WHEN I was in primary school, and was rather blur about a lot of things in life, there were only two Tamil actors who "held court". Their profiles were made known to me free of charge by my Indian friends who stayed near my house.

The first guy was of course the iconic MGR, and the second, a close one at that, was Sivaji Ganesan. Frankly, at such a tender age, I tended to mix these two chaps up.

Whenever I saw them on TV, the first question that popped into my head was "is that Sivaji or MGR?".

I had to concentrate for at least 10 seconds before I can confirm that it was Sivaji on the screen, and not MGR. Hardly anybody ever talks of Sivaji Ganesan these days.

 In fact, I am even afraid to mention his name to my more learned Indian (Tamil) friends. I am scared that their reply would be "who's that?".

Of all the Tamil actors, why do I write a piece on Sivaji? Actually, somewhere in this blog, I have already done MGR the honours, and so I thought Sivaji Ganesan would be a good companion piece (that is if I can get all the facts right).

At the back of my mind, I am thinking of all the Indian friends in my childhood, who might or might not have anything to do with this famous Indian actor.

Life for me is such that those past influences tend to conjure faces of an era long past. Their names are Douglas, Peter, Andrew, Paul, Nathan, Anbalagan, Raju, Vasugan and Victor.

Naturally, not all of them are Indian movie fans. But Sivaji Ganesan represented a time in my life when small events seemed to take on gargantuan proportions.

To me, Sivaji mirrored those carefree, life's-all-about-fun days. Somehow, I like Indian movies.

When I say Indian, generally it means Tamil. Hindi movies were rare those days, unlike these days where they are par for course.

Sivaji was born on Oct 1, 1927. His name at birth was Vilupurram Chinnaiah Ganesan. His place of birth was Sirkali, Tamil Nadu. Family circumstances compelled his father to shift the family to Vilupurram when Sivaji was still an infant.

At the age of 7, Sivaji's destiny with his future career began to take shape. A drama troupe of travelling artistes came to town, and somehow Sivaji found himself playing a soldier boy in one of their acts.

His father's name was P.Chinnaiah Mandraayer, and his mother was Rajamani Ammal.

The story goes that when Sivaji's father found out that he was playing hookey and acting in some two-bit part in a "cheap-skate" drama, he gave him a severe tongue-lashing.

That poor boy must have had the fright of his life because he got all worked up and ran away from home.

The young kid from Villupurram must have had something in him because a touring troupe took him on and put him on their payroll. It was the Yadharathnam Ponnuswamy and Co.

Luckily for little Sivaji, the boss took a liking to him. Perhaps only after the kid told him he was an orphan. It was with this organisation that Sivaji learnt about music and dancing.

He soon progressed to mastering Bharatnatyam, Kathak, Kathakali and Manipuri. His enthusiasm for the Indian arts even took him to study carnatic music.

 Up till now, this boy whose bright future was still held in abeyance was known by his birth name, either Vilupurram or Chinnaiah or both. "Sivaji" was still unknown to him, until one day he was offered a role in a C.N. Annaduraj play called Sivaji Kanda Indhu Rajyam.

The actor who was playing the role, for some unknown reason, had backed out. His name was M.G. Ramachandran and he was not yet famous at that time.

Fate had indirectly brought them together and had made preparations to thrust both men into the limelight in the years to come.

Anyway, in his eagerness to make the most of the opportunity, the young man managed to memorise 95 pages of dialogue over 24 hours. Subsequently, he made such a great impression with this role that Sivaji became his first name.

Sivaji made his movie debut in Parasakthi (1952). Film critics have concluded that his film was one of the most controversial in the Tamil film industry because it was full of monologues.

The dialogues, written by Karunanidhi, were about God, priesthood and religion. Sivaji's success with Parasakthi elevated his status in movie world to dizzy heights.

The political party in Tamil Nadu, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) was so impressed with young Sivaji that they made him their flag bearer of sorts.

In his lifetime, Sivaji had been member of several political parties. They included the Tamil Nationalist Party, Congress and Janata Dal.

It was in the film world that Sivaji had few equals. The only one who could stand shoulder to shoulder with him and won was MGR.

Some of Sivaji's unforgettable movies were Sampoorna Ramayan (1958), Thiruvillaiyadal (1965), Veerapandiya Kattaboman (1960), Kappalotiya Thamizhan (1961).

It was Veerapandiya Kattaboman that shot Sivaji into the stratosphere of fame. He won the Best Actor Award at the Afro-Asian Film Festival in Cairo for his role in the movie.

Around 1968, his fame spread to America where 20th Century Fox bought the rights to one of his best movies, Thillana Mohanambal.

He was probably also the first Tamil film star to be called Indian's answer to Clark Gable by the US newspaper Washington Post.

As a child on seeing his films, I did recall Sivaji tended to be quite dramatic in vocal delivery. In India, his fans described his voice as "simmakural" or the roar of a lion.

The Indian actor's movie successes stretched into the 70s. In 1985, Sivaji scored again with Muthal Mariyathai.

The actor's family life consisted of two sons, Prabhu and Ramkumar, and daughters Shanthi and Thenmozhi. Sivaji's grandson is married to the adopted son of J.Jayalalitha.

If there was one thing that could not be denied was Sivaji's influence the Tamil middle class. They treated this actor with the greatest honour and respect.

Some of the honours that Sivaji Ganesan won over the decades were the Padma Shri award (1968), Padma Bhushan (1984) and the Dadasaheb Phalke award (1997). These are some of the highest awards an actor could earn.

In his long film career, Sivaji acted in about 300 movies, surely an impressive record by any standards.

As the years slipped to the end of the millennium, Sivaji's health deteriorated. In 2001, after a long battle with heart ailments, Sivaji died in a Chennai hospital on July 21.

I believe Sivaji did visit Malaysia during his senior years and created some major traffic jams with his presence in town. His fans in Malaysia made the most of the opportunity to catch a glimpse of this Tamil legend.

I remember one Indian friend telling me that Sivaji gave some stirring speeches during his visit to Malaysia which brought standing ovations from his fans, and probably triggered some tears as well.

The years have passed but Sivaji remains, at least to me, as one of those Indian movie figures who never failed to make me remember my childhood Indian friends.