An ode to the supporting actor

Fine actors are in the fray, but their potential is yet to be fully tapped

Even as Ganesh brilliantly shouldered the dialogue-heavy ‘Mungaru Male’, Anant Nag’s outstanding monologue in the pre-climax portion of the 2007 classic is worth its weight in gold.

The versatile actor plays a charming retired army man who is nearing the end of his life. Anant Nag finely mixed humour with serious undertones to make colonel Subbaiah one of the iconic characters in Kannada cinema.

‘Mungaru Male’ director Yogaraj Bhat gave a nice twist to one of the classiest actors of Sandalwood. Cashing in on Anant Nag’s strength in comedy and drama, Bhat birthed a new chapter in the veteran’s illustrious career.

After the humongous success of ‘Mungaru Male’, Anant Nag became a popular supporting actor. In fact, the turn of the century has seen the emergence of some fine supporting actors in Sandalwood.

The title ‘supporting actor’ doesn’t have the appeal of a ‘superstar’ or a ‘hero’. But more often than not, they steer the movie forward much better than the lead actors. They establish a platform for the leads to shine. There is no surprise that these characters remain with people for a long time.

Showtime looks at some of Kannada’s best-supporting actors in recent times:

Rangayana Raghu

Long before Raghu got typecast as the hero’s sidekick, he proved his calibre as a character actor in AMR Ramesh’s ‘Cyanide’ (2006). As Ranganath, who offers shelter to the assassins of Rajiv Gandhi, Raghu delivers an excellent understated performance. He is shockingly real and so is Tara (as Raghu’s wife), who is the film’s backbone.

There is no denying that Raghu’s comic timing is a notch above the rest. He is an actor with a bag of tricks and his razor-sharp dialogue delivery earns him whistles. His top-notch acting as Vijay’s sidekick in ‘Duniya’ (2007) was a welcome change. But the curse of the stereotype stung Raghu’s career. Repeated character designs turned him into a loud and annoying presence on screen.

He fits the bill in any role in Suri’s eccentric and dark tales but under other filmmakers, Raghu is pigeonholed as the hero’s associate. Guruprasad cast him in a role that had shades of grey in ‘Director’s Special’ and other directors must look at writing such complex roles for him.

Achyuth Kumar

Achyuth is the most loved father figure on the big screen. The middle-class, which forms the majority of the film-going audience, can relate to Achyuth’s natural portrayal of a struggling father (‘Josh’, ‘Mr and Mrs Ramachari’, ‘Mugulu Nage’) who has high expectations from his son. Devoid of double innuendoes, his characters succeed in developing an emotional connect with the family audience.

Like Raghu, he underlines the importance of a strong theatre background for an actor. Good actors thrive when pushed out of their comfort zone and so did Achyuth as the gangster Oil Kumar in ‘Aa Dinagalu’, movie theatre owner Shankranna in ‘Lucia’ and struggling journalist Kumar in ‘Kavaludaari’.

Achyuth’s acting prowess was seen in ‘Drishya’. Playing a police officer with a villain’s mindset, Achyuth gave his own touch to the role performed masterfully by Kalabhavan Shajon in the Malayalam original ‘Drishyam’.

Anant Nag

Even in a badly written role, nobody can hate Anant Nag. There are very few actors in Kannada who enjoy such unceasing popularity.

Anant Nag’s effortless acting is a treat to watch. His classy presence makes him a wonderful narrator of stories as seen in Prashanth Neel’s magnum opus ‘KGF’. In Yogaraj Bhat’s films, he is the adorable uncle and grandfather we would love to have.

Anant Nag’s support to newcomers like Rishab Shetty and Hemanth Rao and his determination to match their vision has seen him excel in characters like Venkob Rao who suffers from Alzheimer’s in ‘Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu’, retired inspector Muthanna in ‘Kavalaudaari’ and lawyer Anantha Padmanabha in ‘Sarkari Hiriya Prathamika Shaale’.

Kishore

Kishore is the brutal cop you see in Kannada films. As a ruthless police officer, he gave a high-impact performance in ‘Duniya’ and inevitably became the dependable actor for such roles (‘Devaki’, ‘Nanna Prakara’).

Kishore extended his range as an actor with his chilling performance as the feared bandit Veerappan in ‘Attahasa’ and as a forest guard in BM Giriraj’s criminally underrated ‘Jatta’.

Despite a proven record, Kishore’s talent hasn’t received complete justice in Sandalwood. Filmmakers here need not look beyond Vetrimaaran films in Tamil (‘Aadukalam’, ‘Visaranai’ and ‘Vada Chennai’) to understand how to cast this gifted actor.

Though Sandalwood doesn’t lack talented female supporting actors, filmmakers have unfortunately not written meaty roles for them in recent times. Tara and Umashree played characters of substance in their prime. Pavithra Lokesh gave a heart-rending performance in ‘Dia’ while Usha Bhandary was special in ‘Ondu Motteya Kathe’. There are others like Veena Sunder, Sudha Belawadi, Padmaja Rao and Aruna Balraj who wait for unique roles.