Entertainment News Desk!!! Cho Ramaswamy (English: Cho Ramaswamy, born- October 5, 1934, Madras; death- December 7, 2016, Tamil Nadu) was an Indian actor, comedian, character actor, editor, political satirist, playwright, dialogue writer, film director and lawyer. . His full name was ‘Srinivasa Iyer Ramaswami’. On the lines of Baburao Patel’s ‘Mother India’, Cho Ramaswamy started the first magazine of political satire in Tamil and named it ‘Tughlaq’. Not a single leader of the Dravidian movement and Congress could escape the target of his satire. This gave rise to the belief among Tughlaq’s readers that no one could escape from the lethal writings of Cho Ramswami. Cho Ramaswami’s work of bringing about social change through satire was viewed with admiration and respect by countless people. Cho Ramaswamy was a close friend of Jayalalitha, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
Introduction
Cho Ramaswamy was born on 5 October 1934 in Madras, British India. The prominent leaders of Tamil Nadu also knew that Cho Ramaswamy was not beyond criticism. There is no doubt that the political inclination of satirist, journalist, playwright, actor and political advisor Cho Ramaswamy was towards the right. Despite this, whichever party was in power, whenever the issue of media freedom or freedom of expression arose, he remained at the forefront.[1] Ramaswamy had good personal relations with many leaders of the country. He also had a very good friendship with former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha. When Cho Ramaswamy fell seriously ill, apart from Jayalalitha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also came to meet him.
pause in films and theater
Fifty years ago, when Tamil Nadu was in the grip of Dravidian ideology, Srinivas Iyer Ramaswamy i.e. Cho Ramaswamy was the lone voice of opposition. But he tried his best to make his voice heard not in his harshness, but in his sharp and creative style of satire. When DMK came to power in Tamil Nadu in 1967, Ramaswami was about thirty-five years old. After leaving the law profession, he got a break in films and theatre. Although he played the role of a clown in around two hundred films, Ramaswami made his own identity through a total of twenty-three plays, because in these, dialogues were written for him while playing the role of a clown; Therefore, his clowning on stage also contained a message. His early plays were social satires. After the Dravidian Party came to power, his plays became political, satirizing the newly emerging Dravidian leaders.
private sector supporters
Coming from a traditional Congress lineage, Cho was an admirer of Ramaswamy Rajaji and Kamaraj. He liked Rajaji more than Nehru because he was a supporter of free market economy and private sector. In 1969, when Indira Gandhi split the Congress and formed an alliance with the DMK in Tamil Nadu, Cho Ramaswamy was among the few people who were supporting Rajaji and Kamaraj.
Satire magazine ‘Tughlaq’
Cho Ramaswamy’s play ‘Mohammed Bin Tughlaq’ was a satire play, in which Tughlaq becomes the Prime Minister of India. This play was a parody on the activities of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. On the lines of Baburao Patel’s ‘Mother India’, Cho Ramaswami started the first magazine of political satire in Tamil and named it ‘Tughlaq’. He also started it in English by the name ‘Pickwick’, but this experiment was not successful. However, Tughlaq was reaching new heights of success. When the voters of the state voted in bulk in favor of Indira and DMK in the elections, Tughlaq became the voice of the opponents. His audacious satires targeting the powerful in power influenced the emerging middle and upper middle classes. The Karunanidhi government tried to intimidate Cho Ramaswami through power and law, but he became more popular.
political activity
The Emergency was the heavenly era of Cho Ramaswami’s creativity. His magazine was also hit by the censor. He was successful in giving political color to even ordinary issues. Not a single leader of the Dravidian movement and Congress could escape the target of his satire. This gave rise to the belief among Tughlaq’s readers that no one could escape from the lethal writings of Cho Ramswami. But in the era of investigative journalism in the 80’s and 90’s, Tughlaq’s popularity started decreasing. Cho Ramaswamy joined him during the rise of BJP and Hindutva. Now he also started playing the role of mediator in politics. Despite being a childhood friend of Jayalalithaa, Cho Ramaswamy played a key role in forming an alliance between the DMK and the Tamil Nadu Congress to oust her from power in 1996. But after 2004, he showed softness towards Jayalalitha and opposed DMK. He remained in the Rajya Sabha from 1999 to 2005.
honest in writing
Cho Ramaswamy’s image as an honest and fair critic was eclipsed when Prashant Bhushan proved through documents that Cho Ramaswamy was the director of several alleged shell companies of Jayalalitha at a time when her relationship with her friend Sasikala Natarajan was deteriorating. They went. Cho Ramaswami had friendly relations with Karunanidhi despite continuously piercing the DMK with his unerring arrow of satire. Not just Karunanidhi, he personally maintained excellent relations with all those whom he targeted in his magazine. In his writings he was so honest and courageous that he did not hide his feelings even when he knew he was politically wrong. Not only was he opposed to women’s debate and women holding public positions, he was also opposed to socialism and rationalism, and did not hide it.
demise
Cho Ramaswami died on 7 December 2016 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Cho Ramaswamy also breathed his last just two days after the death of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha. Cho Ramaswamy was undergoing treatment in the hospital for a long time. He is survived by his wife, a son and daughter. He represented right-wing conservatism at a time when this trend had not emerged so strongly. Despite this, there was not much difference on his image. Countless people looked at his work of bringing social change through satire with admiration and respect.
