Geminiganeshan Kathal Mannan (Romantic hero) in Tamil Cinema
Ramaswamy Ganesan (November 17, 1920 better known by his Stage name Gemini Ganesan, was an Indian film actor who worked mainly in Tamil cinema. He was nicknamed "Kadhal Mannan" for the romantic roles he played in films.Ganesan was one among the "three biggest names of Tamil cinema", the other two being MGR, and Sivaji . A recipient of the Padmasiri in 1971, he had also won several other prestigious awards such as the "Kalaimamani", "MGR Gold Medal" and "Screen Lifetime Achievement Award". He came from an orthodox Brahmin family, and was one of the few graduates to enter the film industry at that time
AVM's "Penn" and "Kanavane Kan Kanda Deivam" gave him the star status. From then on, he never looked back and acted in over 200 films in all the southern languages and some in Hindi,
In his career spanning nearly 50 years, Ganesan played a variety of roles, from Abhimanyu in Maya Bazaar (1957) to freedom fighter Madasamy in Kappalotiya Thamizhan (1961), and in Pennin Perumai (1960), he played a non-assertive imbecile morphing into a well-moulded human being. Ganesan also starred in Kalathur Kannamma (1959), which was also the debut for Kamal Haasan, who would later become one of the leading actors in Tamil cinema. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil - Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film in 1961. The big commercial sueesa was Kalyana parisu in 1959 ran silver jubilee.The historical fiction film Parthiban Kanavu (1960) won the President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film,but failed commercially.
