A Glimpse of Parthepan
Born in a cinema house on 14th April 1989, Parthepan has had a long and bumpy journey to his present position of being a director, actor and producer par excellence. His sweep in the history of Indian Tamil cinema has been remarkable. His struggles were not only for progress, but also for preservation too. Preservation of values and preservation of hope. There were cruel days and happy one, rebellions, celebrations, inaugurations and milestones. There have been years of wonder and sometimes shock, uniquely observed and preserved in his pictures. Rather than a definitive profile, the following pages form a family album of important events and emotions
His Outlook
“People generally shy away from expressing certain thoughts and emotions in fear of rejection and ridicule. I on the other hand felt the necessity to express those sentiments, which much to my surprise, have been received very well. While my focus has been in been creating unusual genres of movies, which leave a lasting impression, my forte is main stream commercial profitable cinema. I find myself being venerated by a broad spectrum of audience, from both the economic and intellectual sector. “
As an Individual
When asked, Parthepan will say his life is “Nothing but Cinema” however; he is a multi faceted and a socially conscious individual. Being a prolific writer, his short stories and poems are a much awaited feature in popular weeklies and newspapers.A compilation of such essays and poems reflecting his thoughts, ideologies and concepts was published as a book under the title “Kirukalgal” , which literally means scribbling.
This book, a trend setter in modern Tamil literature, created ripples in the literary world by selling over 25000 copies when it was released. The philanthropist has been donating all proceeds from the sale of this book to his Manidha Neya Mandram, which is a social welfare organization.
The Journey Begins
Thinking he was following the example of the fabulous Shivaji Ganesan, he started his acting career at a very young age producing and acting in stage plays, hopeful that he would be picked out by a renowned director. The responsibility for story, screen play, dialogue, directing, acting, production and background score was taken on by him. Though he was never recognized during his stage days he learnt a great deal. He maximized the acting experience by learning to play all roles and voice modulation. This gave him dexterity to fit into any character when he entered cinema, whether he played the sentimental hero in ALAGHI or the brutal villain in SORNAMUGHI or the perfect comedy duo with Vadivelu in many movies . Being the most sort after and loved person in the troupe, he gained every ones respect by his witty disposition and attention to unusual detail which has become his trademark.
R. Parthepan finally joined K. Bhagyaraj as an Assistant Director in 1984 and it was here that he discovered the knack of donning the role of actor and director at the same time. One of the things he learnt as an assistant director was elimination of unnecessary features from the script. Dedicated as usual, he absorbed and assimilated all that he could, sculpturing himself to be a brilliant director.
