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Yesterday's villains are today's heroes,both in fiction and in real life.In cinema,not all people get a chance straight away,to do hero roles. Today's super heroes of Tamil cinema like Rajinikanth and Sathyaraj began their career only as villains and then transformed into mega stars. Whereas, heroes like Jai Shankar and Ravichandran did a lot of villain roles in the latter part of their career. Interestingly,a mighty hero like Sivaji Ganesan who rose to stardom in his very first film Parasakthi {1952} simultaneously and consecutively did four villain roles between 1953 and 1956.
The first villain role that Sivaji Ganesan performed was that of a womanizer,a plagiarist and a betrayer of the trade union movement in 'Thirumbi Paar'{1953} a successful film that came under the banner of the Modern Studios.It was Kalignar M.Karunanidhi who wrote the fiery dialogues for the film,after Sivaji Ganesan's first film Parasakthi.{Of course'Panam'and 'Parasakthi' were films made during the same year but the latter was released first and It was Kalaignar M.Karunanidhi who penned the dialogues for Panam too}.
In 'Thirumbi Paar'as Paranthaman,Sivaji really did a very hateful role going to the extent of raping a speech impaired woman who was the wife of another man.As the Casanova Sivaji Ganesan looked enchanting and it was this enticing appeal that made it easier for him to flirt with women and spoil their lives. It was his elder sister {Pandaribhai}who desperately tried to reform him but failed miserably.
But at the end when the erring guy realized all his evil deeds and was ready to reform himself his sister shot him dead while he was trying to convince one of his victims stating that he was ready to marry her.Meanwhile,the victim shot herself to death and the hero's sister in turn killed him thinking that it was he who killed his former lover,left in the lurch.
Thirumbi Paar became a box office hit thanks to Sivaji Ganesan's flawless performance, Kalaignar's impressive dialogues and T.R.Sundaram's ace direction,besides the fascinating musical score of G.Ramanathan.The beauty of the film was it would start with a court scene following the murder of Sivaji Ganesan and his lover and the whole story would be in the form of a flash back tale narrated by Pandaribhai.
This was followed by A.V.M's Andha Naal {1954} directed by Veena S.Balachandar.Sivaji Ganesan did the role of Rajan a radio engineer selling radios at an affordable cost.Like'Thirumbi Paar' this was also a film narrated on a retrospective mode with depiction of a process of investigation following the murder of Sivaji Ganesan.
'Andha Naal'turned out to be a unique film with no songs and with the course of events throwing a lot of surprises.The investigation finally led to the revelation of facts such as the hero having a mistress, his visit to Japan to make more money and his greed that made him travel on a path of espionage letting out Indian army's defence secrets to the Japanese government.Identically, as in'Thirumbi paar'in 'Andha Naal'too,it was Pandaribhai the hero's lover who killed him for being an anti-national. In fact she did not want to kill him but her hands triggered the gun by mistake leading to the murder.In spite of being a trend setting film'Andha Naal'did not do well at the box office.However Sivaji Ganesan performed wonderfully well, getting into the nuances of the role he played.
The same year T.R.Ramanna released his most remembered film'Koondu Kili'in which both MGR and Sivaji Ganesan acted for the first and last time.MGR as Thangaraj and Sivaji Ganesan as Jeeva are good friends. Thangaraj gets arrested for a crime committed by Jeeva.After this Jeeva tries to have relationship with the wife of Thangaraj but she stoutly rejects his approaches.Once when Jeeva forcefully tries to embrace her he loses his eyesight following the stroke of a lightning.
After this, his conflicting emotions hurt him forcing him to think if what he has done is right or wrong.Sivaji Ganesan neatly performed this negative role without any reservation about his image.Though'Koondukili'was much talked about as a different movie it was not successful at the theatres. But T.R.Ramanna took the rare credit for bringing MGR and Sivaji Ganesan together in his film.Besides'Koondukkili'he directed seven films of MGR and four films of Sivaji Ganesan.
A year later in 1956 Sivaji Ganesan did another negative role as the half brother of Gemini Ganesan in the film'Pennin Perumai' which was made both in Telugu and Tamil {of course with different actors}by Pullaiah who later on made Sivaji's Vanangamudi and MGR's Aasai Mugam. In Pennin Perumai Sivaji Ganesan was actually the spoilt son of Gemini Ganesan's step mother. The way Sivaji illtreated his brother with a whip on hand projected him as an abominable guy.
The film showed how Gemini Ganesan's wife (Savithri) gradually reformed the bad behavioral pattern of Sivaji Ganesan and proved the significance of the title that means the dignity of womanhood {or the dignity of a woman}.It was a kind of motiveless villainy that Sivaji Ganesan stylishly performed and this fascinating negativity impressed the audience to a great extent.
'Uthama Puthiran'is not included in this post because Sivaji Ganesan plays dual roles as Parthiban and Vikraman, the twin princes of a kingdom, the former as a man of the people and the latter as an ignoble prince raised badly by his maternal uncle with evil designs.
The greatness of an actor doing hero roles is to accept characters with any shades be it positive or negative. Sivaji Ganesan was an actor of all kinds of roles, never shirking any character for the sake of image. His true image was that of an exemplary actor with a global recognition. The fact that he accepted elderly roles even during the first decade of his career in films like Motor Sundaram Pillai and Paar Magale Paar would reflect the image of the perfect actor in him.That is why the villain roles he played not only stuck to the audience memory but also took him to colossal heights as a hero of cult status by spreading his massive thespian wings in all directions and flying high as the foremost hero of Tamil Cinema.
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