Comedy Actor Mr.Nagesh Passes Away

Comedy Actor Mr.Nagesh passes away this morning 31 Jan 2009

Nagesh (Gunddu Rao )born on September 27, 1933 and died on January 31, 2009 was a veteran Indian comedian actor in Kollywood. Even today the name evokes a mixed response in the minds of Tamil filmgoers, not just as a comedian who had them rolling in the aisles, but also as a character artiste who moved them to tears with his sensitive performance in films like Neer Kumizhi, Yarukkaga Azhuthan" and Edhir Neechal.
Born as Gunddu Rao in a Brahmin community, Nagesh was born to Kannada speaking Brahmin Madhwa parents. He walked out of his house telling his parents that he would be back only after establishing himself in some career. In Chennai, he stayed in a one-room bed-sit at West Mambalam (then a remote area) with lyricist Vaali and veteran actor Srikanth. He found a small time job in the Indian Railways, but he was not satisfied. One day, he saw a Tamil play Kamba Ramayanam enacted by his colleagues, and felt that he could do a good job. He persuaded the secretary of the Railways cultural association to give him the role of a man suffering from stomach pain. MGR, then chief guest, seeing this play, in his speech praised Nagesh for his performance. From then onwards, Nagesh played small roles in various drama troupes and kept himself busy.
It was producer Balaji who spotted him and gave him his first break in films. The most memorable performance of Nagesh out of the 1000 odd films he has acted in is his role in 'Thiruvillayadal' in which he speaks a soliloquy that is one of the most memorable scenes in the film.


He played a poet falling on bad times in the film. When Sivaji who played Siva in the film saw it he asked the director to retain it in full without a cut. Directors like Sridhar and Balachander were those who brought out the acting talents of Nagesh. In 'Kathalika Neramillai' Nagesh narrates a story to Baliah and the way it was narrated brought down the theatre in laughter. In 'Apoorva Raagangal' he plays a drunkard who talks to his shadow and then finishes his dialogue by saying 'Cheers' and throwing the cup on the wall. In the theatres where the film was shown the audience imitated him and threw cups on the wall of the lobby during interval. Yet another memorable performance was as the villianous comic pimp in 'Thillana Mohannambal' starring Sivaji and Padmini and Anbe Vaa & Enga veetu Pillai Filmswith M.G.R were hilarious. . More recently he played a dead man in 'Magalir Mattum' produced by Kamalhassan and the scenes involving Nagesh were hilarious.


He died on 31 January, 2009 at the age of 77 due diabetes and a heart ailment while he was admitted in Balaji Hospital. He is survived by three sons, including actor Anand Babu

May His soul Rest in Peace

Panakkari-1953

Cast :

M.G.Ramachandran( Character Name :Sundar),
V.Nagaiah,
Javar Seetharaman,
T.S.Durairaj,
K.A.Thangavelu,
T.R.Rajakumari,
Mangalam,
T.S.Jeya,
K.R.Chellam,
C. V. V. Panthulu,
(Yogam)-Mangalam


Story View :

Leo Tolstoy’s classic ‘Anna Karenina’ was made into a Hollywood movie in 1935 by Clarence Brown with the iconic star Greta Garbo playing Anna. It was filmed earlier as a silent movie in 1928 named Love, again with Greta Garbo as Anna and the ‘great lover’ John Gilbert in the male lead. The novel and the 1935 Hollywood version were popular in India and the story was filmed in Tamil in 1953 as Panakkari by K. S. Gopalakrishnan (the maker of Chakradhari) under the technical supervision of the renowned Newtone Studio founder-cinematographer-filmmaker, Jiten Bannerjee.

T. R. Rajakumari, the then dream girl, played the Tamil Anna and Chittoor V. Nagaiah as the suspecting husband who ill-treats her for being friends with an army officer (M. G. Ramachandran). The original story of misunderstanding between the couple due to the wife’s friendship with another man was more or less followed in the Tamil version. MGR’s role was somewhat villainous. While old timers ‘Javert’ Seetharaman and C. V. V. Panthulu played their supporting roles effectively, Mangalam, the woman the army man discards was also impressive. In a sequence, Panthulu (playing an elderly husband) carrying on with his young daughter’s attractive dance teacher, signals her to come up to his bedroom, leaving the daughter to dance to a gramophone record! While the dancer is busy upstairs, the gramophone record which has a crack, goes on playing the same word, hearing which the wife rushes out of the kitchen and catches the husband and the dance teacher red-handed. Though this sequence is hilarious, the moviegoers in those days thought it was in bad taste. There is also another scene the Tamil audience didn’t relish much — the husband (Nagaiah) introduces his lovely wife (Rajakumari) to his army friend and the man and the woman shake hands. It was also why the public rejected the movie, despite its impressive cast and production values.
The film had pleasing music (S. V. Venkataraman) with lyrics by Papanasam Sivan, Thanjai Ramaiah Das, Lakshmana Das and Kuyilan. Gopalakrishnan, a graduate, took part in the Freedom Movement and also worked in movies. He was associated with S. S. Vasan and directed the Gemini Studios’ box office hit of 1948, Chakradhari. Though he made a few films, he didn’t meet with much success. He is scarcely remembered today and many mistake him for the other K. S. Gopalakrishnan, a successful Tamil filmmaker.
However, Panakkari failed at the box office, mainly because of its ‘anti sentimental’ storyline. During the same period, another film, Pitchaikkari, a remake of a Malayalam film, proved a major hit and gave rise to a joke in the Madras movie circles —‘Those who bought Panakkari became pitchaikkaarans (beggars), while buyers of Pitchaikkari became panakkarans (rich men)!
Remembered for its different storyline, high production values and impressive performances by Nagaiah, Rajakumari and MGR.

