almost three
decades and a star campaigner during the Kamaraj days, he said. A Kamaraj
protégé, he moved closer to then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after his
mentor's demise. Indira Gandhi nominated him to the Rajya Sabha in 1982. His
political career in Congress ended with her assassination.
~
Sivaji Ganesan was a great actor – deserves all the praise for breaking out
expressing his personal faith. What remains
unstated in the post of TOI is the fact that he came out of Congress too and
floated his own party - ‘Thamizhaga
Munnetra Munnani’ in 1988 contested elections.
The party for born after a split
in Tamil Nadu Congress party. The split came at the time when ADMK fragmented. Ganesan and his supporters left the Congress
party on differences in opinion on which fragment of AIADMK to ally with in
1989 state elections. Thamizhaga
Munnetra Munnani backed Janaki Ramachandran – but lost in all seats its competed for. Sivaji too
lost at Thiruvayaru. Ganesan eventually regretted his decision to float his own
party and merged the party with Janata Dal.
The statue of Sivaji that stands in the middle of Beach road – mired by some controversy, somehow does not represent the image that people of Tamil Nadu associate with him. Recent reports suggested that it might be removed from its present place and installed at the proposed Mani mandapam. With regards – S. Sampathkumar
29th Sept. 2015.
