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Sukumari is a natural: A natural person and a natural actress.
Most Malayalees and Tamils are familiar with Sukumari’s role as a sweet mother (like Mohan Lal’s mother in ‘Nokketha Doorathu Kannum Nattu’) or an auntie or a warden with a comic bend (like in ‘Snehithaye’). But there was also a time when she played the vamp. What is surprising is that Sukumari was not squeamish about choosing roles. “For me all roles are good roles. Otherwise, I can’t act. There is nothing called a bad role. As an artiste, I don’t make any difference between a vamp and an obedient wife.” A thorough professional, she has never rejected a role.
Sukumari acted with generations of actors and actresses. She started her career at the age of 10 (she was born in 1940), but does not hark back on the bygone ‘golden days’ of movies. Her thinking is so uncluttered that she says, “We have to change with changes. There is no point in bewailing the present. We must be able to adapt to the creativity of the youngsters.” And it is this adaptability that’s the spring of Sukumari’s versatility. This wonderful characteristic came to the fore very early in life. Though she was born in Thiruvananthapuram to Madhavan Nair and Sathyabhama, she was brought up by her grandmother Karthiyainiyamma.
In Chennai, Sukumari began to learn dance. She began to go for dance and drama programmes and performed dances for films also. The busy life as an artiste forced her to give up studies after III Form. Meanwhile, she acted in minor roles in films like ‘Koodapirappu’ and ‘Thaskara Veeran’. At the beginning, she acted more in Tamil than Malayalam films. She did not concentrate on Malayalam films as she could not leave Chennai due to daily dance and drama programmes in the city. Ah, drama. Something that was close to Sukumari’s heart. She says the theatre provided her a sound background. It gave her ample experience in acting and dialogue presentation. Moreover, the spontaneous feedback she got from the audience greatly helped in moulding the actress in her. On the other hand, “One has to wait for months to get feedback after acting in a film.” In addition to Malayalam and Tamil movies, Sukumari has acted in other languages like Hindi and Telugu.
I went to Sukumari’s house on Boag Road, T Nagar, just before she was to leave for Australia for a dance programme. She gave me half-an-hour of her busy day and was very hospitable, without any ‘starry’ pretensions. When I left the house wishing her a happy journey, she asked me to visit her again. “Come when I am here. Come in the mornings; Amma [I] will be here,” she said very naturally. - Salil Jose Readers' response/inputs can be e-mailed to salil@chennaionline.com.
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Which other actress would say she does not remember the number of movies she has acted in, or the number of honours she has got? Only someone who loves her craft and who has no pretensions about herself. Her career has lasted for more than 50 years and she has acted in different roles and different languages, presumably in about 2,000 movies. Even after having entertained generations with diverse tastes, she is still a sought-after actress.
That is because she is a versatile actress who can carry off any role. Her range is so vast that we have seen her act as a daughter, wife, mother and grandmother. You don’t have to check all the films that she has acted in to find this diversity. It would be enough to watch her films released in a span of six months.
Then she came under the wing of her mother’s sister, Saraswathy. The famous mother of the famous Travancore Sisters - Padmini, Ragini and Lalitha - who dominated the film world in their time. After that Sukumari never saw her parents.
Now that she acts more in Malayalam films, she spends more time in Kerala. She stays only for a few days in Chennai with her son Dr Suresh, his wife and son. “In a way, I am neither a Malayalee nor a Tamil; but I feel at home when I am in Chennai,” she says disarmingly.