Released on :15-03-1953

Ran for 100days

by RANDOR GUY

Article From :The Hindu

Never Before In The Tamil Film Industry

Ulagam Sutrum Valiban Crossing 100 days Sucessfully

Never before in the tamil film industry .Creating History Still

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Blessing From Our Makkal Thilagam

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Pradeep Balu
[Grandson of M.G.R & M.G.Chakrapani ]
Founder Of MGR FOUNDATIONS

Iru Sahodarargal -1936

Cast

M. G. Ramachandran (credited as 'G.Ramachandran),
M.G.Chakrapani (credited as 'G.Chakrapani),K. P. Kesavan, K. K. Perumal,M. M. Radhabai,
T. S.Krishnaveni,T. S. Balaiah,S. N. Vijayalakshmi,
P. G.Venkatesan,S. N. Kannamani.

Produced by
Parameswari Sound Pictures,

Directed by
Ellis R.Dungan



Story View

A family tale of two brothers with wives cast in different moulds, onedocile and subservient and the other greedy and scandal mongering.The younger brother (Kesavan) is well versed in music and other artsgoes to Madras to earn money to� keep the family floating and the wolfaway from its thin doors.� Thanks to a Good Samaritan he gets a breakand makes a name as a stage artiste.� The money he sends for theupkeep of the family is received by the troublesome sister-in-law whoforges his wife's signature.� After many twists and turns wisdom dawnson the troublesome sister-in-law and her wayward husband and thanks tothe goodness of the actor brother and his good wife the family isunited once more, proving the father's dying words, "a split familynever prospers"…

"Iru Sahodarargal" (also known as "Two Brothers") was written by notedTamil scholar poet, writer and also filmmaker S. D. S. Yogi and wasdirected by the celebrated American Tamil filmmaker Ellis R. Dungan,his second film which came out after his successful debut in "SathiLeelavathi" (1936). The film produced by the noted Coimbatore-basedproducer of that decade Parameswaran Chettiar, was shot in Bombay at Saroj Movietone Studios.
Kesavan, the hero and the younger brother was one of the leadingactors of the 1930s. An import from theatre he was for a short periodvery popular with many hits to his credit like "Bambai Mail" "PunjabKesari" and others. He also sang well. Not many are aware that hewas the role model of M. G. Ramachandran.A Rationalist during aperiod when such persons were rare he refused to act in godly roleswhich ultimately led to the decline of his career.MGR too followinghim during his early days was reluctant to do such roles. Today K. P.Kesavan is hardly remembered.� Ramachandran and Chakrapani acted in minor roles and were credited with only their initial G, and thus MGRwas G. Ramachandran repeating the role of the policeman while M.G.Chakrapani played the inspector, the role MGR played in "SathiLeelavathi".

To play the role of 'Kuppi Paati' Dungan insisted on casting a 70-yearold woman Alamelu Ammal to lend realism to the role!
Surprisingly the theme and storyline found their way many years laterin the Hindi movie star and producer-director Bhagwan's box officebonanza "Albela".
When this writer drew the attention of the similarity to his friendEllis R. Dungan, he recalled that Bhagwan, not yet famous in 1930s wasa regular visitor to the sets at the Bombay studio and also helped inmany ways with both of them traveling often by tram. "Perhaps thestoryline got stuck in his mind and he used it later, you know,Randor, many do it in movies," Dungan remarked smiling.
Music was provided by Anantharaman and Gopalaswami (now forgotten)with lyrics by S. D. S. Yogi.
"Iru Sahodarargal" fared fairly well at the box office and the careergraph of Ellis R. Dungan began to show the promised upward swing.
The art director S. K. Murthy also designed a rare occurrence, thesong book of the movie in an entirely different fashion whichattracted much attention in those days .(This writer has the only copyof it in his modest archive.)

Article by

Randor Guy

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M.G.C.Sukumar Passes Away

M.G.C.Sukumar, nephew of our late Chief Minister Thiru M.G.R., and the fifth son of Thiru M.G.Chakrapani passed away in Chennai on the 1st of January at 1.30 pm.He had under gone a bypass surgery and had recovered and discharged from hospital on the 31st of december. He suddenly developed chest pain on the 1st morning and was rushed to the hospital where he breathed his last. He is survived by his wife Thulasi and daughter Menaka.

M.G.C.Sukumar was an actor and a Producer and acted in several films like Kumkumam Kathai Solgirathi, Porkalam, Karadi, Aval oru Kavari Maan and other Tamil and Malayalam Films. He later joined politics and took an active part in AIADMK and joined Thirunavukarasu.

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