Eulogy - Raghuvaran

Success can be as lethal as failure sometimes.
This was the last line from the eulogy that was published on March 19, 2008 edition of the evening daily, News Today. Connect the dots, from Hollywood star Heath Ledger to Raghuvaran in Kollywood don’t you see a pattern and price they pay as a result of success?

Both these actors had solid performances, mass appeal, brand value, highly successful careers, wonderful families, doted wife, yet they dug their grave very early. Why did this happen? Is it because of the loneliness at the top? Is it the pressure from sustaining success? It is due to the adrenalin rush from maintaining the “Cool image” in the industry? Is success is a sweet poison?

Two words that come to my mind when I think of movie industry are glitter and guilt. Glitter is easy to handle but guilt is ticking time bomb. Is movie industry a great industry to be in though it looks grand and glamorous? Let us introspect. So many people enter the industry and it takes more than hard work and luck to hold on to stardom. Not everyone who enters is guaranteed of success nor they become Rajnikanth, Amitabh, Kamalhassan or Manorama, Shabana Azmi. Men usually step out and take up off screen roles such as producers when star value wanes. May be the reality is even more gross and horrid if you are a women? What happened to silk Smitha, Fadafat, Parvin Bhabhi, Madhubala? All of them were glamour dolls and reigning queens when tragedy struck them.

Addiction to drugs, tobacco, alcohol, meat trade, etc is not new in the glamour industry, to some it is a stepping stone to success and to some becomes the tombstone. Some people have been lucky like Sanjay Dutt, Nagesh and life has given them a second chance to live, but not everyone as is lucky as them. It is sad to see brilliant lives wither in bud. I hope people in the movie industry more importantly than other professions will realize the value of life and lethal side of success.

Where will these artist who entertain the world go when it comes to forgetting their worries? Drugs, alcohol, meat can be a temporary relief for pain in the heart and mind, and often takes them into a bigger spiral without any return. Spiritually is often the last resort for people who have tried out all other options early on in life. I have personally seen Raghuvaran, at times with his mother and son at the both the temples (daily 7 pm at Sai Baba temple Mylapore and Saturdays 6 PM at Hanuman temple, Alwarpet). The lanky bespectacled man walks in the temple with a lugubrious face and usually walks out with a tilak on his forehead and a relaxed smile. May be that was his Prozac for the day? Nobody knows and sometimes nobody will ever understand the language of the heart and the mind. One could see the struggle on his face while he folds his palms and surrenders to the almighty asking for clemency. I thought he had everything in life that every man in the movie industry dreams to have – successful career, a doted wife, a charming son, access to money. What more would one ask for? A struggle for what? May be a piece of mind to handle worries, success, foibles?

Next time when I am at the temple my eyes will wander and mind will look for the lanky man. This time I will grapple to understand the true meaning success, the transient nature life, and happiness. I will ask God if death was clemency in his kingdom.

News Today Article:
NT Bureau Wed, 19 Mar, 2008,03:01 PM
The quintessential psychopathic baddie of Tamil cinema, the man who gave villainy on screen a good name, Raghuvaran died here at a private hospital after battling personal demons and a few other debilitating physical problems. He was 49.
Raghuvaran is survived by his former wife actress Rohini (the couple had divorced) and their son, Nanda.
Raghuvaran had been unwell for the last few years and had taken a sabbatical from active films for some time. Sivapathigaram, released some time last year, marked his comeback. After that he was a regular figure acting in big films including Rajnikanth’s Sivaji. His last release was however Sila Nerangalil and Bheema (which had been made some time back).
The life of lanky Raghuvaran, who made his debut as a brooding Commie hero in Ezhavathu Manithan under the direction of Hariharan, eventually turned out to be bitter-sweet as he had to constantly fight his tendency to embrace the easier pleasures that were easily available to impressionable youngsters in Kollywood.
Unable to handle the success and fame that came his way early, Raghuvaran fell into bad habits, from which he never really came out till his untimely death today.
But even as he was living life on the edge with women, wine and many other seductive things, Raghuvaran also managed to win a name for himself as someone whose acting ability was refreshingly sans the usual Kollywood cliches. After playing hero roles not with egregious success, Raghuvaran was quick to switch over to the archetypal middle-class character roles. Films like Samsaram Adhu Minsaram, Aaha, Mugavari, Amarkkalam, Run, and many others with Rajnikanth including Muthu, Arunachalam, Siva, Sivaji, Raja Chinna Roja proved his versatility.
But it was as a villain, with shades of deep black and a touch of enigmatic and over-the-top eccentricity, that Raghuvaran’s eventual screen image came to be defined. The scene in which he completely lets himself loose, mouthing ‘I know’ for heaven knows how many times, in the film Puriyatha Puthir, became so popular that his real-life image was almost suspected to be something similar. It was one of the myths that he could never really shake off.
But even as he was fighting what eventually turned out to be a losing battle with the bottle, a spiritual and an ersatz philosophical side to his persona also opened up. He also became a devotee of Sai Baba. It was during this phase he struck a romantic chord with actress Rohini and married her.
The marriage, as it happened, like his film career promised a lot, but ended up mighty short. The couple had a son Nanda, on whom Raghuvaran was doting. When the marriage ended up in the courts, Raghuvaran became an even more broken man and reportedly fell into his self-created abyss. Though well-meaning individuals, who thought highly of his acting skills, tried to shore him up with some film offers all through last year, Raghuvaran was for all practical purposes had called it quits — on films and life too.
In the event, his end, though surprising in its immediate aftermath, was something that was foretold the moment he courted early success. Raghuvaran’s life, like some of his movies including the almost biographical Idhu Oru Manidhanin Kadhai, was something of a cautionary morality play. A noir show of how success could be as lethal as a failure, sometimes.