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From Kovilpatti's Vivekanandan to Kollywood's Vivek: What we gave and how Vivek gave us back?

By alagu, 17 April, 2021
Vivek, Tamilnadu, Chennai

"We have lost a selfless, most precious jewel of India...a climate champion for Climate Action who was in the process of planting 10 million trees", this is how Oscar-winning music director AR Rahman wrote his tribute note for paying condolences for Padma Shri actor Vivek on the latter's untimely demise. Vivek has left a legacy and a definition of life. Vivek had passed away in the wee hours of Saturday in Chennai at the age of 59 due to cardiac arrest. 

Vivek has a long path of triumphs and debacles in his career spanning three decades and he was one of the great comedy actors of the Indian cinema. Born on 19th November 1961 in Kovilpatti, Tuticorin district, Tamil Nadu, Vivek's original name was Vivekanandan, and through tireless commitment and audacity, he attained a remarkable transformation of becoming Kollywood's Vivek. In an interview, Vivek said that his parents had named him Vivekanandhan after Swami Vivekanandha. 

After completing his schooling in Kovilpatti, he got graduated from the American College, Madurai. Following graduation, he appeared and cleared the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission exam post which he began his career at the Tamil Nadu government's Chief Secretariat in Chennai. Gifted with humor in birth, Vivek searched for an opportunity to expose his talent amid continuing the government job. He had participated at the Madras Humor Club where people would perform stand-up comedy. 

Through his participation, he had won the Best Entertainer Award several times at the club which opened the gates of Kollywood for him. Having caught the eyes of PR Govindarajan, who is the founder of the club, who later introduced him to legendary director K Balachander. From then on, no turnbacks as Vivekanandhan was carved by Balachander and transformed as the industry's asset. Balachander watched Vivek's performances in the club and asked him, "Will you join me as a scriptwriter?" for which Vivek replied, "It's my blessing sir. I'm coming with you from this moment".

Balachander then patted on Vivek's back and asked him to come to his office next week. With the invitation from Balachander, Vivek has relinquished his government job and joined Balachander as the assistant director-cum-scriptwriter. It was in 1987 during which Balachander was directing the movie 'Manathil Uruthi Vendum'. Vivek doesn't know this will become his first movie and he was tasked with giving training to the artists in accents to play the role of brother for Suhashini, who plays the lead role in the movie.  

Though Vivek had given training to every artist, Balachander wasn't happy with them and after watching Vivek's body language and style of accent, Balachander had chosen Vivek to play as the brother for Suhashini. This is how Vivek made his debut in the Tamil cinema or we can say that this is how the Tamil Cinema gifted with the precious asset. Like how Balachander carved and introduced Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, he also introduced Vivek and after having a good reception, he went on to act in several Balachander movies. 

As per the advice of Balachander to act in the movies of other directors, Vivek has stepped out of a comfort zone and emerged as a successful comedian. He has attained fame in the fashion that he was acted in most of the movies released in the 1990s. When we gave him fame and wealth, he has decided to give us something back beyond bringing a smile. He cemented a different track and being a visionary, he had always thought out of the box and he was in fact one of the first to realize that actors can do something for people besides acting.

That was indeed his seed for his first plant which he sowed without knowing that he is going to plant over lakhs of trees in the future. After realizing that he can inject a change among the people through acting, he began adding the ingredients for social reformation. He started seeding the social reform ideas in his comedy scenes to ally the societal disparities from caste and religion. His comedy style consisted of one-liners that featured social and political satire, which lead to critics comparing to Kalaivanar NS Krishnan and earning him the nickname Chinna Kalaivanar. 

He earned a special affection from the stars with stardoms to the rising heroes. Apart from cementing a unique track, he successfully walked through the path and etched a history after earning a reward from the people as 'people's artist'. Throughout his career, he had acted in over 200 films, and do you believe Vivek was one of the busiest actors in 2000 and 2001, featuring in over fifty movies in these two years? That's truly remarkable. He also had tried exploring acting stint and he has acted as a hero in two movies - Naan thaan Bala and Vellai Pookkal. 

Vivek has told that veteran director Bharathiraja had said that he was perfectly fit for the hero role. When we gave Vivek fame and wealth, he has decided to repay us with unconditional love and humanity. It's a love of neither making money nor acting in many movies, but it's true love for the people and affection and that was a reflection on how he championed his life. He had everlasting lubrication for doing something for society through which he took social activism in his hand. 

His activism was fueled by former Indian President Bharat Ratna Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. As a protege of Kalam, Vivek took the Himalayan task of campaigning against global warming under the light and guidance of Abdul Kalam. He then turned out to be an ambassador of ecology and launched the "Green Kalam" initiative in 2010 with the aim of planting one crore saplings across the state. Vivek had mobilized volunteers from schools and colleges to join the initiative. 

With the motive of planting one crore saplings, Vivek has planted over 33 lakh saplings so far through which we can see social reformer Vivek in him. He traveled across the state and campaigned for good and change. In 2018, Vivek was named along with Suriya, Karthi, and Jyothika as the ambassador for the Plastic Pollution Free Tamil Nadu campaign by the state government. Besides his love of nature, he also had motivated downtrodden artists and people to inspire change. 

Indian government conferred him the Padma Shri Award in 2009 for his contribution to the Indian Cinema and he also received Honorary Doctorate from Sathyabama University in 2015 and in 2006, he was bestowed with Kalaivanar Award for his contributions to Tamil Cinema by the state government. In 2015, he lost his son Prasanna Kumar due to Dengue and the demise of his son had devastated him and he couldn't able to concentrate on acting. It took over a year for him to come back and within years, he has now left the world by devastating the Indian cinema. 

In one of his popular interviews, Vivek said, "What have I done. I have lost everything. I have lost my father and I have lost my mother recently. I have lost my son and I have lost my teacher APJ Abdul Kalam, and I have lost Balachander, who introduced me. I have no one other than fans". What we gave Vivek was fame and wealth and what he gave us is love, humanity, and oxygen for our life through 33 lakh trees. As AR Rahman said, Vivek is the most precious jewel of India. 

 

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