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Evening of stardust memories
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As flowers and confetti descended on her, an emotionally choked Manorama nearly broke down. It was way beyond her expectations. ``This is equivalent to ten Padmashris,'' the teary-eyed ace comedienne of generations, said as Kamal Haasan and Sarath Kumar presented her with a gigantic garland. She was nearly buried under it, choked emotionally and physically.
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Confetti and tape to celebrate Manorama's Padma Shri.
THE STARS had come to wish the moon,'' the organisers described the show. So many stars that it would be easier to name who didn't make it for the show.
The most significant was Vijayakanth, President of the South India Artistes Association, who apparently was cross with Radaan rushing in to felicitate the veteran comedienne who was awarded Padma Shri recently.
And then there was so much talk of Superstar Rajnikant making it. He finally couldn't make it. But then, there were Latha Rajnikant and Aishwarya Rajnikant standing in for him. Another conspicuous absentee was Cho who had done over 100 films with the actress.
There were too many stars who stood out on the occasion. To start off with the finale, Kamal Haasan `sang' a duet with Manorama Aachi herself on stage besides touching her feet (``for a personal copy of a photograph") and pulling on the legendary Nagesh centrestage to share honours with Manorama during the final group snap with almost the entire fraternity of stars.
As flowers and confetti descended on her, an emotionally choked Manorama nearly broke down. It was way beyond her expectations. ``This is equivalent to ten Padmashris,'' the teary-eyed ace comedienne of generations, said as Kamal Haasan and Sarath Kumar presented her with a gigantic garland. She was nearly buried under it, choked emotionally and physically.
Right from the senior-most S.S. Rajendran who has the envious credit of having introduced Manorama to the industry to the newest kid on the block (Parthipan's and Seetha's to be precise) P.S. Keerthana jumped off the stage to do yet another `Kannathil Muthamittal' (as she planted a kiss on the cheek of the veteran actress).
As Radhika, Sripriya and Kovai Sarala took turns to play host, stars just kept pouring into the hall. The show started with director Cheran's ode to the actress, Devayani's dance performance, S.P. Muthuraman's recollections of `aachi', Satyaraj's brag of playing a role opposite to her in `Nadigan', Suhasini joining Unni Menon to sing before Manjula and Vijayakumar came on stage to felicitate the actress.
That's not all. Khushoo broke down, Nasser paid tribute, Malgudi Shubhaa joined Simbu for a duet, Sivakumar spoke and so did veteran Rajasulochana, Maddy professed his love for the actress and director P.Vasu was all praise for her versatility.
Actress Rasika then swung to `Madrasa Suthi Paaka Poren' before Nagesh made the best speech of the day, laced with humour, having the audience in splits even as he struck an emotional chord. Parthipan chose to let his daughter Keerthana speak and kiss the actress on behalf of all children and a nervous Aishwarya Rajnikant `sang' too, just like everybody else did that evening.
Jayaram spoke on behalf of the entire Malayalam industry, later joining Meena for a song. Radhika and Sarath Kumar then came on to the stage for another song routine as heroines Ramya, Sangavi, Mumtaaz and Sripriya joined Sarath to shake a leg briefly.
The star brigade also included Simran, Prabhu Deva, Y.G. Mahendra, Ramesh Arvind, Surya, Sriman, Monal and Abhirami.
Are we forgetting someone? Purely unintentional. There were simply too many stars to count on Monday night.
By Sudhish Kamath
Photo: S. Mahinsha
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Life
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