Operation, Operation, Operation Just Now
The irony of it all!
I started acting when I was in my kindergarten. I still remember playing the doctor in the musical, 'Operation, Operation, Operation just now!' in Jessie Moses, Chennai, and i still have the photo preserved.
I am standing there checking the non-existent heart beat of a baby doll with a real stethoscope I borrowed from my real uncle (who is a real doctor). For some reason, I thought I needed to wear the blue cap that I saw another uncle wear, and that completed my look: a roly poly lil doc, with a blue cap, branded 'TVS'! Talk about endorsements coming in early.
I used to love the movie 'Karnan' by Shivaji Ganeshan, and my reenactment of the climax of the film used to be a regular fixture at my house, if you happened to drop in to my house during 1991-92.
My mom would serve lime juice, bring in a tray full of knick knacks, and I would act out "Karnan's Death" - this was the welcome package you got if you were a guest at my house!
I used to prop myself up, imagining a hundred arrows sticking out of my bleeding chest, my face contorted in pain, my voice straining as it tried imitating the Tiger growl of the thespian-god Shivaji Ganeshan.
Then came the madness of Guna, and with it the circumambulation of my living room, saying in a Kamalesque pleading voice that would tug at my parents hearts... "Abiarami, Abirami!"
That mad actor is not dead, ladies and gentlemen.
He is very much alive.
The irony is, as I grew up, I realised that there was more behind the acting in a film. And I realised I did not know anything about them.
I did not know what a director does. So, I became a director.
Then I saw that there was a writer behind the director, who did something I had no clue of.
So I became a writer.
In this whirlwind of learning, the actor in me willingly took the backseat. He was good at back seat driving though, ever ready to spring into a 'Hey, cut to the right fast!!!" or "Hit the breaks, you fool!" whenever he saw the young driver err.
The back seat driver hated driving over the years, as he saw that the roads he used to play in as a kid, were actually beginning to be spewed with muck. He saw the Shivajis and Kamals of his childhood suffer in these garbage-strewn roads.
Thus he willingly gave up - if only for a while - the steering wheel, and let the other drivers take over.
But it seems now that he has begun stirring in his seat.
The actor prepares.
I started acting when I was in my kindergarten. I still remember playing the doctor in the musical, 'Operation, Operation, Operation just now!' in Jessie Moses, Chennai, and i still have the photo preserved.
I am standing there checking the non-existent heart beat of a baby doll with a real stethoscope I borrowed from my real uncle (who is a real doctor). For some reason, I thought I needed to wear the blue cap that I saw another uncle wear, and that completed my look: a roly poly lil doc, with a blue cap, branded 'TVS'! Talk about endorsements coming in early.
I used to love the movie 'Karnan' by Shivaji Ganeshan, and my reenactment of the climax of the film used to be a regular fixture at my house, if you happened to drop in to my house during 1991-92.
My mom would serve lime juice, bring in a tray full of knick knacks, and I would act out "Karnan's Death" - this was the welcome package you got if you were a guest at my house!
I used to prop myself up, imagining a hundred arrows sticking out of my bleeding chest, my face contorted in pain, my voice straining as it tried imitating the Tiger growl of the thespian-god Shivaji Ganeshan.
Then came the madness of Guna, and with it the circumambulation of my living room, saying in a Kamalesque pleading voice that would tug at my parents hearts... "Abiarami, Abirami!"
That mad actor is not dead, ladies and gentlemen.
He is very much alive.
The irony is, as I grew up, I realised that there was more behind the acting in a film. And I realised I did not know anything about them.
I did not know what a director does. So, I became a director.
Then I saw that there was a writer behind the director, who did something I had no clue of.
So I became a writer.
In this whirlwind of learning, the actor in me willingly took the backseat. He was good at back seat driving though, ever ready to spring into a 'Hey, cut to the right fast!!!" or "Hit the breaks, you fool!" whenever he saw the young driver err.
The back seat driver hated driving over the years, as he saw that the roads he used to play in as a kid, were actually beginning to be spewed with muck. He saw the Shivajis and Kamals of his childhood suffer in these garbage-strewn roads.
Thus he willingly gave up - if only for a while - the steering wheel, and let the other drivers take over.
But it seems now that he has begun stirring in his seat.
The actor prepares.
posted by R S Prasanna | 9:30 PM
6 Comments:
Goodra thambi. Konnutte. Good language and good magnetism.
:) thanks dad
Thaaru maar...so hop to see u back in acting again...let me know when u r back...
lance: Thanks bud :)
I know!! :) u shud get back to acting too!! The last I saw you was IBI. Hope to see u on screen soon. good luck man.
Looking forward to your 'comeback film' bud!!! ;-)
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