Neelu Drama Stage Plays Movies

Ever since his school days, he remained an artiste and performed on Stage for six decades, something that gave him the greatest satisfaction. When his firm transferred him out of city, he missed the stage so badly that he came back as quickly as he went. He remained contended through his life and stayed in the same firm for four decades. For ever, he remained a cricket fan and a test match of the time was one of his favourite topics of discussion at the Mylapore Club where he would taste the special sweet in the evening. Past 80 and till his very end, he continued to be part of the Crazy Mohan's Popular Chocolate Krishna team. Here is the story.

Born in 1936 in Manjeri, Kerala, R Neelakantan ( Neelu to those in the Cine/ Drama Circles) moved to Madras and did his entire schooling in Triplicane - first at Raghavendra School (the school completed 100years earlier in the decade) and then at The Hindu High School.

His first exposure to drama came through the Boys Scout Movement. P Seshagiri Rao, a dental surgeon and a man of histrionics was also a scout master. He used to organise an annual day competition, that included a camp fire organised late in the evening. The 10-15minutes skit that Neelu presented in front of the audience there was his first initiation into the world of dramatics. It took away the stage fear and he always attributed his success in drama to that early initiation by Seshagiri Rao. 

It was from his sister that he imbibed interest in carnatic music and for several decades, he watched LIVE Kutcheris of some of the greats of carnatic music - GNV, Madurai Mani Iyer, Choudiah, Raja Manickam Pillai, Palghat Iyer and Mali at his peak. One of his biggest regrets was not taking up Rajam Iyer’s offer to learn carnatic music, in a formal way. 

His first big moment on stage came when he joined Vivekananda College in the mid 1950s. During those years at college, he acted in several plays that included Devan’s Kalyani, Ms Mythili and Janaki. He donned interesting roles in Sambu Nataraja Iyer’s (Triplicane Fine Arts Club) stage plays, a couple of the prominent ones were Sriman Sudarshanam and Mr. Vedantham. The ‘astrologer role’ in Justice Jagannathan was particularly well received. He played the role of Advocate Panchapakesan in Sambavani Yuge Yuge in 1962-63 one that remains his all time favourite. 

He told this writer in 2014 that it was during the inter-collegiate competitions that he was introduced to Cho. It marked the beginning of a friendship that lasted well over five decades. Neelu enacted the role of Thathachari in Cho’s all time hit Mohd. Bin Tughlaq, an MLA in Yarukkum Vetkam Illai and the role of a CM in Nermai Urangum Neram "We were all like family members. Cho knew our capabilities and helped us make a mark by assigning relevant roles for each of us that suited us the best", he said complimenting Cho for his success and that of the team.

In the late 1950s, he became a founding member of Viveka Fine Arts and played the role of Mr. Plan in their first play – Thenmozhiya (dramatised by Koothapiran and a cricket commentator). 

After completing his MA in Economics, Neelu joined VD Swamy and Co, in 1960. A couple of years into his job, he was transferred to Calcutta that put a temporary halt to his drama roles. Neelu told this writer in that 2014 interaction at his Beach side home in Besant Nagar that it was Cho’s intervention that helped him get back to Madras"After Cho presented Sambavani Yuge Yuge at Krishna Gana Sabha, he ‘forced’ VD Swamy (who was also the chairman of KGS) to transfer Neelu back to Madras so he could continue to pursue his passion."

Neelu performed varied roles on stage and that gave him the most satisfaction in life ‘Drama gave me a lot of satisfaction. There was instant appreciation and acknowledgement of our performance. The response from the audience was immediate. We always wanted to give our best in front of them’, he told this writer. 

Interestingly, his performances on stage also held him in good stead at work. Neelu was in the Export- Import division that took him around to many countries in South East Asia, the US and Europe ‘Where ever I went on work, around the world, I was instantly recognised. There have been instances when my drama roles have even helped in ‘collections’ at work as important officials acknowledged the happiness that stage plays had given them and cleared the cheques, some which had been pending for a long time. I did no favours to them and yet they went out of their way to help me out. That is the positive impact that drama has had on the audience.’ 

Stage Play was a stepping stone for Neelu’s entry into movies. In 1966, Neelu debuted in Mukta Srinivasan’s Aiyiram Poi. Since then, he acted in over 160films including alongside Shivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan, Karthik, Vikram and Kamal, among others. 

Much later, Mouli’s Flight 172 was an unforgettable  and thoroughly enjoyable experience for Neelu. He was also fond of cricket and tracked most of the test matches in the 1960s and 70s.Till the end, he remained a crazy cricket fan.

For all his achievements in theatre, Neelu was not aspirational. Right till the end, he remained a contended person. Neelu did not take to acting as a full time profession despite receiving many offers in those days. He chose to take up only small roles and got back to his office work, one where he worked for four decades. 

On many evenings, he would gulp the popular Badam Halwa at the Mylapore Club and engage in light talks with The Hindu's Narasimhan, Sundaram Iyer (Enfield Group) and Easwar Iyer. 

After his retirement, he took on the role of a ‘Production Manager’ for his close friend L Viswanathan’s movie ‘Jerry’. He would often joke that he too is a 'Producer'. When he was presented an opportunity to display his emotions in Cho’s Engey Brahmanan, he grabbed it with both hands. His enactment of the Bhagavathar brought commendation from Shri. PV Srinivasan, his Sanskrit teacher of the 1950s. Upanyasakar Dhamal Ramakrishanan too showered heaps of praise on Neelu for his acting in Engey Brahmanan. 

In the last years of his life, he was part of Crazy Mohan’s hugely successful Chocolate Krishna. Till the very end, Neelu’s interest in drama remained undiminished. He was inseparable from drama and carnatic music.  His eyes would always light up every time he spoke about stage plays and he woudl instantly recollect the plays from the 1950s even as he continued to hum his favourite ‘Thathari na naa’.

(Neelu passed away in 2018 - a version of this story featured in the Mylapore Club Magazine in 2014)