For how long?

A couple of years ago, when this statue was to be unveiled, a pubic interest ligtigation was filed against its installation. The petitioner wanted the court to order the governement to move the statue somewhere else, because it would obstruct the view of Gandhiji's statue on the Marina. The Madras High Court took a slightly easy way out by advising the government to not install the statue and warning that it would have to be moved away should the court order so in future. With that, the immediate storm passed and the statue was unveiled on July 21, 2006, the fifth anniversary of 'Sivaji' Ganesan's passing away. The court has probably not passed its final orders, because it continues to remain where it was installed.

'Sivaji' does not deserve the ill feeling that was generated around this statue in his honour. After acting in over 350 movies and being hailed as 'Nadigar Thilagam' (a translation fails me... crown jewel of actors?), he certainly was one of the most influential actors of his time, even if you think many of his performances were overdone. Yes, they were for sure, but those came after almost two decades of doing a variety of roles; his early movies show him to be an almost effortless actor, reeling off long stretches of dialogues - soliloquies, actually - in just a single shot. But he was caught in the 'dialogue trap' and there came several inane roles where he was forced to over-emote; towards the end of his career, he regained his touch and his last few roles left us asking for more.

So here he stands, looking north on Kamaraj Salai, almost as if he is waiting to hear from the court about what his next move should be!