Vishnu Vijaya

29-Dec-2009

A personally happy day for me . Having attended to an important household work and watching the movie "3 Idiots" with my close pal and his cousins. There is something in the movie watching which gives me an incredibly satisfying feeling. Watching a much awaited movie with a close pal on the weekday, having taken a day off from work, at a theater in a nice locality where i had been for the first time, i thought the day could not have been better. I get back home, finish my satisfying routine of gymming and have dinner. A perfect way to end the day. With a contented mind set i hit the sack. Then the real struggle starts - unable to sleep, i kept rolling on my bed, turning sides in search of the elusive sleep. My mind was wondering what might be the reason that i am unable to sleep on this night, specially because i have had some sound sleep nights from a long time. The struggle went late into the early hours of the next day and i might have hardly slept for 3 hours that night.

30-Dec-2009

I faintly hear the voice of my mom, waking me up. With great difficulty i tried to wake up my senses. I hear "Vishnuvardhan something"..... The mention of Vishnu's name makes me pull up my senses much quicker than normal. I hear my mom's words "Vishnuvardhan sathodnante". My first reaction was "raatri sarige nidde ne barlilla", almost implying to my mom that i had some telepathy connection with the sad news because of which i couldn't sleep properly. But i wasn't really shocked at hearing the news, or so i thought. Came out of bed room only to see the TV showing the picture of "Vishnu" on one side of the split screen and the crowd gathering outside his house on the other side. Thats when it struck - "Vishnuvardhan is NO MORE" !!! My most favorite actor, my childhood idol is "NO MORE". My "Aaptamitra" Vinay gives me a call and he is as shocked as me on hearing the news. There is no better person i could discuss this news with but the reality was yet to sink in. Even when i started taking bath, the sinking feeling started enveloping me. My house started to look hazy. I come out of the bathroom, went to say my morning prayers but god, where was my concentration. The "soothakada chaaye" started engulfing me and i realized i wasn't "madi" even though i had taken my bath. Or to be precise, my mind was not "madi". It was with the departed soul of my icon. Realizing it was futile to even think of praying, i started getting ready to work. Next, i watch "Vishnu's" Kuchiku dost and aaptamitra "Ambi" arriving at Vishnu's residence and weeping. Yes, Ambi was weeping. I had never seen him cry except in movies. That for me was the defining moment and drove home the point. "My HERO is indeed dead". I slowly started making my way to the company bus stop gradually thinking of what had transpired. The setting didn't seem quite real but my mind was pre occupied. As my aaptamitra called back on my cellphone, i could see vehicles zipping past towards Vishnu's residence. We started discussing about how the events surrounding his death had unfolded. His advice to me was to avoid going to work. That my mind wouldn't be focused and there might be trouble in the city. With a popularity second only to Dr.Rajkumar, i knew sporadic incidents of violence was possible. But my mind wouldn't be focused anyway, whether i am at home or at work. Hence i went ahead and boarded the bus. As the bus started moving, my mind started going back...


Early 1980's

My parents are movie buffs. In fact the entire family, both on my maternal and paternal side, take a lot of interest in watching movies. While my father was an ardent Kannada and Tamil movies fan (he still keeps telling me how he used to travel to Bangalore to watch Shivaji Ganeshan's movies on the first day, watch Rajkumar's movies and return home to imitate the same style while describing the story) my mom was a kannada and hindi movie buff. So naturally even before i could learn to spell "Amma", i think my parents started taking me to the theaters to watch movies. And i, have been told, used to watch the movie with great attention without showing any tantrums whatsoever. It seems when i was a 1 year old, my mom used to leave me to walk around in the theater and i used to walk towards the screen it seems.The first ever memories of movies which i can recall is not surprisingly, "Bandhana" - a movie with a very handsome lead protagonist, Vishnuvardhan. That being the impressionable years, i believe that face left a incredible mark on my psyche. I will have to tell you one thing, i spent most of my childhood holidays at the maternal grandmom's place with my aunts and uncles and have been greatly influenced by them. There it was an unwritten rule - all my uncles, i have 3 of them, were ardent Rajkumar fans and all my aunts, again i have three of them, adored Vishnu. Probably because of his looks and also for the fact that he was the younger one, i adored Vishnu too. Here the environment made a major impact on my reasoning and i clearly remember even today, whenever i used to cry, my uncles or aunts used to play a song from my favorite hero's movie and i used to stop whining. As a one year old kid, it seems i used to imitate "Premada Kadamabari baredanu kannerali..." - a song from Bandhana where Vishnu is a cancer patient and is singing the song while coughing blood. Whenever there used to be a song from Bandhana played on radio, no matter what i was doing, i used to leave all that to listen to the radio.

