Hyderabad
2 February , 2010

Gummadi Venkateswara Rao gaaru, popularly known as just "Gummadi" to millions of Telugus, has passed away on Tuesday, leaving an unfulfillable void in their hearts.

While Gummadi hasn't been active for a decade and half as an actor, he had already left his indelible stamp by acting in more than 500 movies in a career that spanned over 45 years.Rare is the Telugu movie viewer who is unfamiliar with Gummadi, such has been his ever-looming presence in a vast number of movies.

Gummadi was special in the sense, he started playing roles much elder to his age almost as soon as he started his film career. In an age-conscious industry, where people try to look younger than they are, Gummadi had no qualms playing father to either NTR or ANR who were both older than him.

This created a surreal effect in the minds of the viewers who have seen him play elderly roles for a seemingly infinite amount of time. For most of the Telugus, Gummadi was the much needed assuring presence on the screen as a father, a grand father, an uncle and so on and so forth.

It's no exaggeration that we never found somebody who can fill in the shoes of Gummadi, after he stopped acting around 1995. The true professional that he was, when the quality of his voice deteriorated, he refused to let somebody dub their voice for him, as he considered vaachakam an integral part of acting.

Gummadi could have chosen to become a hero instead. After all, he had the good looks, the diction, and the personality needed to play a leading man's role in a movie. He probably would have been a fairly successful hero too, but there is no denying that he carved a special niche for himself through the variety of characters he portrayed on the screen by choosing not to become one.

What's usually ignored is the fact that a movie can never be successful just because of the hero. Other roles in the movie need to be credibly portrayed also, to give that winning edge to a film. This is where Gummadi scores in a big way. His ability to blend into the story seamlessly, his underacting skills that never stole the thunder from the protagonist, the believability he brought to the characters played a major part in the success of many movies. If SVR scored by his overwhelming presence on the screen, Gummadi underwhelmed but made a no less significant contribution.

Many fine performances have been delivered by Gummadi in his long career and it would be impossible to do justification to his acting prowess in a single essay, but my personal favorites would be his portrayal of Sowjanya Rao Pantulu in Kanyasulkam, Balarama in MayaBazar, the evil villain in Raja Makutam, Dharmaraju in Pandava Vanavasam, Karna in Bhishma, the Zamindar in Antastulu, Dasaradha in Sampoorna Ramayanam, the employer in Pelli Pustakam.

Mild mannered, soft spoken and gentle Gummadi has left his admirers bereft with his demise, but his acting colleagues in the heaven would be eagerly planning to welcome him in a grand manner. And I, for one, feel that Gummadi gaaru would feel right at home among them.

by
Murali Chari
feedback2murali at gmail dot com