Noorondu nenapu yedeyaaladinda…

By Dr. Veena Bharathi

It was May 2005. Our family friend and Dental Surgeon Dr. Gururaj Nadig called me over the phone, “Dr. Veena, I will be going to Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Hospital with Vishnuvardhan, can you please meet us at the Hospital by 5 in the evening?” 

Dr. Nadig was a close friend of Kannada Superstar Dr. Vishnuvardhan and he was his personal Dentist too. I had arranged for an appointment for the “Saahasa Simha” with the Vascular Surgeon Dr. K.R. Suresh.

When I reached the Jain Hospital on Millers’ Road and greeted Vishnuvardhan, “Nice to be meeting you Doctor!” said the down-to-earth Star, who shook my hand.

I was on cloud nine having met Dr. Harish of ‘Bandhana’ Kannada movie. Dr. Vishnuvardhan had lost a bit of body weight and was looking quite a bit drained out.

The Vascular Surgeon suggested that the actor should undergo 3 days a week Physiotherapy and also simultaneously Diabetic Foot Care (Podiatric care). Dr. Nadig and myself took on the responsibility of getting the therapy done for the actor. I could monitor only 6 sessions of Vishnuvardhan’s physiotherapy and podiatric care, as I was preoccupied with a Health Management Project. Dr. Vishnuvardhan, during the sessions, used to discuss about Literature, the declining quality of medical education and, of course, movies ! After an hour of the session, Vishnuvardhan used to get into his car and would say, “See you again Doctor!” Before the concluding session of the podiatric care, Vishnuvardhan had smilingly obliged the staff of “Vascular Surgery Department” by posing with them for photos.

December 2005, Vishnuvardhan was awarded the Honorary Doctorate by the University of Bangalore. Dr. Nadig called me again, “Vishnu has read several of your articles and is appreciative of the same. Why don’t you write an article by interviewing him on this occasion of Honorary Doctorate being conferred on him?”

On 1st of January 2006 along with the Nadig couple, I reached Dr. Vishnuvardhan’s house in Jayanagar, about one-and-a-half kilometres from our BTM Layout house. The interview that I started with ‘Ramachari’ at 6.15 in the evening concluded only around 8.30 in the night! His wife, famous actress Bharathi also had talked for about half-an-hour.

During the interview (which later got published in the Sunday Herald of Deccan Herald and also in Kannada in Sudha magazine) Dr. Vishnuvardhan told me, “When I was studying for graduation in National College, at least a fortnight once, I used to watch a movie in the theatres along with a couple of friends! But, I never ever bunked a study hour class, for the fear that our Principal and Founder of the College H. Narasimhaiah might complain to my father!”

When I took a phone interview of ‘Sharapanjara’ Shivaram on the same occasion, Shivaram told me, “When Vishnu was a student at National College, I had gone to the College to judge an Inter-Collegiate Cultural Competition. Vishnuvardhan (then his name was Kumar) had played the role of a female character in a drama. Impressed by his performance, I awarded him the judges’ special prize ! I was also a member of the Selection Committee constituted by Director Puttanna Kanagal, wherein we were required to select a young man for the hero’s role, for the movie ‘Naagara Haavu.’ After screen testing several young men, when Puttanna Kanagal finally announced ‘This boy, Sampath Kumar is going to bring alive Ramachari on the Screen’, I was overjoyed!”  Shivaram also gave me an insight into the natural acting prowess of the twenty-one-year-old Vishnuvardhan.

“During the shooting of the movie, suspecting that Ramachari may have misutilised Alamelu’s innocent love for him, ‘Meshtru’ K.S. Ashwath beats Ramachari with a cane stick. Without his knowledge K.S. Ashwath had beaten Vishnu with the stick, with such a force that the stick had got cut into two! Vishnu picked up both the pieces of the cane stick and told K.S. Ashwath ‘Meshtre, the stick is broken, I will give it to you after repairing !’ This dialogue was not there in the original script, but Puttanna Kanagal retained Vishnu’s impromptu, natural reaction!”

During the interview with Vishnuvardhan, the actor had told me with lot of reverence to his Guru Puttanna Kanagal, “If for me, God is the unseen teacher, Puttanna Kanagal Sir is the God sent teacher, my Guru !  Puttanna Kanagal Sir gave me the screen name ‘Vishnuvardhan’, explaining to me the reason that King Vishnuvardhana was an unconquered king and a lover of art !” 

The actor had also regretted that his mentor and he himself had dreamt of making the movie “Raja Venkatappa”, which of course did not materialise due to the untimely demise of Puttanna Kanagal.

When the articles written by me got published in both Sudha Kannada weekly and Deccan Herald, Vishnuvardhan had phoned me and said, “I am thankful to you Doctor !, very good narration  (Tumba sogasaagi barediddeeri)”.

In the Kannada article I had quoted lyricist Javed Akhtar’s poem “Ek mohre ka safar” (The journey of a pawn), since I could notice Dr. Vishnuvardhan’s undue tilt towards spirituality.

During August 2006, on the day of  “Gokulaashtami”, Bharathi and Vishnuvardhan had invited Dr. Nadig and our families for a get-together. There were about two hundred guests under the shamiyana erected in the compound of the actor’s residence. I had presented a silver Krishna idol to the star couple. They in turn gifted a lavender colour shirt to my husband and a pair of ‘pen’ to me!

Once a while, Vishnuvardhan used to ask Dr. Nadig, “Yelli, nimma doctor – snehitaru punaha namma manege barale illa…? (Nadig Sir, why your Doctor friends have not visited our home again…?).” Unfortunately Dr. Nadig died of a massive heart attack just two months before Vishnuvardhan’s demise. We had informed the actor’s driver Radhakrishna to convey the news in a gentle way.

One of the most handsome, soulsome, cultured actor Dr. Vishnuvardhan, who had vehemently by-passed the coronary Bypass Surgery, though left this mortal world on 30th of December twelve years ago, has stayed in the hearts of crores and crores of fans and admirers. And hence, “Noorondu nenapu yedeyaaladinda…”