Film Career
Though he started as a hero but started donning the role of a villain - so much so that today his name is almost eponymous with the Kollywood villain. Nambiar has worked with seven generations of actors from Balaiyah to Manoj (Bharathiraaja's son).
His first pay was Rs.3 in the "Boys Company." He would retain Re 1 and send Rs.2 to his mother. A man of very limited needs, he has not eaten outside of his house. He is extremely health conscious.
He made quite a statement in the early 50s with his portrayal of 11 roles in ‘Digambara Samiyar.’ His arresting performance in films such as ‘Manthiri Kumari,’ ‘Velaikkari,’ ‘Ayirathil Oruvan,’ ‘Thillana Mohanambal,’ ‘Missiamma’ and ‘Nenjam Marappadillai’ paved way for a very successful career that spanned over five decades.
A majority of the more than 1000 films that he has done is in Tamil, though he has acted in Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi, besides an English film `Jungle' (with Rod Cameron, the film's hero, directed by William Burke) in which he appears in a few brief scenes. The film was released in 1952. The Hindi film he acted in was a remake of the Tamil `Kanavane Kankanda Deivam.'
After becoming popular in Tamil films he started his own drama troupe called Nambiar Nataka Mandram. They staged two plays — `Kaviyin Kanavu' and a comedy play `Kalyana Supermarket.'
M.N. Nambiar was a rare personality who was a cruel ruthless fellow in the screen and a very pious man in the real life. He was pure vegetarian and a teetotaler. He was also an ardent devotee of Sabarimala Sri Ayyappan. He has had a long association with the temple, and visited the shrine more than 65 times over the last half a century; this has led to him being called Maha Guruswamy. His colleagues noted that he died during the famous Sabarimala season and it may be due to the blessing of his Lord.
His favourite films remain `Aayirathil Oruvan' with MGR, `Ambikapathi' with Sivaji Ganesan, `Missiyamma' with Gemini Ganesan, `Nenjam Marappathillai' directed by Sridhar and `Thooral Ninu Pochu' with Bhagyaraj. This was the film that made him do character roles, something that he continued to do till his death. He also acted as hero in two films `Kalyani' and `Kavitha' produced by Modern Theatres.
He has done stage, films and also serials such as `Velan.' When it comes to acting, he supposedly likes all the actors; but of special mention are M. R. Radha and Savitri. Both, in his opinion, were brilliant in their own way.
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