Famous mimicry artist, Padmashri Nerella Venu Madhav passed away today. He was an icon for all Telugu mimicry artistes. He performed in Telugu, Hindi, English, Urdu and Tamil. He gave thousands of programs in several countries and received several accolades.
He worked as a mimicry faculty in the Telugu University. He acted in Telugu films too. Later, during PV narasimha Rao tenure, he became MLC for Andhra Pradesh and served as MLC from 1972 -78. In 2001, the government of India awarded him Padmashri. He also received honorary doctorates from Andhra University and Kakatiya University. In addition he received several awards like Kala Prapurna etc.
The way he recreates entire scene of “Mackenna’s Gold” on stage with his voice was amazing to watch. He imitates not only voices of people but several musical instruments with perfection. Among several voices he imitated with perfection, people loved the way he imitates Karunanidhi voice and his entire speech with one single word – “gibberish (the word means meaningless speech or nonsense)”. Entire auditorium used to erupt with a thunderous response for the “gibberish” speech. No mimicry artiste in Telugu ever came close to what legendary artiste Nerella Venumadhav achieved as mimicry artiste in life.
-Zuran