Sujatha details his friendship with Balu Mahendra in a recent Ambalam article, Baluvin Kanaakaalam. Very importantly he mentions two things about Balu Mahendra’s Kathai Neram serial.
Those who had watched Kathai Neram can vouch that it was one of the best serial ever made for television. Each episode was a seperate shortstory. And as Sujatha says it was a perfect example of adapting a shortstory for the screen. He also goes on to say that Balu Mahendra was able to tell a shortstory in 20 minutes without making it embarassingly loud or terribly boring. And as someone who saw most of those episodes, I have to say that Sujatha’s words aren’t an exaggeration.
Sa.Kandasaamy’s Tholaindhu Ponavargal was my other favorite serial. If I could re-collect it right, it was broadcasted on Thursdays from 10 – 10:30 pm. In Channel 2. Remember, Channel 2 of DD ?
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4 responses to “Balu Mahendra’s Kathai Neram”
Tholaindhu ponavargal was my favourite too. We a bunch of 5 eccentric friends actually went to a local photo studio and took a photo similar to the one in TP(about 14 yrs ago). We friends are still in touch, hopefully someday we will shoot the 2nd part of the photos similar to TP, hoping that all five would be intact as against what happened in TP. (I kno that was 4 of them, but we were 5 friends).The school bits from the movie “Azhagi” reminded me of many scenes from the TP serial.
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Tholainthu Ponavargal was awesome! And so was Paramartha Guruvum Seedarkalum. Ambikapati amaravathi by Y.G, Vannakolangal by S.V.Sekar, and Mouli’s IC-172 were quite good too! Sad to see these guys washed away by Mega Serial syndrome!
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LG,
Thulainduponavargal was a great story and was directed pretty well too….the guys playing the roles as young boys had that rustic feel…
I would any day include it in my favourite serials….
Regards Kathgai Neram….you are bang on LG….
Balu did a great job and as you say probably one of the best in the post SUN TV era…The only problem was, he used the same set of actors to play most of the time…However good their acting was it is Kadi to see junior baliah and Mounika and that bearded fellow (he plays the terrorist in Kanathil muthamittal) all the time.
jacky,
Flight 172 and Vanna Kolangal were amazing stuff….
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Hey LG,
I still remember tholainthu ponavargal. It was a serial which was perfect mixture of expressions and emotionals. All would have done really well and finally out of 4 only 2 would stand in the photo behind the chairs leaving out chairs empty. It still remains in my memory for long time… You pricked it back….
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