TALE OF A TORCHBEARER

TO say that Srinivasan Anand is 'the go-to man in Tamil theatre' could well be the understatement of the decade. A late starter in his mid-40s, the affable artiste has pitched in his bit by acting in 325 plays spanning over 1,000 shows.

- K V VASUDEVAN

At the relaxed pace of his career, Srinivasan says the most remarkable compliment is being called the Abadhmandavan (crisis man) by his friends in the theatre fraternity. He has lost count of the times he has come to the rescue at the last minute. The one he remembers was donning the act of a Hindi master for a play of Mapillai Ganesh.

He recalls, "I just had a mere glance of the script before slipping into the costumes but could not afford to slip the lines. Three scenes were on me where I had to recite a poem too."

His theatre background came in handy then.

In his school days at Santhome Higher Secondary and college in Loyola, Srinivasan was part of the annual plays. "That went a long way to shed the stage fright. I had the memory of an elephant to remember the lines which made the job easy."

However, there has been an instance when he forgot the lines. He had to recite a few lines of Avaiyar. "Well, the experience helped me to wriggle out of the tight spot when I hit upon the idea of delivering the lines — the worth of which the whole world is aware."

Another interesting moment, Srinivasan fondly recalls, was in the play Thirumoolavar. A 10-year-old boy absconded before his scene forcing Srinivasan to extend his dialogues and add some imaginary lines, including a song. These are special moments, he says, that linger in his mind.