Dear readers of my column TWR
I guess I have to keep apologizing for my hiatus, because my subtitling labour of love is such, odd hours and crazy deadlines.
This time I would like to introduce Ananth Mahadevan, the actor, director and national award winner, to all of you.
Sitara (EP of Papanasam) and I were checking the subtitles of Papanasam at Real Image when the Inspector General’s husband, came on to the screen. I told Sitara “he reminds me so much of Ananth Mahadevan”. Who would expect this Bollywood director and renowned actor to be in a Tamil film? Pat came the amused reply, “he IS Ananth Mahadevan, rekhs!”
Ananth born and brought up in Mumbai, is an alumnus of Don Bosco, Matunga. He says his brother Ravi is his conscience keeper, like the mahout who guides the elephant in the right path. His mother, used to read out Tamil stories from Ananda Vikatan regularly, which stirred his storytelling instinct from when he was a kid.
He graduated in Chemistry wanting to become a research scientist but God definitely had other plans lined up for him. His endeavours to entertain viewers started from school and college, participating in every school/ inter collegiate event or contest. But little did he know ‘that’ would become his bread and butter plus give him job satisfaction and confer awards.
He started off as a medical representative in a pharmaceutical company. But the travel and odd timing got to him. Only silver lining was he became half a doctor, the short cut way!
In 1980 he saw an advertisement calling for a copy writer’s post. His boss was none other than Sri V.P.Sathe, right hand of renowned hero Raj Kapoor. This was the spark plug for Ananth to meet the film fraternity. His theatre career too started at this point, which meant he had to attend press shows in the morning (film critic) work till 6 p.m, rush to catch the train before peak hours to rehearse for his plays and reach home dead as a dodo at 11 p.m! But like a man possessed this was his routine throughout 1980-89.
I butted in and asked him, “didn’t marriage feature in his plans”? He smiled and said “I forgot to find myself a bride!”
In 1984 his debut into the celluloid screen was through a British television film Kim based on the novel by Rudyard Kipling starring Peter O’Toole. Wow! What a thrilling moment to be one of Lama’s disciples in an English film.
Then he got the chance to act in the DD TV serial Ados Pados directed by Sai Paranjpye in 1984, thanks to the play ‘The Good Doctor’ where he essayed different roles and was noticed for his innate acting prowess. While performing his plays, every Thursday (Ados Pados was aired) he had a 2 minute exit at 9 p.m. That was the time he was able to hear (!) his voice from the neighbouring TV sets and feel a warm glow spread in the atrium of his heart! Imagine that ‘first time’ sense of achievement. Then came Ghar Jamai which made him get noticed in trains too.
In 1990 he bagged the role of Pundit Purniah in ‘The sword of Tipu Sultan’ to be telecast in Doordarshan. He packed his bags, bid goodbye to Bombay for 2 years and landed in the sets of Premier Studios in Mysore on Feb 8th 1990. After meeting the director Sanjay Khan, his co-actors, he decided to go back to the hotel. His car turned at the gate when he saw the sets blow up in orange flames setting the night sky ablaze.
Back home minus a job and shaken up, his faith in God never ebbed. Tipu sultan was revived and he got to play Purniah spanning 3 generations, from age 18 to 65 when he was actually in his early 30s. His acting career escalated with Khiladi, Gardish, Shah Rukh’s Baazigar and Aamir’s Ishq while at the same time he (ad)ventured into direction with a 80 minute tele film called ‘Sambandh’ for Doordarshan.
Then followed a series of television serials he directed, one of which was Ghar jamai starring our Maddy and that’s probably how Tamil cinema got Madhavan for Alaipayudhe!
In 2002 Ananth directed Dil vil pyar var. Vivek Vaswani was instrumental in his foray as a film director. This directorial entry sky rocketed into the renowned ‘Mee Sindhutai Sapkal’ which put the spot light on him as director, conferred 4 national awards for the film and 2 for him.
Presently he has 3 films in his kitty as director to be released. His Gaur Hari Dastaan the biopic has already made deep imprints in IFFI and the International festival scenario. 2 more to come...will reserve my thoughts on these for another TWR another day.
But what I want to impress upon the young readers is, don’t hesitate to chart out a plan, dream, aim beyond the blue skies, it’s never too late. I can assure you of that.
The best is yet to come. Ananth got a call from Wide Angle Creations. Suresh Balaje said ‘we would like your dates for Papanasam and your part is being shot on July 29th. Ananth had committed that date (of all dates) to a play and with a heavy heart turned down the offer.
I must reiterate here, God’s will always prevails! Dates got shifted and Ananth was in. Viewers across the world can watch Ananth as Prabhakar in Papanasam. Very interesting to note that Jeetu Joseph the director in his interview said ‘the person who surprised him most with his performance was Ananth’
Let us welcome Ananth, a talented, well-grounded, humble humane being who takes pride in his work (for his journey has not been an easy one sans Godfather) into the Tamil film fraternity. You can have the pleasure of watching him in Vishwaroopam 2 too, thanks to the hawk eyes of Sri Kamal Hassan in spotting good talent beyond region and language.
Tata and thank you readers for supporting my dream to take Tamil filmdom worldwide.
With best wishes to the Papanasam team,
rekhs
02-07-15
