Did you know that actor Charuhasan, the eldest brother of actor Kamal Haasan, did not attend school until the age of nine? And when he did go to school, the little boy became the butt of jokes owing to his green eyes and his unusual name Hasan for an Iyengar boy.
Raised by a strict father, D. Srinivasa Iyengar, the illustrious lawyer and freedom fighter of Paramakudi, Charuhasan was inclined towards science, especially physics, in his school days. But his father forbade him from studying science and forced him to become a lawyer.
Taking up a career much against his own wishes, Charuhasan entered court, bungling up on his first case.
Interesting facts from Charuhasan’s life and his law career were revealed recently on stage when his daughter, Suhashini Maniratnam, staged the play she had directed and written, I am an Actor, Your Honour! (Actor in law).
The play is based on an adaptation of Charuhasan’s book, Thinking On My Feet. Playing the lead roles of Charuhasan and Suhasini Maniratnam were veteran actors Y.G. Mahendran and his daughter Madhuvanti.
While delving into the bond shared between Charuhasan and his daughter, Suhasini Maniratnam, anecdotes from Charuhasan’s life journey are told with tongue in cheek humour, often taking a dig at themselves and even younger brother Kamal Haasan.
What made this stage presentation unique was the way it switched between the past and the present. While the present life of Charuhasan was depicted on stage by Mahendran and Madhuvanti, stories from the past rolled on film. While actor Prasanna plays a young Charuhasan, Thalaivasal Vijay plays his disciplinarian father and VJ Ramya is Charuhasan’s on-screen wife.
Weaving cinema and theatre and with dialogues delivered in Tamil and English, Maniratnam’s new experiment kept the audience chuckling now and then. And, ended on a poignant note.
