While talking about Tamil comedians usually people talk about NSK, Thangavelu, Nagesh, thengai sirnivasan, surulirajan,cho and then goundamani senthil etc and that’s common state of mind.People often forget some of the wonderful comedians we had and sometime back I did write about T.R.Ramachandran who excelled in comedy. But even before the names mentioned in the above list there was a man who was a multi-faceted comedian K.Sarangapani and none could even come closer to his body language and comical expression. The burst out laughter he gives was his trademark . I would rate him higher than NSK and many more comedians of that time. He could sing, dance and act as hero and a comedian as well.
Sarangapani was born in 1904 in kumbakonam. At the age of 7 interested at a Drama poster in a bullock cart he joined the Jagannatha Drama company where in he learned to act,sing & dance. He played female roles and then turned to comedy roles. KSR made his debut in 1935 movie Baktha Ramadas. He was the hero in the first edition of sakkubai in tamil where in Aswathamma played as sakkubai. With his expressions and dialogues he did capture the audience. Remember the Heavenly danseuse coming to earth and loving a normal man.. Ring a bell.. Yes Rambayin kadhal (not the popular thangavelu-banumathy starrer) way before that in 1939 in the first edition of Rambayin kadhal Sarangapani was the hero . K.L.Vasanthadevi played the role of rambha while Sarangapani played the role of the rural man who marries the stone rambha. Sarangapani & vasantha gave impressive performance
1941 was a great year for AVM chettiyar, T.R.Ramachandran & Sarangapani. Yes AVM made a movie Sababathy in which very talented T.R.ramachandran played the title role and stole the show while Sarangapani played the role of his tamil teacher. The scenes involving TRR & KSR are outrageous.. especially when T.R.R sends Kali.N.Rathnam to fetch another hand for their cards game he brings in the tamil teacher sarangapani and the scenes following it is a laugh riot. TRR’s father scolds the teacher for a written essay by TRR especially about the railway track with the sounds included (gup gup, gada gada) and the way Sarangapani addresses Sababathy as “appan” is a treat to watch. Sarangapani throughout the film gave impressive performance and look at the ability to transform from a main lead to a character/comic role with ease. That was sarangapani’s skill.
Having watched Sarangapani’s witty dialogue delivery, facial expressions AVM decided to make a movie with sarangapani as lead. At this point let’s congratulate AVM the master mind for giving us such wonderful films on various genres. This time he decides to turn a Marathi play into a comedy movie “En manaivi”. Sarangapani plays the character of a suspicious husband and K.R.Chellam played his wife. Those who haven’t watched this movie please watch. This movie is a laugh riot from the beginning till end. As they say in English it’s comedy of errors. Sarangapani played the role to perfection. He played the role of a doctor. The scene where in he attends his patients is fun to watch. Also this film depicted at that time multilingual people lived in MADRAS and spoke various languages. A lover boy marries a girl and leaves her and sarangapani attends her at the same sarangapani suspects chellam to be the lover boy’s girl. With various twists and turns all ends well .. Sarangapani was perfect right from the first scene till end. His cook played by a stage actor has a song which was quite popular “sangadamana samaiyala vittu sangeetham paada poren”. Sarangapani performed kadha kalakshebam in this movie and this is the preview for many more kalakshebams he performed in later years in many other movies. En manaivi was a successful movie and Sarangapani –chellam were popular comedy couple.
