I found this picture on the Coming Attractions board at Chitra Talkies. My guess is that there is not a Tamil-speaker anywhere who wouldn't recognise him instantly. He is M. G. Ramachandran, known as MGR. MGR was an actor who used his immense popularity to become a successful politician. He became Chief Minister of the state of Tamil Nadu, of which Chennai is the capital, in which position he died in 1987.
Here is my summary of his movie Nan En Piranthen, "Why Was I Born?" (1972), one of the first Tamil movies I ever saw:
MGR (who was 55 at the time) plays a man just returned from college. His face is pink with makeup, and every closeup is in soft-focus. He is the sum of all virtues. During the title song he persuades drunkards to stop drinking toddy, stops a gambling match, etc. He arrives at home to find that his family has become poor, because they have mortgaged everything to put him through college. He goes to the city to find a job.One of the things this summary tells you is that marriage is at the centre of Indian culture. You cannot watch a movie or a TV show - or listen to many conversations - without quickly coming to the subject of marriage. A sample dialogue from a TV show might be: "Hello, how are you?" "How can you ask how I am? Don't you know I'm trying to get my daughter married?"
Back at home, his evil sister-in-law keeps intercepting the mail and stealing the money that he sends, so she and MGR's family are evicted.
In the city MGR saves a child from being run over by a car. The driver of the car, an old friend who has become successful, gets him a good job and lets MGR use his house while he goes to Europe. Unfortunately the boss wants to hire a bachelor, so for the sake of his family MGR tells a lie! The boss has a daughter who is confined to a wheelchair by a psychosomatic illness. MGR cures the illness by singing to her, and she falls in love with him.
After MGR's family is evicted they set out to search for him. Their clothes appear brand new, but are covered with large, neatly sewn patches in different colors, to indicate their poverty.
The boss's daughter is kidnapped and threatened with a forced marriage. MGR saves her, confesses that he is already married, she persuades her father to forgive him, MGR is reunited with his family, and all ends happily.
The other thing this summary tells you is that MGR was the noblest of men. He made sure that the characters he played never had the slightest negative tone. In a country where people are obsessed with movies, this helped his political ambitions: people confused him with his character. In real life he made well-publicized gestures, like buying raincoats for cycle-rickshaw drivers during the monsoon, which also contributed to this image.
Perhaps the most bizarre incident in MGR's life was right out of the movies: for reasons that I have never seen explained, M. R. Radha, who acted as a villain in many movies, including MGR's, shot him in the neck. MGR's speech was permanently affected, but his escape from death created a wave of sympathy which boosted his career.
Some information about MGR is here. Here is a page about the AIADMK party, which he founded, and which is currently governing Tamil Nadu. (Tamil politics is a big subject! Maybe later...)
Mani Ratnam's beautiful Tamil film Iruvar told a fictionalised version of the story of MGR and his chief political rival. MGR's character was played by the Malayali actor Mohan Lal. The heroine was played by Hindi filmstar Aishwarya Rai, in her first film role.
Iruvar
When I see a song from an old MGR movie on TV, it always makes me smile. He's so obviously counting the steps. Dancing was never his forte. At the end, the look of triumph on his face because he hasn't lost his balance makes me feel that I can keep mine too.