AFVOA Newletter August 2020

Section 6 – eConnect Reviews CV 2 No. 02 / 2020 Page 187 of 237 spontaneous wit even during the brief Zoom familiarization session with him on May 15, 2020. When Harsha introduced us as ‘Veterans’ as retired military men are known as, pat came his reaction. “Ohh..is that so? That’s why people in the film industry refer to me as a Veteran Actor, clearly asking me to retire and I have been unwittingly refusing to take the hint”. Though Shri Y Gee M had logged in much earlier than some of the members, he patiently waited for the meeting to start at 11 am or thereabouts. It all started with his recollection of his school days which were punctuated with taunts of “Padi, Padi” (Study, Study in Tamil) by his academician mother and constant urging by his theatre artist father “Nadi, Nadi” (Act, Act in Tamil). The cricket anecdote involving the legendary cricketer Bishan Singh Bedi and his Australian wife during their honeymoon and the latter’s assertion that spinners are not destined to get a new ball had the participants in splits, with some of them patently going red in the face! He also confessed that his only association with matters military was his frequent visits with his friends to “Military Hotels” as a student. This was in a lighter vein as we got to know he was part of NCC Navy for a short while. The United Amateur Artists (UAA) drama troupe that his father established is 68 years old and is probably the oldest theatre group in the entire country. When he rattled out the names of the heroines who started their acting career in UAA and eventually became “Who’s who” in Tamil cinema later, the audience was absolutely wonderstruck. With a mischievous wink of an eye, he also added his brand of humour that his father had an eye for beautiful women! The legendary comedian of Tamil Cinema, Nagesh, came to the films from UAA. Shri Y Gee M regaled the audience with an incident when Nagesh, as an emerging actor, added his own dialogue in his insignificant role as a Yama Kinkara in a play. Though it was received very well by the audience, Nagesh ran away to his room fearing severe reprimand from Shri YGP, while the latter in fact wanted to reward him (Nagesh) for his originality and quick wit! Shri Y Gee M’s experience of acting alongside the legendary Nadigar Thilakam Shivaji Ganesan was riveting. When asked about the comedy component in movies of yesteryears and now, he said that the comedians had a perceptible role to play in the storyline, which is not the case now. He also identified a clear shift in comedy roles from the Senthil – Goundamani era when films started having a parallel comedy track. Personal insults pass off as comedy in contemporary cinema which was not the case earlier. He also shared some of his experiences with Kamal Hassan (knows everything about cinema) and Rajinikant (Very humble, knew his shortcomings more than his strengths and not afraid of admitting them in public). When asked about his experience of handling out-of-the-usual experiences on stage, he narrated two sample incidents – one involving a prime actor in his troupe suffering