The legend of Avvaiyar and the making of the epic play and film

He drank half the palm wine from the goblet and gave the rest to me,” reads a poem attributed to poetess Avvai in Puranannooru. In stark contrast stands Aathichoodi, also written by Avvai, which is full of rules for life. These two are obviously different persons altogether, and are perhaps even from different centuries. Avvai, the greatest of Tamil poetesses, is evidently an amalgamation of multiple personalities.

Though it was a much sought after topic to be portrayed on stage, the first successful adaptation of Avvaiyar was done by the TKS Brothers. As the only girl in the troupe was considered too young to play an aged person, Shanmugam took up the role and served it with utmost dedication. He removed his two front teeth and curved his lower lip inwardly to give a faithful persona of an old woman. Doing shows continuous with a put-on hunch gave him a permanent backache. In 1948, the play was staged 96 times in a row in Madras, at the end of which Shanmugam was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance to treat his back pain.

His cross-gender performance earned him the sobriquet ‘Avvai Shanmugam’. Years later, when Kamal Hassan tried his hand at playing an old lady in the hit comedy film Avvai Shanmugi in 1996, he thoughtfully remembered his teacher.

Always on the lookout for a great story to film, movie mogul SS Vasan decided upon Avvaiyar but then he wanted no resemblance with TKS’s play. His dictum was faithfully followed by director Kothamangalam Subbu. Vasan asked Kothamangalam Subbu to dig through literary evidences and work on a rough copy. The two years invested in research resulted was a large corpus of details, including many that were patently far-fetched.

The casting team decided that only KB Sundarambal could portray the title role with conviction. Sundarambal was corresponding the persona of what was in the public eye about the poetess and snatched the mantle from Shanmugam. She would repeat the role in Shivaji-starrer Thiruvilaiyadal and reinforced the image.

Though the film took six years to reach the screen, the very fact that Vasan trumpeted making a mega film on this topic prevented others from attempting it in the intervening years.

When the shooting started, no expense or efforts were spared. There was a scene when a helpless Avvai seeks the help of Lord Ganesa to send her help to tackle three arrogant kings. The lord sends her a herd of elephants to demolish the fort. When the team at Gemini Studios heard that a herd of captured elephants was being transported from Coorg to Andaman via Madras port, they almost kidnapped them and brought them to Gemini Studio where breaking the fort scene were shot over 10 days. The elephants with their painted vibhuthi signs were taken to the port just in time to catch the ship.

The Gemini team shot without a limit and finally had more than two movies worth of film on the editing table. No mercy was shown and with ample use of scissors a presentable film was made.

Vasan screened the rough cut to his staff, asking their opinion in writing. As he spent a sleepless night reading notes soaked in sycophancy, one deterrent note caught Vasan’s eye. A journalist from the sister concern Ananda Vikadan had the courage to state that the film was slow, like a documentary, crawling from scene to scene.

Vasan called for the story team again and said the film needed much more entertainment. Subbu set about incorporating sequences of entertainment for audience appeal of the movie. An extra scene of a grand reception by the ancient Tamil king Pari to Avvaiyar was woven into the script. An entire street set costing Rs 1.5 lakh, 10,000 junior artistes and many types of folk dances were added. This grandiose scene resuscitated the movie.

Writer Kalki wrote a great review in his magazine, which led to rapprochement with his ex-boss Vasan. Kalki also influenced Rajaji, the chief minister, who came to Wellington Theatre to see the movie, creating a huge publicity. He came in his official car, asked the driver to buy a ticket.

However, when Rajaji’s diary was published by Kalki magazine in the 70s (thankfully after Vasan had passed away) said, “TK Shanmugam’s play is a hundred times superior to this picture... was not impressed with cardboard fortresses falling. The picture is poor, but the stakes are high, and I can’t condemn it.”

Much later, Vasan contributed the Avvai statue on the beach for the World Tamil Conference. Coincidentally, the road perpendicular to the statue is named Avvai Shanmugam Road.

The writer is a historian and author