It was a sober morning. The sky was cloudy, but it didn't really seem like it'll rain. Something about the whole day was uneasy. I was sipping my coffee, and flipping through the pages of The Hindu. I had just returned from shooting at Munnar, one of my favorite shooting spots, and it was one of those days when I was just going to laze about. Five decades in the cinema industry, and a few great movies, more than hundred on which I've wielded the megaphone, many valuable discoveries to the industry, and a Dadasaheb Palke award to my credit, I had seen quite a lot in life, and I always attributed my achievements to the idea looking at the new things life had given to me. A plethora of things it had offered me, and with where I'd ended up, I must say, I'd done quite a good job with them.
As I got up to move into the bath, the telephone rang. I generally had my calls attended by my manager at the office in the ground floor, and only the more important calls were redirected to me. My wife attended the call, and called to me in an alarmed tone. It sent a few goosebump waves through me! Premonitions I tell you, something was definitely wrong. I went to pick up the nearest phone. To say the news was upsetting, is an understatement. I immediately found my eyes clouded with tears. I immediately called for my driver to get the car ready. In fifteen minutes, I was heading to the Apollo hospital.
As I got into the car, I recalled the words I heard over the phone call. The voice had said, "Superstar is critically ill. He has been admitted in the Apollo ICU." I told the voice that I was coming immediately, and disconnected the line. As I got into the car, my mind raced back in time, to that day, forty years ago, when if I were permitted to brag a bit, I had taken with both hands the opportunity to rewrite Tamil cinema and done it with so much elegance!
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