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'I have a grudge against MGR'

M N Nambiar. Click for bigger pic!

Shobha Warrier

He is called the guruswamy, 'the spiritual leader', by all those connected with the Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu film industries. It is a curious image for a man who was seen as evil personified, a villain constantly thwarting the good deeds of the character played by MGR. But the grand old man of tamil cinema, M N Nambiar, can live with it.

In real life, Nambiar became a spiritual figure, a 'swamy', the day he began going on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala 36 years ago.

But if you ask Nambiar about that spiritual journey from playing satan to sage, he says he was irrevocably set down his final path in life right when he was a child in Ooty. But he says it still is an enigma to him how a boy not interested in acting or singing decided to join a drama troupe. It could only be bhakti (devotion), he says.

He used to pass a house near the municipal school playground everyday and that was where a drama company often camped.

He used to stand there quietly and watch the artists exercise and practice outside. He was particularly impressed by the children who fought the early morning cold to perform the Surya Namaskaram with a discipline Nambiar claims he has yet to see anywhere.

"I will explain my idea of bhakti. If you are disciplined, you don't need bhakti because bhakti is discipline.

"I'm trying to analyse my past now. So enamoured was I of their discipline that I decided to join the troupe, much against the wishes of my uncle, who was my guardian. I'd lost my father when I was just eight. That was the time when no one ever sent their children to a drama company since it was considered demeaning to act in plays.

"Even a peon preferred to see his son become a peon, never an actor. So you can imagine how little respect people had for drama artists.

He travelled all over south India with the drama company and slowly shifted drama to cinema. His first film , Bhakta Ramadasa, was released in 1935. But now, despite 63 years in the business, he refuses to call himself a good actor.

"I get 36 out of 100," he says, since 35 is the passing mark in most school exams. "But, yes, if I had worked hard, I would have got 99 or 100 out of 100. What I lacked in was hard work, so I'm continuing to get just passing marks," he jokes.

Nambiar is candid, even blunt, but also a man with great sense of poker-faced humour. And you get to see some of it when he talks about his first role.

"I got the role of a minister in Bhakta Ramadasa not because I was a good actor or because I had experience -- I had none. I was just 16 years old.

Murukadasa, the director of the film version of Bhakta Ramadasa felt the man picked to play the minister had no screen presence. So he lined up all the other drama artists, examined us all and chose me because I was fair and looked like a foreigner. He just looked at me and said, Ivane Podalame ( Let's cast him). And I became a film actor." He looks on benignly as the laughter rises and subsides around him.

But in 1935, the spirit of the freedom movement stirred the rebellious mind of the teenaged Nambiar too.

Click for bigger pic!

"In those days, we were not allowed to get out of the theatre in the middle of a film. Do you know why? Because we had to sit till the song praising the king was over. See the irony? We had a king in Great Britain. So, if you came out of the theatre before the song was over, the military police would kick you around."

Nambiar became very agitated about the injustice meted out to Indians on their soil. After Bhagat Singh was hanged, Nambiar bought a songbook praising the revolutionary and went around singing the songs at the top of his voice.

He then planned to go to place called Mannarkudi and cut electric lines and disrupting rail movement. The drama company manager heard of the plan and so tied up Nambiar and beat him with a belt to instil compliance. Nambiar took the thrashing in true filmi style, shouting dramatically, "I am going to Mannarkudi to cut the electric lines and disrupt railway traffic!"

Finally, the tired manager asked him, "You expect the British to leave India if you cut electric lines and disrupt traffic?"

"I don't know," replied Nambiar. "I want to do something for the country. I want to do something against the British." And so the manager tried another tack.

"See, through our plays, we are instilling patriotism in the people. This is our job and our duty. Now relax and don't have any odd ideas." Nambiar didn't relax but kept out of trouble, not cutting any electric lines thereafter.

'I still feel sad I couldn't participate actively in the freedom struggle. It will always remain in my mind -- an unfulfilled dream." And there's real sadness, disappointment there.

But he soon perked up again, this time ridiculing the Americans.

"Yes, the British ruled the world for four hundred years through buddhi (intelligence) and shakthi( strength). Now the Americans have taken over the role, but they are ruling through shakti, not buddhi."

It was with Karunanidhi' s film Mantrikumari that M N Nambiar the villain was born.

