THE ACTOR THAT BROKE THE WALLS

This year marks the 100th birthday of one of the most favourite actors of Azerbai-jani cinema and theatre lovers - Aliaga Agayev. We all remember his Masadi Ibad in the film "If not this one, then that one", and also the shah he played in Azerbaijan's first science fiction film "The magical robe".

"I remember it like it was yesterday. I was eight when I first saw 'If not this one, then that one'," famous actor Rasim Balayev tells R+. "When I was watching this film, I took Masadi Ibad, played by Agayev, not as an actor but as a real person. Agayev could play and did play lots of negative roles. Nevertheless, viewers loved him. Unfortunately, I did not manage to do any acting together with this talented person." Rasim Balayev especially noted the universality of the acting gift of this big actor.

"The roles played by Aliaga Agayev became part of the history of our country," says the director of the State Film Fund, Public Television, and honorary arts figure of Azerbaijan, Camil Quliyev. "The characters played by Agayev are very diverse; they are not just comic ones. The roles he played included dramatic ones too. For example, in the film 'In the name of law' it was not a kind or a comic character at all," Quliyev says. "That Aliaga Agayev played these kinds of roles shows how multi-faceted his talent was."

"What can I say about him?" says Gulcin xanim, the actor's daughter. "All has been said. He was a wonderful person. Although he was very busy, he found time for his family. Wherever he travelled, he always took me with him. I know all of his roles by heart. I have an acting talent, but my father did not allow me to follow in his footsteps."

In 1956, Aliaga Agayev became famous overnight after the release of the musical comedy "If not this one, then that one", which was based on Uzeyir Hacibayov's operetta by the same name. People recognized him in the street. His contemporaries recall that people he met in the street often asked him to sing for them the famous song "Man na qadar, na qadar qoca olsam da, dayaram min cavana…"

In the meantime, Aliaga Ag-ayev had established himself as a professional actor much earlier, and he had played worthy ro-les, but in the theatre, not in cinema. His first role was Haci Qara in Mirza Fatali Axundov's comedy "Haci Qara".

In 1936, Agayev was admitted into the troupe of the Children's Working Theatre (the Theatre of Young Viewer in Baku). He started working on the professional stage with the character of Paganel, the most colourful one in the drama "The Children of Captain Grant" (based on a Jules Verne novel by the same name)

The very first role Agayev played in cinema was a small one - in the mediocre Soviet film "Meeting" which was about love in record-setters in work productivity. Today's culture figures describe those kinds of films with disdain as "industrial" ones. The film "If not this one, then that one", which was released afterwards, changed the actor's destiny forever.

In 1961, Agayev joined the Azerbai-jani Academic Drama Theatre - it was much more prestigious than the Theatre of Young Viewer. His first role there was Abis Surxayevic from the Sixali Qurbanov comedy "Well, how do you like that?". In that theatre, Aliaga Agayev played up until his death. The last time viewers saw him was when he played Babakisi in Cafar Cabbarli's "Sevil".

Aliaga Agayev played many interesting but, alas, little-known roles. Certainly, in line with the theatrical tradition he played both Shakespeare and Azerbaijani classics - Axundov, Cabbarli, and Mammadquluzada. At the same time, he also featured in plays by well-known contemporary dramatists and film scriptwriters - Arkadiy Ar-kanov, Grigoriy Gorin, Emil Braginskiy and Eldar Rya-zanov. In the theatre, he also played the role of Novoseltsev who we are all familiar with. Later on, Russian actor Andrey Myagkov played Novoseltsev in Ryazanov's film "Office romance".

Among Agayev's work in cinema, we should mention the small roles in famous films like "Where is Ahmad?" and "The untameable Kur" (based on the novel by Ismayil Sixli) and also in the popular Soviet film "The last inch" which was based on a short novel by James Aldridge.

On 17 June 1945 the actor was awarded the title of honorary artist of the Azerbaijani SSR and on 27 February 1954 - the title of people's artist of the Azerbaijani SSR.

The actor died on 3 November 1983, while laughing and telling a joke to his friends at a table where they gathered on the occasion of a holiday. That was so much his style!

Terminology used by actors (among themselves) includes this term - "to break the fourth wall". If three walls are part of the stage, the fourth one is an imaginary wall between the actor and the viewers, which only actors of high mastery can break. Only by "breaking the fourth wall" could the characters played by Aliaga Agayev create "the effect of presence", of reality, and make the young Rasim Balayev believe that Masadi Ibad was real.