Mr.Natarajan, working in one of the schools nearby, sent me via WhatsApp a video link connecting to YouTube. “A Liberal and An English Teacher – J.Vasanthan” was the documentary of around one hour and forty-five minutes on Professor J.Vasanthan, a Shakespearean specialist and a teacher of remarkable repute, first six years in Madras Christian College and the rest of his career in Madurai American College. I can daresay that this is one of the finest documentaries that I have seen in the recent times on an Indian Personality. And when it comes to the ones on English teachers in this part of the world, this is the second documentary so far as my memory is concerned. The first documentary that I came across was the one on Dr.Chellappan, formerly Head, Department of English, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli. It is also a well-made documentary that brings out the true personality of its subject. Many of his students and contemporaries would give us insights into the great personality. But that is a documentary on a living legend. Dr.Chellappan himself occupies a considerable length of frames and echoes his sentiments related to teaching literature for over half a century.
Instead, this one on Prof.J.Vasanthan is shot as an obituary video remembering the life and times of its subject in the most detailed way. The documentary has been shot, evidently, by expert hands as it is decked with all the nuances a film of such nature would warrant. Madurai Media and Film Studies Academy (MMFSA) is the hand behind it and I could guess that the people at MMFSA should be ardent followers of Prof.J.Vasanthan without which the overwhelming passion spread over the entire length of this documentary would not have been possible. They are apparently influenced, to an incredible extent, by the persona and thoughts of Vasanthan, the Shakespearean enthusiast.
In bildungsroman fashion, this video traces the times of Vasanthan from his birth to death, not necessarily in the linear mode. We gather that he was born in the year 1934 and for reasons not explained in the narrative of the documentary, his mother Ms.Hilda, a finely educated soul, returns to her parental house in the Bungalow Street, Kovilpatti with her just-born baby boy for good. That his mother had to endure all her life untold misery of an estranged wife should have jolted the emotional makeup of Vasanthan in his formative years and truly, he could never come out of this shattering fact. Though born with a silver spoon, Vasanthan had to be single parented by his mother and his yearning for fatherly love would give us the reason why he never produced a serious play as a producer cum director later in his career. All his comedies were perhaps a way of camouflaging his agonies and anguishes that stayed with him all his life from his very formative years.
His maternal grandfather was a reputed lawyer in Kovilpatti who have completed his graduation in Madras Christian College, Tambaram in the year 1900. He was a flourishing attorney and was an ‘elite’ in every aspect. He had ensured that his only daughter Hilda was sufficiently educated before she was married off and on her return to his household soon after the marriage as an estranged wife, made her join Board High School, Kovilpatti as a teacher. In fact, Hilda taught her own son and his friends in the school. She made sure that all the best things were availed to the benefit of her son and from every angle, Vasanthan was given the best in everything – be it religious education or playthings or tutelage in fine arts. Some of the photographs of Ms.Hilda made available on the video inescapably convey her melancholic grace framed in an expressive visage.
Hilda died untimely. Vasanthan was just completing his school then. Ailing from a mysterious fever for a couple of days, she succumbed to it without anyone suspecting what was to come to her. Vasanthan’s grandfather sent him to Madaras Christian College, Tambaram for PUC in Natural Sciences and much to his chagrin, he found the course dry and dull. Of course, certain other experiences were in store for him there. As it would happen in every hero’s case, Vasanthan fell madly in love with his principal’s daughter and had to run away in the heat of that issue to places like Bangalore, Mumbai and Secunderabad. He was working in a small time advertising agency in Secunderabad for nearly two years before coming back to the same college – MCC,Tambaram – for his graduation in English literature.
People say that fortune comes single but misfortune, in battalion. During his graduation years, Vasanthan’s grandfather died and his life was catapulted into the valley of indigence. In fact, as his wife would put it later in this video, he had to walk at least seven kilometers to one of his cousins’ house to prod him to buy the newspaper that carried graduation results of Madras University. Vasanthan stood first in the University and by virtue of that, he was appointed Tutor in the same college. He continued in the college for six years during which time he accomplished an MA as well. Some of his students include Mr.Prakash Karat who shares on the video rare information about his professor. He stands severely stung by Vasanthan bug and thanks all the powers above for that.
