THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Jagannatha Varma, the man about whom writer Malayatoor Ramakrishnan once said had the best of all the worlds, passed away at a private hospital in Neyyatinkara here on Tuesday. He was 77. Mr Varma was a respected police officer who retired an SP, a popular character actor who had acted in nearly 600 films and a consummate kathakali performer who was active on stage even during his early 70s. He had been hospitalised for a some days with pneumonia. Varma is survived by his wife Santha, son Manu Varma and daughter Priya.
It was his insatiable desire to be on stage that made the cop moonlight as a film and stage performer. “I just wanted to act, that was my passion. I did not care whether the film was good or bad or mainstream or parallel. To simply perform was magic enough for me,” Mr Varma had famously said. No wonder, Jagannatha Varma was one of the most typecast actors in Malayalam cinema. His regal, imposing frame had lent itself easily to an authoritarian stereotype. He was the cruel patriarch, the covetous cardinal, the wily tycoon, and the ruthless police chief.
In a sense he was a curio, a museum exhibit. His towering figure, which conveyed pride, arrogance and orthodoxy, evoked the state’s feudal past, and filmmakers and writers have used it to good effect. Here is what M.T. Vasudevan Nair said: “Varma needn’t have to act, his presence alone is enough to enrich a scene.” MT clearly intended it as a praise, but writers and filmmakers have used Varma more as a symbol than a character. Jagannatha Varma, the glorious prop.
Mr Varma began his career in Malappuram, as a sub-inspector of police. His dream of getting on to stage or screen bloomed when he was transferred to Thrissur.
Playwright Jose Paayamel still remembers how shocked he was to see this giant of a policeman. “He was virtually pleading for a role, this giant of a man and a policeman to boot,” Paayamel said. He gave him the role of the heroine's stingy father in his play ‘Jyothirgamaya’, which opened in 1975. “In my next play (which came out in 1976) I gave him the role of a doctor and his lines, the way he rendered them, still gives me the goose bumps,” Mr Paayamel said.
Two years later, in 1978, he made his screen debut with A Bhim Singh’s ‘Mattoly’, which starred M.G. Soman, Jayabharathi and Sarada. Ironically, Mr Varma had quite a contrary image as a cop. It is said that one day he struck an accused on the back with his hand and the chap just fell flat. “Varmaji was so distraught that he couldn’t sleep. The very next day he tendered his resignation but the IG just tore it up and transferred him to KAP instead,” said Appukuttan Nair, a retired SP and former colleague. Varma retired as KAP deputy commandant, with SP rank.