Vishnu's movies at that time used to have great music. I , also being a dance aficionado, loved thumping music more than melodies.It was all the more reason for me to swear by the most handsome hero of KFI. As i grew up, i kind of started standing up to defend whatever my fav hero did. Those days the professional rivalry between Rajkumar and Vishnu was at its peak and my uncles, being Rajkumar fans, used to tease me for anything Vishnu did, be it his acting or dancing. And i used to rebel against there thoughts , off course with the support of my aunts :). For me, Vishnuvardhan was everything at that time. The only good looking hero of sandalwood who could give the bollywood hero's a run for thier money.I could accept no other person as a hero, although Rajkumar was the reigning king of Sandalwood at that time, deservingly so. As a side note, i must mention that my uncles were as much fans of Rajnikanth as much they liked Rajkumar. Infact they so much wanted me to like Rajnikanth as well, that they used get me posters of Rajnikanth and asked me to imitate him. Although at the initial years i was very stubborn in my loyalty towards Vishnuvardhan, i eventually gave in and became a fan of rajnikanth that i started watching his movies all by myself, but that is a different story altogether.

Late 1980's and 1990's

In chamundipuram at Mysore, the locality where i spent my childhood years, we had a group of around 8 friends. Only two of them were younger than me, rest all were my seniors. At that age, its usually the peer pressure that works and not much of individual thinking. Like, playing cricket one season and all of a sudden shifting to tennis, just because that game caught the imagination of most of the guys in the gang. There was no place for individual liking, it was the group goals that mattered. We did everything together, playing , watching movies, all that. Except for one thing, yes, u guessed it right, loyalty towards Vishnuvardhan. Although i wasn't a very strong headed individual as a kid, one thing i used to stand up to was for Vishnuvardhan. Most of the senior members of our gang were fans of "Tiger" Prabhakar and felt that Vishnu was not as strong as Prabhakar when it comes to action roles.But i would have none of it. This is something which baffles me to this day - my senior friends used to tease me saying Vishnuvardhan died in an accident, i used to panic, run to my parents or uncles to get the real picture.Only on realizing that it was a prank, i was having a sign of relief. So much was my emotional attachment to the "Sahasasimha". But sadly today when i mom broke me the news, i knew it was a reality.Those days were spent collecting Vishnu's postcards and the news paper clippings. As i told earlier, the rivalry between Rajkumar and Vishnu was at its peak and we used to hear stories of Rajkumar's fans attacking Vishnu. Those days the newspapers were not as sensationalizing as today and we hardly got to know the real picture. But Mysore was a place, where Vishnu enjoyed almost equal popularity as Rajkumar and there were instances of Vishnu's fans clashing with Rajkumar's fans. As Vishnu graduated more and more towards action oriented roles, his fan following swelled and that made him a force to reckon with in Sandalwood. All these things made my loyalty towards Vishnu that much more stronger. The days spent at Lakshmi theater, playing the latest Vishnu's blockbuster, with fans cheering, whistling and throwing coins, i could see my idol being worshiped in front of my eyes. Vishnu's career was full of up's and downs. He gave a series of flops only to comeback with a top class film. Vishnu and Dwarkish's association was a treat to the audience and resulted in many top class movies.As a kid, i was hardly able to differentiate the good movies from the bad ones and was always biased towards Vishnu's movies. Just for the fact that Vishnu starred in a movie was reason enough for me to belive that the movie is good.I was told by my uncles of his association with Rajnikant in tamil movies, watched him act in Hindi movies with Akshay kumar.

