CHENNAI: Versatility may well be the middle name of Devi Jerina, who for over three decades, had taken a sabbatical from the Tamil stage. The cheerful news for her die-hard fans is of her return to working on the project Kaikeyi.
Over 8,000 stage shows, rubbing shoulders with stalwarts SV Ramadas, RS Manohar, SA Ashokan, Jaishankar, Vijayapuri Anandan, and their ilk, this dubbing artiste in movies had left an indelible mark in television and movies. According to noted playwright KP Arivanandam, the plays penned by whom she has been a part of — including Ambayin Sabatham, Rani Mangamma, Velu Nachiar, Karaikal Ammaiyar, and Mangaiyarkarasi — Devi’s strength was in the voice modulation and in her ability to slip into any character.
An hour-long chat with the actress brought to light the most meaningful phase of her stage career which hit a new high in the last decade.
A trove of characters
Her personal best was Karaikal Ammaiyar, which found a repeat audience not just in Chennai but wherever it was staged all over Tamil Nadu. On the special bond she had with the audience, Devi said it was in the way the character of Punithavadi was portrayed. She says, “Such was the feeling of Punithavadi to Shiva that the lord saw a divine form in her. The lord invites her to Thiruvalagandu to keep up his promise of performing the Siva Thandavam. The song was the showpiece of the play where a range of pambai and udukai was brought to the fore. The audience was captivated and the breathtaking finale found a prominent place in the media reviews. Those days, it really mattered as print media was the only source of communication between the artistes and the lovers of theatre.”
In Mangaiyarkarasi, she had the onerous task of converting her husband from Samana Madam to Saivam. Devi says, “When holy water was sprinkled on the individual, the song Mandiramavadu Neru, Vavaiyar Povadhu Neeru did wonders in the way it was received by a spellbound audience. Songs had an integral part in the plays then and the ones staged by Devi Arts Creations (founded by me) had a sprinkle of those. There had been instances when a mere single line of a song could convey the meanings of a full-page dialogue. That is the beauty and essence of stage plays in the good old days where I had used the lyrics of eminent poets to ring in the right messages.”
If there had been an audience clamour for a play, Devi says it had to be for Ambayin Sapadham where she took the role of one of the three women abducted by Bheeshmar. She notes, “I take a vow as Ambai to wed Bheemshar, who had been a staunch Brahmachari. The abduction was to cater to the need of a prince to have his pick from the intended svayamvaram, a norm in the prince dynasty. In the first half, I don the Ambai character and in the second half, the Siganthi character, who is neither a man nor a woman. I relished the challenge of bringing in the right body language in an unusual portrayal.” She adds, “The IQ level of the audience was on a par in the way Siganthi struck a chord with them. When Lord Krishna is behind the act, one could gauge the intelligence. Those were the ever-lasting moments of an artiste. Rendering it with the desired perfection made my day. Admittedly, there is added pressure for an artiste when the audience expectation shoots up, post the success of a play. For me, there is no pressure but only the pleasure to perform, straight from the bottom of my heart.”
Stage elements
Beyond devotional plays, Devi also delved into historical ones. History has it that Jhansi Rani (Lakshmibai) was the first one to play a leading role in the Indian War of Independence against British rule in 1857. But Devi claims that she has facts to show that a similar act had been successfully done by Velu Nachiar, 80 years earlier than the North Indian queen. A part of the play that featured the story had a scene where Velu Nachiar seeks the help of Karnataka Emperor Hyder Ali, who sends in a battalion of his forces to counter the challenge of the British in the famous Sivaganga battle. The winning moment, Devi says, was in the execution of the act.
Everything has to be shown visually in the theatre. In an era where the production house did not have the luxury of the technology and graphics had still not made its presence, the background of the stage was used to enact the battle of all battles. She says, “The audience was in the know of the impact of Kattabomman saga and could connect with the happening in Sivaganga. Media had played a stellar part in sending across the message of the honest efforts. The extravaganza in the sets did put a hole in my pocket but the impact would have been lost in the simple backdrop.”
Among the crowd favourites, high on the list is Rani Mangamma in the way the queen marshalled her resources to hit back at a Muslim invader Zulfi Khan. To outsmart the king, in a game between two great brainers, Mangamma disguises herself as a commoner, desiring to meet the King. Devi says, “The razor-sharp dialogues and the war of words between the king and the commoner had the audience in a trance — worth going miles to savour, was the media sum up.”
Moving over to television after a massive success on stage, Agamum Puramum, a 75-week episode produced by Devi Fine Arts and featured in Makkal Television turned out to be miss-it-not for the couch potatoes. She shares, “There was a burning desire to show something out of the ordinary for the set of the TV audience, feasted with imaginary offerings week after week. There were scores of talents in the world of Tamil literature not having got their due. The literature songs were converted into the drama form. A total of 162 artists gave shape to the 80 episodes. The essence would have been lost without the perfect rendition of Tamil and a good number of days were consumed to get the perfection. I must acknowledge the writing skills and dialogues of Arivanandam for the overall success. As a director, there is only that much one can do but when she has the material to play around, it does wonders.”
An optimistic note
Thrust into the stage at the age of three, donning Lord Muruga’s character, while accompanying her grandmother TM Muthulakshmi, a famed drama and movie artiste, Devi says she looks forward to the day when she gets back to the stage. There are a few unfulfilled desires deep inside her, that she would not like to spell out. At 67, she feels there is still a lot of life in her and gets back to the world that she ruled like no one.
With what she has earned in theatre, television, and movies, Devi is happy to invest back in her love of theatre. “It is the perfection which matters to me and to know that there is a set of audience to view my plays is a feeling akin to that of an owner’s pride. My feet could not rest till the scripts that had been playing in my mind were reflected on the stage. As an actress, I had my fill but as a producer, there are a few scripts which need to be told with all honesty in that distinct style of my own.”
Well, it is the style that mattered — a legion of her fans would vouch for that.