One of the best column in Tamil print media, Writer Sujatha‘s Katrathum Petrathum in Ananda Vikatan, has stopped again. Sujatha has decided to take a break and continue it later. Katrathum Petrathum has had 3 three servings until now. All the three times, the column has appeared atleast 54 weeks before it ended. And every time, I couldn’t wait for Sujatha to start it again.
This old man is a heap of intelligence, who at times is mistaken for being a pseudo intellectual. It’s his immense popularity that make his contemporaries corner his writing as popular writing and not include him in the so called ‘serious literature writing’. They don’t get that popular writing is as much literature as a ‘serious literature’ attempt. Sometimes though he makes couple of superficial statements like this, his column has been a quintessential read. This 3rd serving of Katrathum Petrathum has been in action for over 90 weeks now.
In this final week of Katrathum Petrathum, Sujatha writes about the new year party hosted by Kamalhassan. The party is supposed to include Kollywood’s Who’s Who and many other top stars of Indian cinema. Thats when Kamal chose to discuss the Dasavatharam storyline by remarking to Sujatha, Bruce Arasuvoda Naaiya Konudaraan, Sir. And now people would go bonker bonks on guessing who would be Bruce and Arasu. I think, both are two of the 10 characters enacted by Kamal Hassan himself.
If not for such teasers of Kamal and Shankar flicks, Katrathum Petrathum had in itself a gamut of topics from Sci-Fi, Haiku, Tamil books/writers, Contemporary Literature and the most famous Best of Year columns. It had become a sort of weekly dose of all the topics I would love to read. And a habit of reading it, similar to drinking filter coffee, couldn’t be stopped so easily. More than other weekly columns it had a tinge cynical humor that makes you relate to every single issue, so easily. Until such time, when Sujatha prefers to start it again, we will wait. Rather I would.
kirukkal.com 