Late Malayalam actor Thilakan’s adventures as a film actor had provided spectacular moments both on and off screen that, taken together, they might seem like a colourful collection of fantastic folk tales: 'The Devil and the Grey-Haired Saint,' 'The Olfactory Illusion', 'The Old Man With an Eternal Smirk', 'The Man Who Dared Death', and umpteen other stories.
The legendary Padmarajan, while casting Thilakan as the lecherous step-father in Namukku Paarkkan Munthirithoppukal, gave him a small but daunting brief.
“Pailokkaran (the character) has to be so disgusting that women should feel like vomiting at the sight of him.” After watching Thilakan perform, Padmarajan is said to have commented: “This man looks infinitely more evil than anything my wildest imagination could concoct.”
A year later, when Padmarajan wanted a pure-hearted old man for Moonnampakkam, it was this evil incarnate that he chose.
Film actors normally work only two senses in the viewer: sight and hearing. Thilakan, it seemed, could animate a third: smell. It was Padmarajan who had noted it first.
“Thilakan had a rich masculine smell around him, his perfume and cigarettes did the trick, during the shoot ofNamukku Paarkkan…. But when I watched the film he exuded an intolerable stink,” Padmarajan had said. “And every time I saw him in Moonnampakkam, I could vividly smell fresh coconut oil.”
In his last film Ustad Hotel, Karimikka (Thilakan's character) shares the secret of his ethereal suleimani (black tea) with his grandson: “Every suleimani should have a bit of mohabbat in it.” No one, not even Padmarajan, had ever asked Thilakan the secret of this olfactory illusion.
Thilakan, in his latter years, turned into an intractable rebel. His rantings became so frequent that you could almost see him smirk with pleasure when he rubbished the superstars.
Defying death was his other big pastime, both literally and metaphorically. Two of his finest roles (Indian Rupee and Ustad Hotel) happened in the last two years of his life, after poor health and controversies had written his epitaph. Since the early 2000s, his body had been scorched by strokes and other ailments. His frail body propped up by a mere crutch and a gargantuan will.
And finally when death came, it had to sweat. It took two strokes, pneumonia, kidney failure, a cardiac arrest, two massive heart attacks and, when it all seemed inadequate, another vicious bout of pneumonia and yet another heart attack to overpower a frail old man.
Thilakan loved his image of Yamaraj
The pictures of some of Thilakan’s favourite actors – Stanislaviski, Toshiro Mifune, Raj Kapoor, Sivaji Ganeshan – are hung in the study room of his daughter’s home. But the largest one and the one placed highest, near the ceiling, is a photograph of himself as ‘Yamaraj,’ the God of Death, from the film Pappan Priyapetta Pappan.
“Right from my childhood I had pictured myself as the slayer of injustice. That’s why I love this Yamaraj photograph,” Thilakan had once said. Thilakan seemed as proud of this self-created image of vigilante as he was about acting.
The rebel in him was spurred by the deep belief he had in his immense talent. When AMMA passed strictures against him, he turned his back on cinema and went back to theatre and television serials. And he did not go quietly.
He branded Mammootty mediocre. He said Mohanlal was insecure in his presence. He branded Dileep as poison. Even while he was hurling these insults, Malayalam industry rolled the red carpet to welcome him back.
Some of his friends from his theatre days say that Thilakan was an imperious talent. “He never accepted authority. So he kept changing troupes. Even P.J. Antony couldn’t control him,” a former friend said.
According to Thilakan, it was his father who sowed the seeds of rebellion in him. “He was very strict and never allowed me any freedom,” he had said.
Tamil filmgoers loved this ‘villain’
Apart from his iconic status in Malayalam film world, the late Thilakan was equally popular in Tamil though he may have done less than a dozen films in K’town. The legendary actor’s powerful role of Annachi, the cool, yet ruthless villain, in Vijayakanth’s 1990 film Chathriyan was critically acclaimed. Thilakan’s dialogue delivery with the Malayalam accent was an instant hit then.
The actor had strong opinions about national awards. After a long gap Thilakan attended the press gathering of his Tamil film Alibaba in Chennai. Around the same time, Padma awards were announced and the actor was awarded the Padma Shri.
Though he felt happy about it, the veteran actor reacted strongly about national awards, saying, “An actor is an actor! There should be only one award for Best Actor. They should not be differentiated like Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor in national category.”
When asked why he was not seen often in Tamil cinema, he said, “I always look for challenging roles. The character should excite me even as the director narrates the script. As and when I come across such roles, I never let go of them.”
Some of the other popular Tamil films of the actor include Mettukudi, Nee Venumda Chellam, Karuppu Vellai, Suyechai MLA and Uyirin Yedai 21 gram.
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