Koothapiran’s life long association with Tamil theatre began when he started to dramatise Kalki’s stories, and acted in stage versions of Devan’s novels. Later, Koothapiran came up with his own stories for the stage.
Almost all the stage actors of the period, including some still active on stage such as Kathadi Ramamurthy, acted with Koothapiran. Actor Jaishankar invariably did hero roles and Koothapiran would do comedy roles in the plays. Koothapiran toured with his plays, which were very popular in Singapore.
The Tamil theatre legend is remembered for his roles in Marina’s plays, staged by Kalanilayam. In ‘Oor Vambu,’ he played Pattambhi, the innocent cook, who is so preoccupied with the fermenting of the idli batter that he isn’t up to date on the fights and patch-up efforts between the families of the groom and the bride. In Marina’s ‘Kaal Kattu’, he played Ammanji, the incurable gossip, who has no malice in him.
One day, Manakkal Nambi, who was a huge hit as Koda Naidu in Marina’s ‘Thani Kudithanam,’ called up Poornam Viswanathan to say he couldn’t make it to that day’s show. The show was at 7 p.m., and at 2.30 p.m., Poornam went to All India Radio to meet Koothapiran. “You’ll have to do Mani’s role,” he told Koothapiran, and gave him the script. Koothapiran could not take leave. So after his work got over at 5 p.m., he just about had time to give the script a glance and rush to the show. He had his own misgivings about whether the audience would like him in a role that Mani had played so brilliantly, but he managed to pull it off. Later Mani said Koothapiran was so good that he should continue to do the role, and Koothapiran went on to act in 200 shows!
Sujatha’s ‘Oru Kolai, Oru Prayanam,’ staged by Poornam New Theatre, was a two-in-one play. The second play takes place in a train compartment, and throughout, the actors, including Koothapiran, who played a thief, had to keep up a realistic shake of their bodies to give the idea of passengers in a moving train.
Koothapiran’s love for the stage rubbed off on his family too. In the early days, Koothapiran’s elder son Ganesan would take his father’s stage clothes to the venue, so that Koothapiran could come to the auditorium directly from work.
Koothapiran’s younger son Rathnam made his stage debut as a child artist in Arudra Fine Arts’ play ‘Ellam Server Mayam.’
He also acted in V.S. Raghavan’s plays and Manorama’s play ‘India Today’, the script for which was by Vaalee. Later he began to act in Koothapiran’s plays, and more recently, began to handle the script too.
Rathnam used to have arguments with his father, and tell him that some of his ideas were dated, and wouldn’t appeal to a young audience.
“Now, when my father writes scripts, I have similar arguments with him,” says Vignesh, Rathnam’s son, who has also acted with his grandfather.
For ‘Unnaal Mudiyum Thatha’, the entire cast was tired after a gruelling rehearsal. Not satisfied, Rathnam asked for another rehearsal, and Koothapiran lost his cool. He said that if Rathnam was going to be such a task master, then no one would act in his plays. “You are exempted on account of your age,” Rathnam told his father, but Koothapiran walked off in a huff. An hour later, he turned up for the rehearsal. “Why are you here?” asked Rathnam. Pat came the reply: “The title of your play says ‘You can do it, grandpa.’ And so this grandpa is here to prove he can do it’!”
Koothapiran’s love affair with theatre was a life-long one; he even acted in a show just two days before he passed away. His troupe has been renamed Koothapiran Navabharat Theatres. This year, Rathnam has roped in Koothapiran’s brother’s grandchildren – eight-year-old Aiswarya and ten-year-old Amrit -- for his play for Kodai Nataka Vizha. So now the extended family is into theatre as well!
Koothapiran would end the programme ‘Siruvar Cholai’ with the words: “Be happy. Keep smiling.” If he is watching from above, he will be happy because his family continues to be engaged with Tamil theatre now.
