January 31st, 2009 was a black day in the history of indian cinema, for veteran actor/comedian Nagesh bid farewell to earth and went for heavenly abode. He was a tremendous performer who entertained us, made us laugh/cry through his performance. Now he has made us all cry forever. Am going to miss him rather all of us are going to miss him. It is an irreparable loss for indian film industry.I have grown up enjoying all his movies. Kadhalikka nerumillai, yedir neechal, server sundaram, bhama vijayam, neer kumizhi, anubavi raja anubavi, galatta kalyanam, navagraham, vietnam veedu, michael madana kama rajan, panchathanthiram to name a few. I dont know how many times i would have watched kadhalikka nerumillai, yedir neechal, vietnam veedu, bhama vijayam and server sundaram. Though i have watched yedir neechal and sever sundaram countless times, i would cry everytime i watched the two movies. That is the magic of nagesh's performance. He is a natural performer and has not acted but lived the characters he potrayed. I dont know why he wasnt chosen for any of the padma awards. Its really sad that he hasnt got the recoginition he truly deserves. Though he is not with us physically, his movies are immortal. I couldnt control my tears yesterday when i was watching the song "Aadi adangum vaazhkaiyada aaradi nilame sondhamada......."
Recently, i read kamal hassan's interview. When asked about nagesh, kamal narrated an incident. It seems kamal couldnt finish a particular scene as per the director's imagination. He went in for a lot of shots and still couldnt complete it to the director's satisfaction. Thats when k.balachandar (director of that movie), told kamal that had it been nagesh, he would have finished the scene in one take. Such is nagesh's acting. He is definitely an actor par excellence.