After a six years’ stint at MCC, Vasanthan decided to migrate to Madurai American College following footsteps of Prof.Thangaraj who had earlier joined the American College as its principal. Once settled in Madurai, Vasanthan was not willing to relocate himself again to any other place. He made Madurai his home. Madurai was then a little larger than a village. Staging English plays in Madurai ambiance required a quixotic person and Vasanthan fitted the bill perfectly. Many of his friends and colleagues – Manohar Devadoss, Mathivanan, Solomon Pappaiah – remember how passionate he was in arranging all the minutest details from casting to costumes before staging a play. Surprisingly, in his entire career, Vasanthan never staged a serious play or a tragedy. All his productions were comedies and this is perhaps to conceal and camouflage all the layers of thick and frozen melancholic memories of his childhood and adolescent years.
We are surprised to know that all his plays were running to packed houses. According to one of his students, who is now a notable musician, Vasanthan not only entertained the crowd by way of staging these plays but also educated them. Making Madurai audience laugh at jokes cracked in English plays required nothing short of spectacular genius. His colleagues at the Department of English, The American College and MK University remember him a Shakespearean enthusiast despite his staged plays by various authors. According to the Head, Department of English, MK University, “Vasanthan was not a Shakespearean scholar but he lived Shakespeare.”
What about his influence upon the psyche of his students? Tremendous, to say the least. His students range from CPM Central Politburo Member to two-wheeler mechanic in the dusty Madurai street. From an internationally acclaimed Canadian architect to his childhood playmate in Kovilpatti.
The portions that carry interviews of his wife, son, daughter and granddaughter are poignant, to say the least. The one thing that struck me about his family is that everyone of them speaks immaculate English in the most dignified style. As one of his friends would put it on the video, “even in Kovilpatti, everyone in his household would speak only English, and never in Tamil.” Surprisingly, Vasanthan would pen scores of scores of short stories in Tamil many of which were published by popular magazines like Kalki. His piece ‘Solitude’ (thanimai) in Kalki attracted wide critical acclaim of those days. His daughter says that she could never think of writing her second short-story because of lavish praise heaped upon her first by Vasanthan. She says that she was afraid of incurring her appa’s wrath in case her next creative work was not up to the standard expected of her by him. Vasanthan’s granddaughter read out to us a loving letter written to her by him. He talks about “emotions recollected in tranquility” there. According to him, anything written in the heat of an issue may not carry all the essence of emotions. One needs to take time to revisit the event; only then, things would fall in place.
The one person that stands out in the documentary is his wife. She hails from Secunderabad where Vasanthan was working in an advertising agency years back. Fate would see to it that he would take his bride from the same place. Of course, theirs was an arranged marriage; their meeting was fixed by one of his aunts. During one Christmas time, Vasanthan was in Secundarabad to pay a visit to his bride-to-be and it was an instant decision to marry her. They two were married for more than forty years and the last twenty years of their married life was overshadowed by tedious loneliness as one was left to the company of the other without anyone else sharing the space. His wife was remorse reminiscing about his friends, particularly those who would approach Vasanthan for help in directing a drama, or teaching related issues, or in the field of colors. They even turned out to be indifferent to his initiatives to revive their friendship.
Yes, Vasanthan was a painter of great ability. Trotsky Maruthu and Jayaraj are in all praise for Vasanthan’s prowess in the art of painting. More than 2500 pieces were found out in the attics of Vasanthan’s house after his demise. One art critic would note, in the course of this documentary, that all of them were ‘gems of pieces’. In art, literature, drama and in life, Vasanthan was a liberal. No strict moral sense. As one of his friends in the video says, Vasanthan is not against occasional ‘spiritual evening’ with his friends, sometimes even with his students.
We understand from the narrative that one of his legs had to be amputated and since then, life had been down-slide for him. Though he put up his usual jovial self to those who visited him, there was deep inside a feeling of defeat slowly settling down.
The documentary ends with his friend Mr.Sekhar, great grandson of Sir.C.V.Raman and bosom friend of Vasanthan during his MCC years reading out to the camera his reflections about his friendship with him. He says, “I am a Vaishnavite; he was a Christian. I studied sports and games; he studied people. I am a vegetarian; he ate meat. Yet these differences only enriched our friendship.” Mr.Sekhar breaks down here and could not read on. Finally, he manages “Yes, I knew Vasanthan. Thank you Vasanthan.”
As credits were fading out on the screen, I was completely overwhelmed and could not but feel “Yes, I knew Vasanthan. Thank you Vasanthan.”
