CHENNAI: Be it Rajnikanth, Kamal Haasan, or any other star from the silver screen, there is always a famous dialogue — or ‘punch dialogue’, as it were — associated with them that is etched in audiences’ memory. Similarly, Tamil stage actor Lakshmi’s character Mahalakshmi in the play Kasalavu Nesam is one that most theatre-goers recall without much prodding.
In the play, Mahalakshmi asks her husband Sugavanam — Neenga appaviya or yemaliya (Are you innocent or the one who gets fooled). This punchline rendered by Lakshmi nonchalantly had a huge impact on the audience who rose as one to appreciate the timing.
Over 5,000 stage shows in around 1,000 plays are a telling commentary on the staying prowess of the Pudukottai-born Lakshmi in three decades. Save for a short break that she took in the early 2000s, the journey has been filled with sweet memories for the natural performer.
Donning several characters
In several instances, she responded to the SOS call of the directors when the leading lady dropped out of her commitment. Lakshmi recalls one interesting moment when one such call from Augusto landed her in a soup. “It was a murder mystery and the script was given to me just an hour before the start of the new play. To keep the suspense alive, Augusto hit upon the idea of not revealing the murderer not just to the audience but to me, too, (though I was) playing the main character. So I went on with the flow, following the course of the audience’s reaction. It is a norm for stage artistes to not look at the audience while delivering the lines. But an exception had to be made and the director was quick to appreciate the intelligent act. I strongly believe in crisis bringing the best out of an individual. True, my experience was the clinching factor and the double joy was in not letting down the director who had a set audience, bowled over by the strong mystery elements in his plays,” she shares.
Her fame in the Tamil theatre scene is so much that you name a drama troupe and Lakshmi has been part of it. Her longer stints were in Ajay Entertainments with Mallik Raj, followed by the one with Mapilae Ganesh (Sathyasai Creations), for a long time with Stage Creations (Kathadi Ramamurthy), and permanently now with United Visuals (TV Varadarajan).
At home with the family subjects of Varadarajan, Lakshmi notes that the audience could see her comical side in S Ve Shekher’s plays. “I learned the importance of timing from Shekher, who taught me to counter dialogues even before the other one had finished his lines. The plays were refreshing and hardly the one to test the IQ level. I can call them breezy moments and the realisation dawned that every character has a uniqueness and need to be delivered at the intended style of the director,” she says.
Among the oodles of characters she has essayed, the role of Senjulakshmi, the sister-in-law of Sri Thygarajar, is close to her heart. “The play had a universal reach and I was floored by the adulation from the Tamil fraternity. The biggest compliment was when the audience saw me only as Senjulakshmi though they had to come to see the artiste Lakshmi. Back home, when the play was staged again, the late Crazy Mohan said he saw the actress Manorama in me, the way I portrayed the character from deep inside. I rate that as the mother of all compliments in my long career, having stood the test of time,” she says.
As a voice artiste
Channelising her energy to foray into dubbing, Lakshmi has her hands full. She is the voice for several serials translated from Hindi. Thanks to the OTT Platform, Lakshmi is never short of work, lending her voice even to Hindi serials. “My schooling in Kendriya Vidyalaya helped me to learn English, Hindi, and Sanskrit in quick time. Being a dubbing artiste, voice modulation is relatively easy. Only, one has to be prepared to change the voice in tune with the scripts. These are days when crime subjects are the order of the day. I can afford to keep a straight face but the voice had to be tweaked while delivering the lines. When it is show business the pertinent changes are fine with me,” she explains.
Owning a dubbing studio at home, Lakshmi is happy to render her voice for the unending English cartoon serials. Even the children have taken a strong liking to her voice. “I am also happy to connect with the younger section of the entertainment world. Possibly, I took a leaf out of singer S Janaki’s diary, who had rendered a few memorable songs catering to the children,” she adds.
Awards from Kartik Fine Arts and Mylapore Academy, and the latest one of Vani Kala Nipuna, she received on August 27 from Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha, had been inevitable looking at the track record of the stage stopper. For Lakshmi, all that matters is the thunderous claps of the audience. “It has a magical effect and keeps reverberating in the ears long after the play is over. An artiste lives for that moment, unmatched by the monetary rewards in television serials (she had been part of many) and the movies (a handful).”
Happy with the journey, Lakshmi is just going with the flow. From historical to mythological, family scripts and down-to-earth comedy, she has seen it all over the long stretch. The home stretch has a long way to go.