AN EMOTIONALLY DRENCHED JOURNEY ON STAGE

PR Durai speaks on his expertise as a comedian, the shades of roles he has played, learnings from his mentors, and his relationship with humour and theatre

-  KV VASUDEVAN

WHEN PR Durai is on the job on stage, laughter is seldom unheard from the audience. Deemed as the 'CK Nagesh of Tamil Stage', after the famed cine comedian, the coincidence is in both stalwarts hailing from Dharapuram, Erode district.

Over 10,000 appearances on stage, 50 movies in Tamil and Malayalam, countless shows on All India Radio, television serials, and a dubbing artiste for renowned names, Durai has done it all. Still active in his proven world, Durai opens up that he is wedded to his profession and stage is his first wife. "Yes, but for the unstinted support of my beloved wife Chandra, the journey would not have been feasible.

Still, I am game for last-minute calls from reputed drama troupes, confident that no shoe is big enough for Durai to fill in and do total justice to the character," he says.

Toeing the comic line

Circumstances pushed Durai onto the stage. When studies deserted him after class 1, he was pitch-forked to the famed Sridevi Nataka Sabha, masterminded by the brand names of KN Rathinam and his sibling KN Kalai. It was known as the Boys Company, "as all roles were played by the young boys, be it the author-backed characters or the fringe ones.

Women had no place in the troupe and the onus was on the senior ones like me to portray the female characters with the respect women deserved. That was an era where even a small dialogue casting aspersions on the distaff was frowned upon and condemned in the form of huge wall poster banners," he says.