Packup time – Raghuvaran
Who is a good actor?
I have had many a heated debate with my friends from school days till now when we argue till we grow tired on internet blogs on this topic.
Always there would be two camps (discounting fans of stars and the “charisma thing”)
Actors who disfugured themselves, hid their original face under obscurity and became the character versus actors who retained their self and transfored themselves only that much to convince the audience that they are seeing someone else.
I always wavered between the two sides. Whenever I would see a “Sethu” or “Pithamagan”, I would be amazed at Vikram’s work in those movies and say that is indeed awesome acting.
On the other and there would be a Mohanlal or Sivakumar or Nasser whowould play their assigned roles with no change in the getup or mannerism, just be temselves and still convince me that I am observing a middle class government servant or a local butcher. Just that little change in the body language and no spectacular transformation, but still good enough.
The bane with either camps for Indian cinema is the fact that there are plenty of movies requiring the latter style and very little movies for the former style and i would tell my friends that the data is overwhelmingly scarce for comparison.
But then there are special actors, like Raghuvaran who could alternate on either spectrum of acting – not that a Nasser or Sivakumar cannot do what a Raghuvaran does, but he simply can do it along with a effervescent energy that very few can bring to the role. Raghuvaran – an enigmatic actor who lived a life like waves in a beach – losing and regaining grounds in life eternally. The waves in this ocean have stopped though, however the creative ripples he created in the medium of movies will go on forever.
The enigma called Raghuvaran was a student of psychology from Coimbatore whose heart was truly in acting, in portraying the various characters that he had studied as a student of psychology. He began in a very small way as the protagonist in “Ezavadhu manidhan” a rareart house movie in Thamizh directed by Hariharan, that was more popular due to the melodious “Kakkai Siraginile”. Thamizh film industry was searching for some actor with conventional looks and unconventional talent and he caught the eye of veteran director Sridhar who cast him as the lead in “Oru odai nadhiyaagiradhu” opposite Sumalatha. The movie had some scintilliating numbers from Raja. the movie did not set the Box Office on fire, though Raghuvaran pulled off the role of a man caught up with his betrayal pretty well. Then came a lean period where he kept rejecting every offer that asked him to play a stereotype, till director VC.Guhanathan approached him to play – of all things a hero in an action movie with shades of villainy. The movie was “Michael Raj” and it was a sleeper hit with the tall Raghuvaran shining in stunt sequences as well as in scenes where he had to mouth some fiery dialogues. The movie also had Baby shalini as an orphaned child(now Mrs.Ajith kumar) and the scenes between them were warm enough to melt the “Thaaikulam” (lady audience addressed affectionately in Thamizh nadu political parlance) to make the supposedly ‘B and C’ centre movie to a big hit.
While another actor would have stuck to action oriented roles and tried to be the next “star”, Raghuvaran was the type who breaks the molds and not the type who tries to fit into one. His next major role was a total contrast – as the money minded son putting his father through tough times in the Silver lotus wining movie “Samsaram adhu minsaram”. He handled the heavy drama style influence of Director visu to pull out a contrasting performancein the role of a middle class “traitor” son. This movie simply created sensation and he became one of the most hated man amongst the “Thaaikulam” now. The other thing he did in the movie that no younger hero/actor dared to do was get paired with veteran artiste Lakshmi and the duo gave some memorable moments on the screen. Though it was a movie totally belonging to Visu for his dialogues and screenplay (a tad play like for a pure cinema connoisseur), Raghuvaran’s performance opened fortunately or unfortunately a flood gate of negative roles( from womaniser to corrupt police officer) and he did all of that with his special brand of dialogue delivery and facial expressions that was hitherto unseen on the silver screen. Soon he carved a niche for himself as the villain of 80s and 90s.
His special relationship with AVM grew and he was regularly cast as the villain of many movies AVM studios made with Rajini and the duo Rajini and Raghuvaran shared a special bond that made Rajini frequently suggest Raghuvaran for his movies as villain. He also recommended Raghuvaran for a second hero’s role in Kavithaaya’s Siva.
In between all this he acted in the tele serial made by AVM on addiction to alcohol that was based on Sivasankari’s novel titled “Oru Manidhanin Kadhai”. Sivashankari had earlier penned novels and stories on drug and alcohol addiction that were made into Serials in Hindi and tamil. One had the good luck of watching Salim Ghouse play the role of drug addict in the serial “Subaah” and on the same day watch Raghuvaran play the role of an addict to the T . Somehow Raghuvaran’s performance as an alcoholic had an edge and the truth that was realised by his admirers later that he was fighting a serious form of addiction in his personal life only made the situation more ironic.
He also acted in a classic serial “Tharayil Irangum Vimaangangal” that was based on the travails and tribulations of an unemployed middle class youth that won many accolades. He reprised this role in a movie “Koottuppuzhukkal” made by R.C.Sakthi a long time associate of Kamalhassan.
In between all this he acted in many movies in Telugu and malayalam as the bad guy and soon he got the promotion to act as a bad guy opposite Dileep Kumar in hindi as well.
