Saturday, January 31, 2009

Veteran Comedian Nagesh passes away

Nagesh passed away today. I came to know of the news only in the evening when Suji called to tell me. T.V channels in the South were already telecasting the news of his death. To me Nagesh was, is and will be THE GREATEST comedian ever. Jerry Lewis was Nagesh's idol but as veteran comedienne Manorama was speaking today Nagesh did what Jerry Lewis couldn't. Nagesh to me was the pinnacle of comedy acting. His performance in the Tamil movie "Thiruvilayaadal" is the one I still watch and I have lost count of how many times I have watched those scenes. Such is his performance in the role of Dharumi in the movie. He could perform with a natural zeal and talent that was beyond absolute professionalism and like Chandrababu he had a flexible body and was adept at dancing too. Simply put Nagesh is un-replaceable. Nagesh acted in over 1000 films.

Besides comedy Nagesh did attempt serious roles too. Some of these are "Engal Vaadhiyaar" in Tamil and "Valarthu Mrigangal" in Malayalam. There are also some stellar comedy films that aren't as popular as the ones he is usually known for and these are "Veetukku Veedu", "Ninaivil Nindraval" and "Thenmzahi" though "Thenmazhai" is the most popular of the three. Another film is "Adhrishtakaaran" though I haven't seen it.

It is also worthy of mention that Hindi comedian Mehmood (or directors that used Mehmood) used several of Nagesh's films such as "Server Sundaram" and "Thenmazhai" to make a name for himself in the north.

Veteran actor Kamal Hassan was in awe of Nagesh and held him in very high esteem and tried to include the comedy legend in as many movies of his as possible. Nagesh was last seen in Kamal's "Dasavatharam".

He will be missed. May his soul rest in peace.

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