REMEMBERING M. K. T.

Remembering M.K.T.

A forgotten superstar

According to a newspaper report published recently, the famous singer and film star, M.K.Thyagaraja Bhagavathar is no longer remembered even in his hometown. This goes to show how fickle fame could be and how short the public memory.

Blind love

I still remember the days when MKT bestrode the Tamil film world like a colossus. He was a great romantic hero and a heartthrob among female fans. In Ashok Kumar (1941) he is blind for about half the film and then he regains his sight miraculously. Towards the end of the film, the hero disgusted with the events he sees around him says, "I would rather not have eyes to see all this". And then he attempts to put out his eyes by thrusting two spears into them. The moment he did this a number of women in the theatre screamed and broke into sobs. Anyway, nothing happened to his eyes since there was another divine intervention, and presumably the lovers lived happily ever after.

MKT's singing voice had a timbre that was unique, and he enunciated the words with a clarity that made the song very attractive. Most of his films had music by Papanasam Sivan. The tunes were simple, with a minimum of background music. Most filmgoers were able to hum these tunes when they came out of the theatre. The later films of MKT had music by G.Ramanathan and K.V.Mahadevan.

Haridas (1944) ran continuously for nearly three years. His other hits included Chintamani (37), Thiruneelakandar (39) and Sivakavi (43). All the songs in these films became very famous.

Star crossed lovers

I saw many of the MKT films in a touring theatre (Paai Kottagai) in our town. One of my favourites was Ambikapathy (1937). In it MKT plays a sensitive and gentle young man, the son of the great poet Kambar. He falls in love with Amaravathi, the daughter of the Chola king, Kulothungan. Amaravathi was played by Santhanalakshmi, a plain looking actress with no sex appeal whatsoever. The dialogue was quaint and outdated. (Praana Naadha!), and yet there was a tenderness in the love scenes that tugged at one's heartstrings.

A later version of Ambikapathy had a heavy-jowled , overacting hero with a paunch and a buxom and saucy heroine romping about in the midday sun, eyes crinkling in the glare, and pretending it was moonlight. Compared to this, MKT's Ambikapathy was a technically well made film. Later I came to know that the director, Ellis R.Dungan had been heavily influenced by George Cukor's 1936 version of Romeo and Juliet. There is a balcony scene in Ambikapathy too. The duet "Chandra sooriyar poam gathi maarinum veezhinum namakkenna" is a high point in the romance. The lovers sit on a moonlit beach with the waves glinting in the background and sing in gentle melodic stretches.

There was one scene that had the elements of an old detective story. Ambikapathy goes to the palace to attend a function. According to the custom those days, he smears a lot of sandal paste on his bare chest. The princess gestures to him to come upstairs. Though hesitant at first, Ambikapathy goes up unable to resist the call of love. The king, who has been observing this, calls Kambar and takes him upstairs where the young lovers are discovered. "They must have been just talking" says Kambar. The king then points to the patches of sandal paste on Amaravathi's cheek - a result of her resting her head on Ambikapathy's chest. Eventually Ambigapathy is sent to his death and Amaravathi follows him out of this world.

I watched this film as a small boy and I noticed a number of women coming out of the theatre with tears streaming down their cheeks, weeping unabashedly. Today's audiences seldom react this way. And that perhaps is the reason why MKT has been forgotten.

J.VASANTHAN

(e-mail: jvasanthan@sancharnet.in)

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu

BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK

Bad day at Black Rock

A film classic remembered

I first saw the film `Bad Day at Black Rock' in 1957. Since then I have seen it innumerable times. It never palls on one.

No trains usually stop at Black Rock, a sleepy and isolated hamlet. But one day a train stops, and a one-armed war veteran gets off it to everyone's surprise. He is greeted with hostility by the townsfolk. Obviously there is some skeleton in their cupboard, and so outsiders are not welcome.

The lonely stranger

Macready (Spencer Tracy) whose empty left sleeve is tucked into the coat pocket, walks to the only hotel in town. The clerk says there is no room. But Macready pulls the register closer and finds that all the rooms are vacant. He writes his name in the register, and goes up to his room.

Later he enquires about a Japanese-American man he has come to see. Everyone freezes, and no response is forthcoming. From then on a group of thugs try to scare him off the town. He doesn't react to their taunts and provocations, but quietly goes about the business of finding that Japanese. All efforts of the tough guys to drive him off are in vain.

No one dares to help him. The sheriff is a frightened man who closes his eyes to all that goes on and drowns his sorrows in drink. When Macready tries to send a telegram to the police the telegraph clerk hands over the message to the boss of the tough gang. When he tries to hire a car, the car engine is damaged by one of the gang (Lee Marvin). Finally he manages to hire a jeep from a garage further off , and goes looking for the Japanese who owned a farm in the outskirts of the town.

The farm is deserted. The buildings have been demolished. Then Macready spots a kind of grass that grows on graves only. So he guesses that the Japanese has been killed. While returning to town one of the thugs in a car drives him off the road into a ditch. But Macready manages to reach the town, and when he tells them what he has found, the hostility increases.

The boss (Robert Ryan) tells his henchmen that the one-armed veteran should not go back alive. Fortunately for Macready one man in the town (Walter Brennan) becomes friendly and tries to help him. And Macready tells him why he came to see the Japanese. The Japanese man's son was a soldier in Macready's unit, and he had saved Macready's life, and died in the process. Macready had lost his arm in the same incident. Later he had been given a medal for bravery. And he had wanted to present the medal to the father of the boy. When this is known in the town there is a change of heart in one man who tells Macready how the gang had gone to attack the Japanese. They had set fire to his house, and when he came out the boss of the gang had shot him dead. This was just to appropriate the farm, but the reason they give is a patriotic desire to eliminate the enemy.

Brilliant technique

Macready now intent on leaving town gets a jeep and goes off. But the gang leader is waiting for him on a hillock, and starts firing at the car. Then Macready uses an ingenious ruse. He gets some petrol from the car in a bottle, tears his tie and puts it in the bottle, lights it and throws the bottle at the villain. The bottle hits a rock and explodes setting the villain ablaze.

When the film was first released, it was hailed as "a superior example of motion picture craftsmanship". The film was noted for dramatic unity, and an economy of word and action.

The whole story takes place in twenty four hours.

The director, John Sturges, was an expert in composing the shots. He used the technique of some Renaissance painters, forming triangles in the composition which made the scene dramatic. He maintained a crisp pace with never a dull moment.

The fight between Macready and a tough guy (Ernest Borgnine) is thrilling beyond words. The one-armed old man gets the better of the thug, using the tactics he had learnt in hand to hand combat. This is one of the electrifying scenes in the film. Borgnine is very good as the plug-ugly.

Spencer Tracy is one of the greatest actors ever. He was a natural actor who underplayed his roles to telling effect. Many actors used to go to him for advice about acting. Tracy would say, "Just know the lines and don't bump into the furniture".

The film takes you on a great and exciting ride - without any bumps.

J.VASANTHAN

(e-mail: jvasanthan@sancharnet.in)

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu