It is in reference to the sweeping judgments made on the Late Shivaji Ganesan. It is rather paining to picture him the way some of our esteemed members have tried to. We all have our own whims & fancies! But, it should not come in the way when we judge some individual’s contribution, it is even more so when we analyse some great personalities like Shivaji Ganesan. An actor is over-acting or such a thing is further linked with Mu. Ka. is still disheartening. Well, one can have one’s own respect or the lack of it for any person; but when it comes to public figures like Shivaji, let us refrain from disrespecting/making mockery, if not giving credits or ‘pugaluraigal’. It is Shivaji who had greatly contributed to the Hinduism, particularly, to the great Tamil Saiva- chithantam; in 1960s and the early 1970s the Tamil society as a whole was not that educated or developed as it is today, in fact, the tamil brahmins were much more poor as there were not many who had gone to the West and brought-in rich harvest of dollars/pounds, not even dinars or rials (while now there are a number of them well settled in different parts of the world and sending a sizable proportion of their savings to home here). Moreover, it was the hey-day of Dravidian movements with Periyar himself at the helm of affairs, and be it C.N. Annadurai or Mu.Ka were all upcoming leaders by then; it was Shivaji who happened to be in their own ‘Kazhagams’ for long, still could come out with some of the best films, take the films of the great producer-director A.P. Nagarajan, films like Thiruvilaiyadal, Thiruvarutselvar, Saraswathi Sabhatham and the likes made an immense impact in each and every tamilian, irrespective of caste and colour. Perhaps, it can be said as the ‘renaissance period’ for tamil vedam and bhakthi movement. Even some of his roles in films like ‘Vietnam Veedu’ or the police officer role in Thanga Pathakkam (which has been very badly reviewed in the discussion in the thread) are not ordinary! The senior police officers of 1970s seemed to have confessed that many police officers changed their style, be it in walking or the mush or everything, they admitted that he resembles to a perfect police officer. With big thoppai, why don't you see the film like 'Mudal Mariyadai' or "Thunai"? Any way, as I said earlier, to analyse a film or the lifetime contribution of certainl actors like Shivaji cannot be done the way it is done with ‘Saif Ali Khah ( I have seen in some other thread in this web – glorifying Saif Ali Khan or Rani Mukherji); I am referring to it because the same yardsticks cannot be used when it comes to personalities like Shivaji, MGR, Rajnikanth or Kamalhaasan. May be, I am afraid, that we have started criticizing everything which is not Brahmin, a dangerous proposition, as they do it against everything which is Brahmin. One type of 'wrong perception' cannot undo the other type of 'wrong perception'. My intention is not to hurt anyone’s sentiments or interests, but I feel that in Tamilnadu many great personalities (who are not Brahmins) but have contributed so much to different fields of knowledge, including religion, customs, traditions, arts and so on, and the tamil Brahmin community has not given full credence to them; and hence in turn, the entire non-brahmins have an in-built bias against us, after all they have been holding the political power with them for long now. Once again, these are some of my thoughts. We can continue on this dialogue endlessly, but the purpose should take us a little forward and advanced than where we are now. With regards, balaiyer.
