At the recently concluded annual drama festival, organised by Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, atNarada Gana Sabha veteran theatre personality Karur Rangaraj was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his service to the Tamil stage.
The K. Balachander Award and the Award of Excellence were also presented to playwright-director-actor M.B. Murthy (Gurukulam original Boys Co.) for his comprehensive achievements and Amirtham Gopal (Gitanjali) for three decades of Tamil theatre.
Nalli Kuppuswamy distributed the awards (citation and a purse) while A.R. Srinivasan (ARS) and S.Ve. Shekher offered felicitations.
Octogenarian Karur Rangaraj talks about how he straddled the two worlds of work and theatre with ease. Rangaraj’s maiden performance for the Tamil play ‘Mokshaprayani’ (the Tamil version of John Milton’s Paradise Lost), was in 1944, when he was 10. Until 1956, when he moved to Chennai to work at the Integral Coach Factory, Rangaraj was acting (mostly female roles) in plays staged at Karur. “I was trying to balance both my job and my passion for acting. Manakkal Mani, a director and Tamil theatre comedian, helped me get into Chennai-based troupes and there was no looking back after that,” says Karuraar.
He has acted in three dozen drama troupes, in about 150 plays (all over India), with over 5,000 stage appearances. He has also bagged many titles such as ‘Nataka Seva Ratna’ and ‘Nataka Kala Nipuna.’ “I cherish laurels from stalwarts like Avvai Shanmugam, T.K. Bagavathi, S.V. Sahasranaman, Kothamangalam Subbu, Sivaji and Cho,” says Rangaraj.
He considers the mother’s role (Janaki amma) that he played in Marina’s ‘Thanikkudithanam’ as one of his best.
Karur Rangaraj managed the Shri Shanmuganandha Sabha in ICF for 22 years, starting from 1965 and staging music and dance programmes besides plays. An approved artist of AIR and Doordarshan, Chennai, Rangaraj has also acted in various films with Sivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan and Rajnikanth.
When asked if he treats this award as a ticket to national or state recognition, he says with a loud laugh, “ “More than the awards and titles, I value the audience’s support, which I think I have enough.”