I must mention here that my father acted with him once in a very very small role in "Rayaru bandaru maavana manege". I was probably in 6th std,we had been to Nanjanagudu to attend a relatives wedding and my father was in bangalore. We did not know he would be acting in the movie, infact my father himself did not know. He had been to bangalore with his police inspector friend to the sets of "Rayaru Bandaru..." and they asked him along with his friend to be part of a scene the next day. My father returned to najanagudu that night and the next day i was woken up early in my sleep. My father narrated the happenings to me and asked me if i was willing to join him to the sets. Me, although a reluctant kid, readily agreed (thank god i did). We reached kanteerava studios and there i was , in a film studio set for the first time in life. My father and his friend were freely mingling with all the artists on the set and i was just looking around, searching for my hero. Then the moment arrived. Vishnu came ,with his group of assistants, with a namskar for everyone on the sets. I was so much jumping in joying looking at him but did not know what to speak. In fact all i wanted was to look at him, i had nothing to say. As i watched from close quarters Vishnu strike up a conversation with my father and his police inspector friend, i became more open to the possibility of a chat with him. My father introduced me to Vishnu saying i am a big fan of him. Vishnu shook my hands and my i heart skipped a beat. I was dumbstruck and just gazed at him. Later i watched him speak to everyone and that has been my closest interaction with him.

As is started growing up, i started noticing the subtleties in acting. Amitabh Bachhan had also occupied a place in my heart as a brooding actor. I started appreciating more the real actor in Vishnu than the star in him. Some of the sensitive portrayal's by Vishnu - "Mutthina Haara, Suprabata, Laali, Nishkarsha" captivated me.I started watching some of his old classics - Nagarahaavu, Boothayanna Maga Ayyu, Gandhada Gudi, Hombisilu, Havala Hejje, Malaya Maaruta. The contrast in quality was stark. I had always adored the star in him but now i was seeing what a great actor he was. But all along his career, he starred in many commercial movies which didn't do any good to the actor in him.

2000's

Into the new decade, hits became more elusive for Vishnu. He started looking more and more weaker and moved away from his action image to a soft spoken guy. A change which didn't exactly excite me. On the hindsight, probably this was the time when his health took a beating and he couldn't essay challenging roles anymore. At a time when his contemporaries and close friends Kamal hasan and Rajnikanth moved to essay different roles, Vishnu struck to remakes which declined his popularity with the changed audience. Vishnu could no longer guarantee hits and it needed his long lost friend Dwarkish to join him to come back with "Aaptamitra" which was a huge huge hit and was remade in Tamil and Hindi by his friends Rajni and Akshay respectively. Although "Aaptamitra" was a remake, his role reminded me of Vishnu of the old golden days. Vishnu was back with a bang but that was to be the last hit in his career. Mystery illness coupled by his ego problems for working with newer directors meant we saw very little of Vishnu in the last few years. It was a time when Vishnu could have challenged himself more by working with directors like Mani Ratnam but that never happened.I was expecting my fav Vishnu to be back with a bang through "Aaptarakshaka", the sequel to "Aaptamitra" but alas little did i know what would unfold on the fateful day. In fact recently when i saw the posters of "Aaptarakshaka" at PVR which had Vishnu in a mughal emperor's costume, i had a ray of hope that this might be his blockbuster.

Anything on Vishnu would be incomplete if i don't mention the friendship between him, Ambareesh and Rajnikanth. All three of them are contemporaries and cared for each other. In fact Rajnikanth and Vishnu shared stories and directors right through 80's, 90's and 2000. "Aaptamitra" and "Chadramukhi" were both directed by the same person, P.Vasu. Ambareesh and Vishnu shared so much bonding that one's life was incomplete without the other. There friendship has been an inspiration for me in my life. One had to see the tears on Ambi's face when Vishnu's last rites were being performed to gauge how much he is going to miss Vishnu. Its not only Ambi who will miss him, the entire state will and more specially, I will.

Of the 4 superstars i really admire, 2 of them are no more - Vishnu and Rajkumar. I now only have Amitabh and Rajnikanth to express my admiration.

"Sahasa Simha" Vishnuvardhan, please come back.

This post would not have been possible without the coaxing by my soul mitra, Kenzi, with whom i usually tend to have some serious discussions. kenzi, I still have a lot discuss with you on this mate, lets get together for that.