MGR-The Man of Masses

A three letter word which does not have a semantic meaning when you read it together.But , mere uttering this word 25 years back in a public meeting can electrify the crowd in Tamil Nadu.

A man who ruled the state without getting electorally defeated ( there has been exceptions , but he was never short of majority in Assembly elections) until he was alive.There is much beyond what we know how he reached this pinnacle ! Author of the book R.Muthukumar denies the fact that MGR became a chief minister by merely posing with Octogenarian women.Some interesting tit bits on the life of a magician

! Ramachandran was born in Jan 17 1917 and lost his father when he was two and a half years old.He started acting in dramas during school days and his first drama was Lava Kusa and he played Kusan in that.

! Poverty drove him to take drama as profession when he was much young.The first salary he received was Rupees 5!

! Trained in Silambam and being interested in physical exercises , MGR was offered only female lead roles in dramas.

! Sathi leelavathi and Iru sagotharargal were his initial movies in which he played petty roles.

!Being financially strained , MGR once decided to join Army and started learning english.

!Rajakumari was his major block-busted with M.Karunanidhi penning down the fiery dialogues. In one scene MGR had to hang himself in a rope and the director asked him to put all his weight in the rope which will subsequently cut down and MGR will fall in the place where there was an underground to escape.Action was the call from the director A.S.A.Swamy MGR hung himself in the rope and blood stopped reaching his head and he fainted.Shot was successful.Film Industry started talking about this youngster who can bet his life to act.

!MGR was given the title Puratchi nadigar by Karunanithi in 1952 after he started acting in stage shows organised by DMK.

! He was arrested once in 1958 Jan for anti-hindi agitations as a pro-active measure.

! Nadodi mannan was the first film produced by him and saroja devi was introduced in this movie

!There was a definite cold war between the two legends MGR and Shivaji Ganesan . Some incidents to explain

1.After Kattabomman MGR was anxious to retort back with a historical movie and he started a movie called " oomayan kottai" with kannadasan as a producer and it was halted without any further notice

2.During Shivaji's marriage function , Shivaji got excited on seeing MGR and uttered a question which MGR took as an offense." Brother why do you want to wear coat and suite when people are clapping for your sword stunts? "

( He replied through his movies like Parakkum paravai ,Ragasiya police 115 etc)

Chinnapa devar and MGR joined hands for the second time in Thai sollai thattadhe , MGR went straight to devar and said he wants to do a film.Devar was hyper excited and had doubts regarding his call sheet ( as there was a problem in the previous time) , MGR smiled and said " there would be no problem this time just make sure that ganesan dont act in your movies after this" , Devar was highly taken aback , nevertheless he nodded. ( He has to ! )
! MGR and JJ joined hands first in Aayirathil oruvan and once during shooting JJ was sitting when he arrived , MGR smiled at her and passed away.Through out the career he liked her boldness.

!I end this by telling a fact which I like about him which sums MGR up , which tells how calculative he was unlike how others portray.When he was dismissed from all posts of DMK the whole TN was anxious to see how he would respond.He called for a press meet later and gave payasam to all the journalists , " This is a very happy day for me"



That is MGR for you!

All the tit bits were gathered from the book vaathiyar by R.Muthukumar.I compiled this as this could be an interesting read for others . Despite of my laziness I decided to pen it down. We still have MGR fanatics in this generation!