Despite seeing his vicious mien in those roles, it is difficult to believe he was one of the most hated men in Tamil Nadu. He looked so calm and serene in real life.

Was he upset about being labelled the villain who beat up a "good man" like MGR? As the question is asked, the four huge dogs in his house start barking aggressively.

"Don't you hear them? I have dogs in my house ever since I became a villain. Can you guess why? They are the ones who saved me from the MGR lovers. If not for these loyal dogs, MGR loyalists would have ransacked my house long ago."

This incident occurred after Enga Veettu Pillai -- where MGR played the hero and he the dastardly villain -- became a huge hit. After a sumptuous lunch, a content Nambiar was on his way to a shoot. The railway gates were closed and so he waited in his car, with the windows rolled down.

Five young thugs came up to him and inquired, "Are you not Nambiar?" He pleaded guilty.

"Don't you know that you should not hit our anna (elder brother)?" one of them asked as they inched closer.

"How do I know who your anna is? I don't even know you."

"How dare you? Don't you know our anna? MGR?"

"Oh, I see. Don't you know I get money to beat up your anna?"

"So you accept money to beat our anna?"

Click for bigger pic!

"Didn't see him beating me to pulp in the end? What do you say about that?"

"He will beat you. He has every right to beat you. But hereafter if we see you beating our Anna...."

So Nambiar nodded submissively and meekly told them he would not beat up their anna. They shouted, "Nambiar's Anna's friend, zindabad" while Nambiar anxiously waited for the railway gates to open.

"MGR was the hero and he needed a "good" villain -- one who knew sword-fighting, and who could fight without hurting him. And, there I was, with all these qualifications.

Since he had seen legendary MGR from the first film itself, we asked, how did he find the hero-turned-politician in real life?

Nambiar was silent for a moment then asked, "Is that necessary? I knew him from 1935 onwards -- both of us were Congressmen then. I know his strengths and weaknesses. If I were to describe his strengths, I have to mention his weaknesses too. So it's better not to say anything, isn't it?

"See, M G Ramachand became M G Ramachandran first, then MGR, then Puraichi Natikar, then Puraichi Thalaivan, then Makkal Thilakam, then Idaya Daivam and so on... I have a grudge against him." He paused and looked up, knowing the question was coming, "Why?"

We've been acting together from 1945 onwards... When MGR was 20, I was 20. When he was 25, I was 25. When he was 30, I too was 30. Suddenly in 1977, he joined politics and became a 57-year-old man. When you are in politics, you are not bothered about your age. But I was still in movies and from a 20-year-old, I'd suddenly aged to 57. What injustice.

Okay, he can grow old but it made me also an old man in the bargain too. Would anybody love a 57-year-old man? How can I pardon him for this?

After that I could not reduce my age, it went on increasing. Okay, it would have been better if I'd become wiser with age. No, it remained where it was earlier.' Again, no chuckle, no laugh, no sarcasm, and no emotions. I was the person who smiled.

For the record, Nambiar is 79 now. But he still acts in films. Is he a workaholic, we ask?

"No, one has to work to eat." Then was he at least passionately in love with his work, we press.

"No, had I been passionate about my work, I'd not have been like this. Yes, I work under the full glare of lights. But the moment I am home, I live in the shadows.

"They say behind every successful man, there is a woman. In any case, my wife is not behind me, she is in front of me. She is my mata, pita, guru, daivam (mother, father, teacher, god). In English, you describe a wife as the better half. Here, I am only one-eighth."

Qualities that Nambiar won't mind admitting to are his sense of piety his desire for adventure. The former is what makes him go year after year to Sabarimala where his family is given the honour of being the last family to climb the 18 steps, and Mansarovar.

When I see a mountain, I feel like climbing it. When I am at the top, I look down. The steep sides don't scare me, they excite me.

I have some small dreams, ambitions. You may think I'm mad but it doesn't matter. Near the Philippines, the Pacific Ocean is nearly 40,000 ft deep. I want to go there. Is it possible?

The Andes is 6400 km long and I want to climb to the top and walk it. Is it possible?

I want to go in a submarine to Iceland via the Bering Strait and eat a banana grown there. Why do you want to eat a banana in Iceland, you may ask. Because that banana is grown in Iceland.

Ever since I saw its picture in an issue of the National Geographic, I want to go there and eat it.