The many faces of actor-auteur Bhagyaraj

This is an age in which multi-faceted Malayalam film directors are also doubling up as actors, be it being the hero or as a member of the supporting cast. Basil Joseph, Dileesh Pothan, Jeo Baby, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Khalid Rahman, and Jude Antony, to name a few, have all stood behind the camera, and also in front of it with aplomb.

Decades ago in the Madras of the 1980s, K. Bhagyaraj did the same with panache. He wrote the story, screenplay, dialogues, and directed films in which he played the hero. A versatile bouquet that even T. Rajendar offered to some extent. A disciple of Bharathiraja, Bhagyaraj assisted his mentor in the iconic 16 Vayathinile, the 1977 rural masterpiece that catapulted Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth, and Sridevi into the big league.

K. Bhagyaraj and Radhika in the film ‘Dhavani Kanavugal’
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives

Man of humour

It was just a matter of time before Bhagyaraj carved his own path through films that dealt with the common man, family issues, and societal pressures. And all these were strung together in a tight screenplay with humour being the base. Man-woman equations were analysed, and even a vegetable like drumstick got its moment under the sun.

Recently, Bhagyaraj’s 50 years in celluloid was celebrated with a lot of fanfare. While he has moved onto just acting at times, there is no mistaking the aura he had in his peak. Bespectacled and playing the man next door, he carved a niche among the women audience. The issues he dealt with were the kind that middle-class households dealt with, and it was almost the same template that Visu followed, but Bhagyaraj toned down the melodrama, preferring humour and just a hint of pathos to drive home his point.

K. Bhagyaraj and Radhika in ‘Indu Poi Naalai Vaa’
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives

While the Devi and Abhirami complexes gave ample time to tentpole films starring Rajini and Kamal, these screens also offered space for Bhagyaraj. His Andha Yezhu Naatkal is considered one of the finest screenplays in Tamil film history, a fact reiterated by Mani Ratnam.

“Ek gaon mein ek kissan raghu thatha,” the dialogue from his 1981 flick Indru Poi Naalai Vaa, is part of Tamil pop culture. It is a hat-tip to the Tamil-Hindi duopoly and the attendant linguistic debates, without causing any heartburn. Having delivered blockbusters like Mundhanai Mudichu, he also directed Amitabh Bachchan in Aakhri Raasta, a remake of Bharathiraja’s Oru Kaidhiyin Diary.

Often with self-deprecatory humour, Bhagyaraj would refer to the way he struggled with his broken English and awkward Hindi while instructing Bachchan. Terrific with his anecdotes, Bhagyaraj still offers a glimpse into the way the Tamil film industry functioned in the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s. His actress wife Poornima, actor son Shanthnu, and his friends from Kodambakkam, keep his creative fires burning, while the respect around him remains intact.