B Kanankarajsamy does not know what a meme is.
At 67, he doesn’t feel inclined to learn much about Gen Z’s social media indulgences. But it is a meme that introduced this veteran electrician to millions of Tamil movie fans.
In the 30 years he has spent in the cine field working the switch boards, and providing power supply at shooting spots, Kanakaraj has been fondly referred to as “Samy electrician”.
For the meme generation, he is “double-decker Narayanan”.
Power star
I stumble upon Kanakaraj on the sets of Vishal’s Irumbu Thirai 2, sitting in a quiet, unassuming corner all by himself.
A devotee of Murugan, Kanakaraj’s forehead is smeared with sandal paste and sacred ash (vibhuti). A bright red kumkum dot at the centre completes the holy trinity.
For an electrician, Kanakaraj is quite confident of his acting abilities. He is, for want of a better expression, a one-take actor!
He narrates an incident from the sets of director Bala’s Naan Kadavul (2009) to prove his point.
“[Bala] was filming a kaavadi procession sequence. The junior artistes were not getting it right, as they kept looking into the camera,” he says.
A frustrated Bala spots Kanakaraj, and courtesy the holy trinity on his forehead, pins him down to be a Murugan devotee.
“He asked me to take the kaavadi and the shot was done in 10 minutes,” adds Kanakaraj, showing a picture of him with Bala. In fact, the director was so happy, he wrote a small role for Kanakaraj in his film Avan Ivan (2011) too.
Films wouldn’t have happened had a younger Kanakaraj not made the decision to run away from his home in Coimbatore. As a middle school student, he, and five of his friends, bought one-way tickets to Madras because they “wanted to see the beach”.
“I left with my school bag for Madras,” he recollects.
The enormity of the city, frightened him. The boys were wandering the streets, and landed in police custody.
“They immediately rang Devar, and brought us to his office,” he adds.
The man he is referring to was the promoter of Devar films, MMA Chinnappa Devar. Both hail from Ramanathapuram in Coimbatore. “He gave us all a good beating, and sent a man to take us back home,” says Kanakaraj, who reveals he was a school mate of actor-director R Sundarrajan.
“We studied in the same Government school. So did actor Meena’s mother. I used to deliver milk to her house,” he adds.
Acting debut
Kanakaraj returned to Madras in less than a year. This time too, he ran away from home. He took shelter with a wealthy family who were on the look out for domestic help.
“The men in the family were working in an electrical company, and so I joined them and learnt the basics,” he adds.
After working as an electrician taking up building contracts, films happened when he joined Sujatha Motors, who supplied technicians to film sets.
“I was asked to join an outdoor unit as a last-minute replacement, because another electrician failed to show up,” says Kanakaraj.
- On the sets of Seeman’s Panchalankurichi (1996) in Pollachi, the film’s hero Prabhu asks Kanakaraj to secretly buy idli and chutney from a local tiffin shop. “He would trade the bread toasts he brought with him for the idlis,” says Kanakaraj, adding that late actor Jai Ganesh also made similar requests.
That film was P Bharathiraja’s Kadalora Kavithaigal (1986), starring Sathyaraj.
“The film was almost entirely shot in Muttom (Kanyakumari). It was tough. I was handling the switchboards. I made a few mistakes turning off the lights at inappropriate times. But Bharathiraja never lost his cool with me. He never yells at people. You don’t get to see a filmmaker like that these days,” he adds.
Bharathiraja later gave him his screen debut in Vedham Pudhithu (1987). “It was a group role. I was asked to walk up and down a street,” he recollects.
Kanakaraj then moved to Anand Cine Service with whom he has remained for 28 years.
Double-decker Narayanan
Who is the biggest star he has worked for?
“Rajinikanth. I have been a part of Annamalai, Baasha, Arunachalam, Padayappa and Enthiran,” says Kanakaraj, who reveals that he only watches Rajini’s movies on television.
Rajinikanth in a still from ‘Annamalai’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“I also watch Sathyaraj’s films because he is from my hometown. I don’t watch other films, not even the ones I’ve acted in,” he adds.
This is one of the reasons why he doesn’t realise that many of the scenes he has acted in, were chopped at the film’s edit desk.
But the one that did make the final cut, and which gave him millennial fame, was the Santhanam-starrer Kanna Laddu Thinna Aasaiya (2013).
As double-decker Narayanan, trying to marry off his twin girls to one of the three male leads, Kanakaraj was a hit. His dialogue “Ellam aandavan seyyal thambi” became prime meme fodder. He was also a part of the Santhanam and Udhayanidhi Stalin-starrer Nanbenda (2015).
He says, “Santhanam always greets me warmly. He even hugged me once to appreciate my performance.”