Not through one of his movies, but through a movie awards function.
A seasoned actor like Prakashraj was dancing for "Engay Nimmadhi" song of "Puthiya Paravai"...he did his best, but those subtle yet profound body movements , the powerful expressions through his eyes, twitch of lips/facial muscle of a man in absolute stress was missing. No discredits to Prakashraj. But it just dawned on me the versatility of Sivaji Ganesan.
It was so apparent that the "engay nimmadhi" song depicted exactly of a person who has lost his nimmadhi (sense of peace). He simply brought lease of life to the lyrics of that song. I could realise how tough it was, even for a seasoned professional like Prakash raj
Post this programme, I saw a couple of Sivaji Ganesan movies merely out of curiosity.
- a humorous movie where he acted with MR Radha, his face would show complete "asattuthanam" [the one that has two sivaji, two mr radha]
- "tiruvilaiyadal" - the careless gambeeram - his face, his walk, his dialogue delivery - as Sivaperumaan - the creator
- Absolutely stressed in "Puthiya paravai"
2 comments:
Sivaji's genius, sadly, has went un-noticed in the most other parts of India ..
His prowess in emoting is vastly critiqued as hamming, unfairly so, inspite of lots of subdued roles in over dozens of his movies. But to a large extent the stereo-typed Sivaji Ganesan is due to his own making. Its not humanly possible to act in 300 movies and emote in unique ways in each of those ..
I was watching 'Padikkadha Medhai' a few days back.. He does come as a hyper-character but has delivered a maestro of a performance. Notably, in a few of conversations with the Ranga-Rao (an eminent actor himself), where his emotions range from anger to fear to pain to humour all in one stretch of a shot. Amazing !! Vietnam veedu is one other movie. List goes on.
I think unless an actor, however versatile he is, makes an attempt to masquerade inside of sharply different disguises by the way of makeup/costumes ... the stereotype in his expressions would show out.
Sivaji understood that well and performed to it. Once you don a different paint, the variety of expressions multiplies as simply
as a permutaion.
I think in the modern day actors, Kamalhassan, Nassar, Naseerudinshah, has got the concept right ... while people on the same range (talen wise) such as Mohanlal, Shahrukhkhan, Aamir khan .. kinda missed the boat. Meaning -- you see them in one picture you've seen them in all, atleast the appearance wise.
see the new post
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