As I belong to a generation when the technology was slowly shifting from B&W to colour and content moving away from studios , I could say that it was Raghuvaran that caught the imagination of me. As far as villainy is considered, I would put Raghuvaran as the best villain in South movies and nobody else. My next choice is Pran of Hindi cinema.
I became an admirer of Raghuvaran only after I became a film journalist. Incidentally, seeing FB, I am reminded that today is the birthday of K S Ravikumar. It was on the sets of Puriyatha Puthir that I met Raghuvaran and Anand Babu ( son of Nagesh). Then, I had seen Nagesh only on screen. Once I walked into a set of Puriyatha Puthir and there was a air of anxiety. A unit hand said that Raghuvaran for a scene had actually slit his wrist.
It was by co-incidence that I met Raghuvaran through a common friend - Chandraji, brother of Adoor Bhasi. It was over a few drinks and that too at a room in Hotel Ganpat ( Nungambakkam). Raghu spoke Malayalam but with a Tamil accent and in his usual slow measured style. Chandraji said that Raghu's father and brother were running a hotel in Coimbatore. Raghuvaran and me warmed up and he told the Ganpat hotel manager to give me the key to his room anytime and serve me anything, needless to say he would pick the tab. However, I did not dare to test this offer as I was afraid that after having a couple of drinks , the manager would give me the bill and ask me - Who Raghuvaran?. Raghuvaran would tell me that he played an alcoholic on screen in his early days.
I kept bumping into him at Telugu- Malayalam sets. I asked him how he managed to speak in all these languages. He said that food- water , money and shelter were important words for any man. So you learn how say the words for this essential and how to say you need it or did not get it. Rest will fall in place was his answer. As a film actor, he had to learn words for light etc.
There was one air hostess girl who was going steady with him and seen her at his house. One fine morning, she vanished. His father and brother shifted to his house and was seen in company of Chandraji. When I came back from Kodai ( Kamal film shoot) after the Rajiv Gandhi riots were over in Chennai, I was told that Raghu was beaten up by a few slum guys staying near his bungalow in Lake Area. At midnight, he was sitting on the compound wall and drinking without knowing about
An incident that still haunts me is the shoot of a scene in ` Izzatdar' the first film of Raghu in Hindi. It was a conference hall in Taj. There is a verbal battle between Dilip Kumar and Raghuvaran, both who deliver dialogues slowly. The shot began. Dilip said his part and Raghu was to finish the scene with an ending line looking at Dilip. Camera for that shot in placed behind Dilip. Raghu said his part and with emotion , eyes blazing and a body language, that even Dilip was taken aback. Cut said the director but Raghu continued to be in that menacing mood looking at Dilip.
In the night, at the Presidential suite of Taj Coramandel, Dilip , myself and my Editor Taraji with Saira Banu was sitting around a table watching the TV. Dilip asked me - Raghuvaran is your friend ?. I nodded. Then what he said was something memorable. " As long as an actor is saying his dialogue , he is doing theatrics. When he does not say anything and his face , eyes and cheek muscles speak, that is acting. Your friend has that ability. Don't leave him," said Dilip. When I told Raghu about this , he laughed and said - " My first Hindi film and a scene opposite a legend called Dilip Kumar , whom the industry does not say his name but call him as Yusuf Saab, I was shit scared inside and that probably got me into the scene." I asked Raghu how he managed his dates and he said that there was one Giri whom he described as `very resourceful'.
Many baddies have come. Nasser is brilliant actor and whenever he has got a chance to emote he has made use of it. But then it is not always that a Thevar Maghan or Kuruthipoonal comes by. After that is Prakashraj. He too is multilingual and takes pain to study the role, if it is different. Otherwise, he just hams his way through film after film. I think the best opportunity has yet to come to him.
On an ending note, I think of what Dilip Kumar said. Is there any punch dialogues that you remember of Raghuvaran ? To me No , but still he lingers in the hearts.When someone says that Baasha made Rajinikanth a Superstar, I retort asking - Without Mark Antony ?
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