When he joined our drama troupe United Amateur Artistes (UAA), I was quite young. I’d say he’s a George Bernard Shaw of Tamil Nadu. One of the plays he did for our troupe was Petral Thaan Pillaya, which was later made into a movie titled Paar Magaley Paar. The film marked his acting debut.
He was devoted to my parents, and my mother liked him a lot, and treated him as the elder son of our family. He collaborated with YG Parthasarathy’s troupe, (my dad’s) for plays like Under Secretary, in which he was paired opposite a young Jayalalithaa. That’s how they became good friends.
Many years ago, he changed his voice, and called our landline. When my father answered the phone, Cho asked him to crack some jokes. He also said if my father didn’t do so, he’d die. My father didn’t know what was happening. He cooked up stories and gave Cho what he wanted. The next morning, Cho came home, and told those same jokes during drama rehearsals. Only then my dad understood it was Cho!
He also fought with my dad once. I don’t remember the reason. But for a month, both didn’t talk to each other. He used to come in, rehearse, mouth the dialogues, and leave. He did talk to me, and my mother. Then, it was my father who put an end to this. He called up Cho, and told him that it was hurtful. Cho is not someone who cries, but he did and finally apologised. Cho’s jokes were never hurtful. Though he had strong points to convey, he sugar-coated them and presented in a way that was palatable.