Candid moments with CVR

The doorbell rang and I casually came out. Imagine my surprise when standing there was director C.V. Rajendran! “I wanted to thank you in person for the write-up about me in the Friday Review this week,” he smiled. “In an era when old is passé and past achievements mean little to the present, I’m glad The Hindu is different.” CVR’s ‘Sivagaamiyin Selvan’ with Sivaji Ganesan and Vanisri had been re-released and had had a 100-day run in Chennai! The occasion was celebrated with fanfare and was written about.

When I met Janaki, CVR’s wife, after his demise on Sunday, she said, “You must have seen his joy on the day The Hindu carried his interview.”

In the few years I knew CVR, his honesty and humility never ceased to impress me. He had no qualms about dwelling on his lows. “What’s the point in projecting an also-ran as a hit? ‘Sivagaamiyin…’ didn’t do well then. But who would have thought it would hit a century in 2016,” he laughed. The filmmaker, who had directed around 50 films in various languages including Hindi, given consecutive hits with Sivaji Ganesan and Jayalalitha, and had made films with Muthuraman, Jaishankar and Rajnikanth, was always candid!

It isn’t easy for a creative person to close up shop. Recently CVR had developed a storyline and was planning to launch one of the scions of the Sivaji Ganesan family yet again, as hero. “It will be my next introduction from the family, after Prabhu,” he had told me.

In a journalist’s career spanning more than two decades of one-to-ones, few persons leave an indelible imprint. C.V. Rajendran did.