‘MGR and Nambiar’ cast their vote

Polling at Devarayaneri was a star studded event. The village, a settlement of Narikkuravas, has a tradition of naming children after Tamil film actors.
‘MGR and Nambiar’ cast their votes in Tiruchy on  Friday | M K Ashok kumar
‘MGR and Nambiar’ cast their votes in Tiruchy on Friday | M K Ashok kumar

TIRUCHY: Polling at Devarayaneri was a star-studded event. The village, a settlement of Narikkuravas, has a tradition of naming children after Tamil film actors. On Friday, silver screen rivals, MGR and Nambiar, came together to cast their votes. The hustle and bustle of the local body elections brought out an interesting fact about a Narikkuravaa settlement at Devarayaneri village near the Thuvakudi toll plaza. The polls were more like a red carpet event where the voters kept coming and going one after the other. The voters list, much like everything else, gained the attention of the booth officials.

First came MGR and cast his vote. Not much later another came Nambiar to cast his vote. Reportedly, several residents who were named after famous 80s and 90s actors and even contemporary actors showed up to cast their votes.

MGR (50) says, “Being gypsies, we roam from one place to another for a living. At that time, our elders were named after the place they were born in. After settling in this village in Devarayaneri several decades ago, Tamil films influenced a lot of people here so we were named after actors. I was named after former CM M G Ramachandran. My cousin was named after the famous villain M N Nambiar.”

Talking about the impact of Tamil cinema, Nambiar (65), said, “Movies were the primary entertainment in the early 60s and 70s, when we were constantly moving from one place to another. So, most of us were named after the famous movie stars.”

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