Y. Gee. Mahendra’s UAA celebrates a milestone
The Hindu
Y. Gee. Mahendra’s theatre group UAA enters its 70th year with a new play, Charukesi
In 1952, Y.G. Parthasarathy (YGP) and N. Padmanabhan founded United Amateur Artistes (UAA), branching off from Suguna Vilasa Sabha. Padmanabhan was the writer, and YGP the director. YGP’s son, Y. Gee. Mahendra, says, “They used pure, literary Tamil in theatres then.
To reach the common man, they wanted to create plays written in colloquial Tamil, with an occasional English word thrown in.” As UAA gets set to enter its 70th year, Mahendra, at UAA’s helm since 1975, is celebrating his own 60th year in theatre.
Several renowned actors started life in UAA. Cho. Ramaswamy, Mouli and Visu began at UAA, subsequently branching off on their own. Former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa acted in two UAA plays, Under Secretary (1964), pairing with Cho, and Malathi the Menace (1966). “Her mother Sandhya wanted her to get trained in theatre before launching her as an actor in movies,” says Mahendra, now 72. Some of UAA’s plays subsequently became hit movies featuring stars such as Sivaji Ganesan.