The word cuckold in English means the husband of an adulteress and an object of contempt and derision. A cuckold is a victim of infidelity and has to gulp deep frustrations and despair,with a psychic turbulence tormenting the conscious and subconscious levels of his mind.A situation of this kind,either leads to worst humiliation and disgrace,or drives the victim to retaliation and revenge.The unearned plight of a cuckold,can not be compared to the unreasonable emotional depressions of suspicious husbands.Tamil Cinema which has been conventionally devoted to dignifying womanhood,has not failed to visit the rare zone of wives betraying husbands.If an adulteress is the wife of a villain,it is mostly ignored.Whereas,if the hero has to play the role of a cuckold,it becomes a ticklish theme,driving the narration to the extent of becoming a taboo.
MGR who was an adorer of womanhood and motherhood,would rarely agree to play the role of a cuckold,not because of the insult that the character would bring to the hero,but because of the fact,that such a theme would project women in very poor frame.But,Sivaji Ganesan who was ever an all rounder in acting,would not hesitate to go in for the depiction of such an anathema.He would have done at least two such roles,one at the starting spell of his career and the other almost at the penultimate period of his acting schedule.The first film was Thookku Thooki,released in 1954 and the other film Kavarimaan hit the screens twenty five years later, in 1979.
Directed by R.M. Krishnaswami,Thookku Thookki was an exceptional film with a didactic bearing on the realities of life.The hero {Sivaji Ganesan} was a prince who chanced to listen to a debate held by a group of highly learned elders.The group proclaimed five prominent statements as the absolute facts of life,that could not be disproved.The five statements were 1}A father would always look for what material benefits his son brings in life 2}A mother is always a mother,whether her son brings any material benefits or not.3}A sister will treat her brother well, only if he brings her,valued gifts 4}A wife believed to be chaste,will not hesitate to kill her husband and 5}It is a true friend who would prove to be the final saviour.
On hearing these pronouncements the hero laughs at the elders and asserts that he will disprove them and expose their emptiness,through his own experiences,in his life time. Unfortunately,the Prince encounters events,that illustrate the veracity of all the five maxims in his own life.The bitter part of this experience is the betrayal of his wife {played by Lalitha,the elder sister of actress Padmini}who is found to be an adulteress sharing bed with another man {T.S. Balaiah}.A brutal shock destabilizes the morale of the prince,but how he overcomes it with the help of his close friend {played by Valaiyapathi Muthukrishnan} and another noble woman,{Padmini} formed the rest of this immortal film.
Sivaji Ganesan was just two years old as a screen hero then,when he did this queer role in Thookku Thookki.However for an actor of his calibre who proved his excellence in acting,in his debut film Parasakthi itself,the role in Thookku Thookki was a cakewalk.As there were five vital sayings of life,the debauchery of a wife became just one among them and hence the impact of the husband becoming a cuckold was not seriously felt.Besides,the comedy element in the character formation of the villain and other lighter aspects in the narration of the film,made it a vibrantly watchable movie,rightly blended with ingredients of entertainment and ethics.
The other film Kavarimaan directed by eminent film maker S.P Muthuraman,was totally different and down to earth,in narration.It is the story of a straight forward I A S officer,whose wife goes astray getting infatuated to another man.Stalwart Sivaji Ganesan played the role of the I A S officer and Pramila was his adulterous wife,having an extra marital affair with Ravichandran.The hero who catches both of them red handed,kills his wife in a fit of rage,on the spur of the moment and hides the incident from his daughter {Sridevi} for reasons of her own future and the family's reputation.'Kavarimaan'the title of the film implies the magnificence of self dignity.It is believed in creative imagination that a particular species of deer will die the moment it loses its hair.The same way those who cherish self dignity as the ultimate objective of their life,will not survive if there is a slur on their name and a disgrace to their fame. Thiruvalluvar the famous Tamil saintly poet writes as follows.
மயிர்நீப்பின் வாழாக் கவரிமா அன்னார்
உயிர்நீப்பர் மானம் வரின்
If translated into English,this verse would mean that just as the special variety of deer will not live if it loses its hair,those who cherish their self dignity,will die the moment it is lost.Whereas, in the film,the hero does not die,but spontaneously kills his wife.In a way,this sudden act helps him to attribute some other reason for the murder,so that his family's name and his daughter's future will not be spoilt. As truth cannot be hidden for long,it gets unfolded in the climax of the film.
Sivaji Ganesan's reaction on realizing the fact that he was made a cuckold was more poignantly felt in the second film,because the story line was truer to life than the theme of Thooku Thooki that resembled a fable.Notwithstanding the difference in narration,these two films are indicators of the excruciating agony,tearing the soul of a cuckold into pieces,unlike the psychic disorders of a suspicious husband,which prove to be self destructive.
In fact,both Sivaji Ganesan and Gemini Ganesan have also appeared in a couple of movies, as miserably suspecting husbands,spoiling the peace of mind of their wives,besides inflicting anguish upon themselves. Sivaji Ganesan's role play in Punar Jenmam and Dheiva Piravi and that of Gemini Ganesan in Kalathur Kannamma and Vaazhkai Padaku,created a telling impact of suspicious husbands destroying their family's peaceful routine.But the bitter fact remains that being a betrayed husband,literally ruins one's image,character and purpose of living.The curse of being a cuckold is"the unkindest cut of all"
{PS:- Incidentally,consequent upon the recent Supreme court verdict removing section 497 of I P C,which attracted punishment for men alone for committing adultery,this unholy act is not punishable anymore -unless it leads to other crimes- and can not be cited as a reason for seeking divorce.}
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