Gemini Ganesan: The Lover, The Father

Journalist and writer Narayani Ganesh has written candidly about her iconic father in her heart-warming book, Eternal Romantic- My Father, Gemini Ganesan (Roli  Books) and talks to Humra  Quraishi about it.

I’m  no film buff, yet I enjoyed reading Narayani Ganesh’s book on her  father, the legendary Tamil actor  Gemini  Ganesan…so  much so, I flowed with the words and was rivetted by those rare  pictures of the man. No doubt he was stunningly good looking but  for  creatures like me there has to be more to an actor than just sex appeal! It is a good thing then that he comes across as candid soul with that old world charm hovering around. Also, I  love men who have the grit to take on intense relationships to the logical conclusion – marriage.

Yes, Ganesan married not once but thrice! His first  wife, TR Alamelu (popularly called Bobjima) seemed apparently  comfortable with Pushpavalli and Savithri, and also  with their children!And so seem his children, in fact, film star Rekha, daughter of  Gemini Ganesan and Pushpavalli, is also spotted in several  pictures tucked in the pages of this volume.

Credit goes to Narayani for putting some stark details in this book she’s written on her father and the times he’d lived, worked in. No, its not a typical biography and definitely not a bunch of essays. As Narayani explains,“I wouldn’t call the book a biography in that sense. The writing is personal, anecdotal as well as from the writer’s perspective and in the process, it also serves as a kind of emotional biography, if you would like to call it that; but certainly not a detailed historical biography as we understand the term to mean in the conventional sense.”

I asked Narayani the very obvious question – was she or  her  siblings  ever  hurt /embarrassed  by  her father’s  rather colourful personality?  And she answered, “When we were children, the information flow was very limited. We had neither television nor the Internet, and gossip columns were rare in the print medium. Therefore whatever we knew had to be from family or friends. The family said nothing and friends were discreet, so we came to know of all this much later, when we were all grown-up. By then there was no anger, only acceptance. When I think of my father, the words that spring to mind are charming, handsome, affectionate, witty, responsible and compassionate. As a dashing romantic actor, Appa did have relationships outside his marriage, but his relationship with us remained the same. He was the same caring father, son and nephew but of course, I would not be able to say what went through my mother’s (T R Alamelu) mind, because children were not part of their private discussions (if they had any) and my grandmothers were so benign and full of love…. I would say that we all had a great deal of respect for him and for each other.”

Of course, as I  mentioned earlier this  volume  carries  many  anecdotes- right from Gemini  Ganesan’s formative years  in the royal principality of Pudukottai in Tamil Nadu, the year he spent  at the Ramakrishna Mission Home in Chennai, where he learnt yoga and attended vedanta classes, his  years at the Madras Christian College, Chennai and of course,  his years in the  world of cinema. As  Narayani  puts it, her father’s life has been an open book. And what a read, it is!