Sarangapani continued to appear in many movies and he did a quite interesting villain role in the 1946 movie Lavangi Another super hit movie came in the name of “Vedhala ulagam” in 1948 wherein sarangapani played hero T.R.Mahalingam’s friend. AVM’s fantasy fare Vedhala ulagam was a brilliantly made movie with impressive trick shots and Sarangapani stole the show even more than the film’s hero TRM. Yes the scenes where he enters the world of Demons and how at first he is frightened and slowly he makes the demons obey him are hilarious to watch. Sarangapani danced and also sang a song “aiyeyye parka kannu koosuthe” which became quite popular. In 1949 he was elevated to play heroine’s father and those days character roles had importance and every character artist exhibited their talent in those roles and Sarangapani with his witty humor and singing & talking style with this humorous expression didn’t fail in this department. He played the father for the new entrant Vaijayanthi mala. Until then AVM was operating from KAraikudi and this was their first venture after AVM studios was setup in Madras. Sarangapani as the funny dad gave a superb performance. The scene where Vaijayanthi introduces TRR he starts narrating his story and bursts into laughter is one of the various hilarious scenes to follow. While continuing various roles including a servant role in Mohana sundaram, he impressed everyone by his portrayal as villain in Andhaman Khaidi.. yes he played the evil uncle of M.G.R who swindles all the wealth and drives them away. It’s a revenge story and KSR’s villainous portrayal caught everyone’s attention for sure. Having seen him in comic roles this was a completely stunning performance by Sarangapani. Sarangapani played T.R.Mahalingam’s friend in 1950’s fim “Idhya geetham” and he played the “lala” character to dot. Sarangapani was seen playing Gemini ganesan’s father in AVM’s pen which again had Vaijayanthi mala in lead. Anjali devi and S.Balachander also played their part to perfection but as adamant father Sarangapani was noticeable once again. He continued his stint with Pon vayal, Mangayar thilagam etc but again a major role was bestowed upon him by Vijaya Vauhini film makers for the movie “Missiyamma”. No one else but Sarangapani could do that role. The initial scene where Sarangapani meets Gemini in the park is absolute treat to watch. The way he says “vellaiyappanai thallunga” outstanding. His seetharam seethram bhajan is hilarious as well. He sang those songs in his own voice. The way he helps Gemini in all circumstances including the ones where Gemini tries to woo Savithiri are absolute treat to watch. Missiamma is a milestone in Sarangapani’s career. In telugu Relangi did the role but Sarangapani was miles ahead in his performance in tamil. The jackpot role of Sarangapani came in the name of Modern Theatres T.R.Sundaram who produced the first techni color movie in tamil cinema in 1956 with upcoming MASS hero M.G.R yes the evergreen “Alibabavum 40 thirudargalum” and Sarangapani’s name appears next to MG. Such was his stature. He played the role of dowlath and a friend of MGR. His comedy with MNRajam was noteworthy. The scene where both MGR and Sarangapani watches the 40 thieves exit the cave and how sarangapani reacts to all the jewelry he sees is funny to watch. Sarangapani continued to appear in movies like Madhar kula manickam, Naan petra selvam (Sivaji’s father) Another noticeable role was that of a chief of mental hospital in the Daisy Irani starrer “Yaar Paiyan” . He played the maternal uncle of Gemini ganesan. The scene where Gemini goes to meet Sarangapani to request 500 rupees is hilarious and the conversations between his secretary T.R.Ramachandran and his daughter Surabhi Balasaraswathi especially the saree selection scene is a laugh riot. Sarangapani continued to play elderly roles in films like Nalla idathu sammandham(soft spoken father of Sowcar & prem nazir). The crooked minded uncle of T.R.Ramachandran in Adutha veetu pen. It’s hilarious to watch him dress up as young man trying to marry a young girl. Fantastic performance by Sarangapani. Another noticeable role was the wedding crasher role he played in Manidhan MAravillai. He plays the cousin brother to Sundaribai and tries to drive away all the matrimonial requests for jamuna to make his son the groom. Another good role in the form of C.V.Sridhar in Sumaithangi where in Sarangapani plays the father to Muthuraman,Gemini Ganesh & L.Vijayalakshmi. Sarangapani’s role in Arivali was also noteworthy. Playing dad to the arrogant banumathi and well behaved M.saroja. Scenes involving Sivaji Ganesan, T.R.Ramachandran & Saragapani definitely provides comic relief. Kadhakalakshebam scene from the movie Seetha where in Sarangapani & Nagesh provide a lengthy kadhalakshebam is worth watching. Sarangapani played the dad to Gemini ganesh and provided humor thru his witty dialogues and body language. Sarangapani turned villain again in Kulamagal radhai . He is the main reason for Sarojadevi-Sivaji split and finally repents his mistakes and tells the truth. Late 60’s he appeared in quite number of movies , 2 movies which stand out are Thillana mohanambal where in he played the tavil vidwan along with T.S.Baliah. When they both play observe the subtle difference between TSBaliah and KSR. KSR’s whole body will tremble and his face expressions hilarious. Another one being “Konjum salangai” where he plays tavil vidwan again and provided the needed humor as the friend of Gemini ganesh. Sarangapani was involved in Freedom movement hence named his children Gandhi Padmanabhan, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Bhaskara Patel, and Subhash Chandra Bose. A Very religious man moved away from Films in 1970’s and died at the age of 80 in 1984. Sarangapani is definitely a tall figure in the history of tamil cinema who was master of many arts singing,dancing and ofcourse acting and pioneer to many comedians followed him. Thru this article I take immense pleasure to have written about him and as old film buffs we should show our respect towards this man. Will comeback with another artist soon – Rajesh Lavanya
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