It goes back to the days of 1964 when her charity was in dire need of money. A young Samy Vellu joined the fund-raising efforts by taking part in the drama “Thanthaiyin Kural”, the Tamil version of Hamlet.

“He played the role of a king, a character he portrayed marvellously,” Mangalam said in the book “Samy Vellu, As We Know Him”. Her recollection is one of 97 stories written about him by his family members and acquaintances.

Mangalam, 96, is a co-founder and life chairman of the Pure Life Society in Puchong that helps the underprivileged and those in need.

She wrote that “Thanthaiyin Kural” was a big hit at the Town Hall in Kuala Lumpur and that the audience included former MIC leaders, the late V T Sambanthan, V Manickavasagam and Athi Nahappan.

Samy Vellu used his striking skills as an actor and communicator to impress the party stalwarts.

Sambanthan used to call him “singga kutti” (lion cub).

Samy Vellu also produced and acted in a drama called “Alli” in the mid-’50s, written by Tamil scholar Professor Varatharajan, who created several other plays to propagate Tamil culture and language.

During the communist insurgency, he featured in stage shows that carried a message for youths, urging them to be politically conscious.

He was inspired by great Tamil artistes from India, especially the late movie star Sivaji Ganesan whose Tamil diction, like that of Samy Vellu’s, was impeccable. But Sivaji, unlike Samy Vellu, failed in politics.

Samy Vellu brought Tamil artistes to Malaysia through the Indian Welfare Reception Committee which was made up of various groups of Indian origin that exposed the community to learned people.

As a newscaster, he became a household name, with people recognising him by his name, face and voice.

The popularity encouraged Indians to join the MIC and nudged him up the political ranks. He continued to read news until he became a member of Parliament in 1974.

His one-time confidante P Chitrakala Vasu said she never missed a Tamil radio programme in the 1980s called “Poocharam” (a string of flowers) that featured excerpts of Samy Vellu’s speeches.

She said it was a joy listening to him speak every Sunday. “His oratory skills and style of delivery accorded magnificence to Tamil that few could match.”

Other young people also warmed up to Samy Vellu, who as MIC Youth leader emphasised that the youth wing was the basis of a strong political party.

In the late ‘70s, the Samy Vellu interdistrict football tournament was a party vehicle to get Indian youths interested in politics and social work.

As a child, Samy Vellu was spiked with horror at the poverty that stalked his family. Almost everything went wrong.

He was born in 1936, to rubber tapper parents Sanglimuthu and Anggamah in the Rengo Malay Estate in Bukit Rengam, near Kluang in Johor.

The eldest of four children, he had a difficult childhood as his father moved between estates in search of better wages.

Eventually, the family settled down in Batu Arang, Selangor, where his father worked as a labourer at the coal mine and later sold fish, coconuts and mutton at the market.

Samy Vellu found it difficult to focus on his studies and he left school taking on odd jobs to help ease the family’s financial burden.

At first, he worked at a cigar factory, rolling cigars. He then worked as a waiter and then as a cook at a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur.

Subsequently, he returned to Batu Arang and worked at a tea stall where he prepared cendol and other drinks.

After his mother died in 1950, he moved to Kuala Lumpur with his father and worked as a bus conductor with GTC Transport Company.

Life was not easy in the city and there were days when he ate only one meal a day.

He then worked as an office boy at Russell & Co, a British organisation that ran the collieries in Batu Arang. The company was owned by the Russell family, the third generation of which run the Boh Estates in Cameron Highlands today.

For Samy, the light at the end of the tunnel came when he got a job as a tracer at the architectural firm of Vethavanam & Co.

Vethavanam saw the potential in Samy Vellu and encouraged him to take up architecture. He took up the challenge and became an architect.

As works minister, he would during discussions to build Tamil schools pull out a piece of paper and ruler and sketch a plan of the school even before the proposal reached the public works department.

In 1960, three years after his father died, he married Indrani at the age of 24. They were blessed with two children, son Vell Paari, who is a senator, and daughter Mangayarkkarasi.