In hyderabad Ram gopal Verma made the movie Shiva with Nagarjun in the lead. The prized role of “Bhavani” best villain of the decade, went to Raghuvaran. Out of his familiar territory of Thamizh, Raghuvaran made best use of his height, powerful eyes and face to a breathtaking effect to essay a character that till today is the blueprint for most of Ram Gopal Verma’s villains. Here was a villain who had no use for upper decibels, just cold and piercing looks, eyes that were sunk in normal times and that would bulge and show anger while strangulating someone.The impact lasted forever and he seemed doomed to be a villain forever.
Among his villain roles, there is one portrayal that stands out till today and probably for ever – that of the crippled millionaire who murders his wife and her lover and a mother of a child who is the witness to the crime in Fazil’s ‘poo vizhi vaasalile’. The menacing dialogues that he spoke in the movie are still fresh in the minds of cinephiles of Chennai, particularly the dialogue instructing hs hench man to get rid of the child who witnessed his acts. His facial expressions in the movie are a great treat and he showed how one can express and captivate audience attention in a role which has physical limitations.
However ManiRatnam had other ideas and cast him as a father of three children including a mentally challenged girl in “Anjali”. He brought his strength and intensity to a role that would have been perceived by many as a meek and soft role. He literally matched the versatile Revathy in every scene and he portrayed the despair of a sensitive father who has to give up his daughter to a condition that got little sympathy from the society.
The mediocrity of projects around him soon made him grow tired of movie industry. There was a role of a psychotic husband in “Puriyaadha Pudhir” directed by K.S.Ravikumar where he broke some kind of world record by telling “I know” more than some 100 times in his brief appearance. Apart from that there was nothing substantial for him from thamizh film industry.
Soon the tragedy that caught many great artistes in their stride, what we call addiction caught this great artiste too. his personal demons grew tired of watching their victim shine brightly and cast their dark spell on the career of Raghuvaran.
After a hiatus Raghuvaran resurfaced and he was a shadow of himself, still managing to pull himself through as a menacing villain Antony in Rajinikanth’s “Baashaa” or as the sensitive and suspicious husband in “Thotta sinungi”. He was one natural artiste whose eyes could convey every minute thread of thought and feeling a character was undergoing. He was last seen as Rajinikanth’s friend in AVM’s shivaji – a bond that seemed to have withstood the test of time, particularly hard times.
It is indeed sad that he has passed away, but he has left a good collection of lessons, on acting and on life on the whole for any aspiring artist. Without him the silver screen seems less shiny, for he was not a star, but his shine could darken many a star’s aura. Farewell Bhavani, there is probably another world of films waiting for your entry. You might finish reading this and quip “I know”.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Thank You Sir VP.J for a very nice post on the great actor Raghuvaran !!
Sad that he passed away .Fans in the South India as well as from the rest of the country (like me) will be missing Raghuvaran.
May God bless his soul!!!
Nice article, VPJ. Rest in Peace.
he is indeed a superb actor but i still feel his talent wasnt used properly…we are going to miss him on screen for sure…
Man…What a post..great!!
Mudhalvan CM is another great role..the Interview scene is one of the best ever scenes in Tamil Cinema, largely due to the performance of Raghuvaran and Arjun..In fact Raghuvaran and Shankar have created another gem..The unforgettable performance in the forgettable film..Kadhalan!
The best thing about Raghuvaran was the chemistry he was able to create with his co-actors..Just think about the unforgettable confrontation scenes..with Sathyaraj, with Visu, with Arjun, with the Superstar, with Nagarjun and the silent ones with Madhavan in Run…
Rest in peace Man..You have become immortal!
Nice Post VP J. Thanks.
What a fitting post to the versatile actor!!!
I just couldn’t imagine Baasha and Mudhalvan without Mark Antony and Aranganathan respectively…
Superb post.
A brilliant artist and “the man who knew” is no more…
Thats double-blow now in a matter of weeks
First Sujatha, now Raghuvaran. Man! How are we ever gonna make up their loss?
a truly in-depth and insightful post doing full justice to the man.. thank you VPJ! now if only i could rent some of these movies.. they seem to be highly inaccessible…
Striker! when you visit india, if possible go to Raj Video vision in Mount Road Chennai – they have almost all the 1980s movies. I bought some of these movies in Landmark Chennai and some in Callypso Bangalore (Jayanagar).
Offcourse in my post I had left out his collaborations with Shankar, it was truly a good combination. He had tentatively been signed up for Shankar’s Robot. Donno who can step into his shoes. In his last interview to The Hindu he had revealed his talent in music as well. and was reportedly creating a music album sung by leading singers. Amazing talent . Wretched fate.
I have always been a huge fan of Raghuvaran. The kind of powerful intensity he would bring to the characters he played is very rare.He was also amazing as a dad of 3 kids in Anjali and portrayed it with such sensitivity. Thanks for this post and may his soul rest in peace.
Nice post on a great man. May his soul RIP. Thanks V.P.J for the post
i liked him in Shiva and Rakshak (Sunil shetty).
as his style and look was like Mithun chakraborty, we used to call him Mithun of South india.
god belss his soul!.
Can’t forget Raghuvaran’s ‘Daivathinte Vikruthikal’…! Raghuvaran’s performance was the pinnacle in the overall mood created by this wonderful movie!