DARA SINGH AND MUKESH
.Twenty-seven years later,
actor Mukesh still remembers his ‘bout’ with wrestling icon Dara Singh, who
died in Mumbai on Thursday. It was the climax scene of Mutharamkunnu
P.O., and as he prepared to take on Dara, the initial excitement had
already been laced with anxiety and fear.“My fellow actors Nedumudi Venu and
Jagadeesh had told Dara, behind my back of course, that I was a wrestling
champion at university and that I had decided to adopt a new technique to floor
him and that he should be careful,” Mukesh told The Hindu on
Thursday. “So Dara was looking forward to our fight and he told me, ‘You may
know some unfamiliar techniques, but you better tell me in advance, otherwise I
will beat you to pulp.’ I was scared and had to plead with him to spare me and
that Nedumudi and Jagadeesh were joking.”He said it was a privilege to act with
Dara. “Hailing from Kollam, I grew up watching wrestling and for me, Dara Singh
was the world’s greatest wrestler,” he said. “During the shoot, he floored us
with his humility.”
The
actor recalled that nobody associated with the film, including debutant
director Sibi Malayil, was sure if Dara would be willing to act in a Malayalam
film, that too one without big stars. “The film’s scriptwriter Sreenivasan had
actually written the character as ‘someone like Dara Singh,’ not the real Dara
Singh.”“When Jagadeesh, on whose short story the film’s plot was based,
contacted Dara in Mumbai and narrated the script, he agreed to act and we were
all thrilled.”Now the question was where Dara Singh would stay and what he
would eat. “He could not be expected to stay with us at a small hotel near
Kottarakkara,” Mukesh said.“We showed him a star hotel in Kollam, but he said
all he needed was a room that had windows on either side of his bed. He wanted
just chapati, dal and onions to eat. All of us were shocked.”
Dara
also contributed to the script. “According to Sreenivasan’s screenplay, Dara
was to cheat and lose his fight to me, so that I could win my lady love (played
by Lissy). But he said that wrestling was an honest sport and the script should
be changed,” Mukesh said. “He suggested that my character could still get the
girl without winning the fight.”Mutharamkunnu P.O. remains one of
the most underrated comedies in Malayalam cinema. “My friends from Tamil cinema
have told me that only in Malayalam can the hero be shown losing a fight in the
climax. But imagine me beating Dara Singh in a wrestling bout! Thankfully the
script was changed, because of Dara, and viewers did not have to stretch their
imagination,” said Mukesh.
Prof.
John Kurakar
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