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Best Media Indiblog of 2003 :

Thanks to all (punniyavaans) who voted me as the BEST MEDIA INDIBLOG OF 2003. Thanks to the Indiblogger who arranged a great event like this.

Thanks for all your wishes. I am overwhelmed.

The Making Of Virumandi:

Now that Kamal has opened up himself about the subject of Virumandi, it is evident that Virumandi is India’s voice against sentence to death. Just like how Sean Penn made us cry in Dead Man Walking, Kamal should re-create the same moving saga in Virumandi. The issue by itself is very debatable and is still unexplored enough in the filmdom.

Dead Man Walking, is on the best films I’ve seen and here is the my blogpost on the movie. I’ve been left with tears in the corners of my eyes by the time, the film finished. Given Sean Penn’s immense talent to become the character and Susan Sarandon’s verastile acting, Dead Man Walking was nothing less than a emotional miracle. Now after I have read that screenplay, I can understand the effort in making a simple screenplay into a great movie on screen. The movie completely swept me away with the clarity and the simplicity in screenplay and some amazing Hindustani type BGMs.

Kamal is always good in customizing anything to his audience. If Virumandi is about the same war against death penalty, it would be so strongly vouched for that our tamil audience will be moved by it. Be it making Doubtfire into Avvai Shanmugi or making Bob into Thenali, he has had good amount of success. There isn’t an issue with being inspired about a hollywood movie and he is to be congratulated for his efforts to bring international issues into tamil cinema.

Virumandi music is doing wonders in the box-office, re-instates the maestro that he is still the one.

Chennai Kutchery:

Chennai is very hot and very cold now. Especially after the cyclone deceived the chennaites and went off to Andra Pradesh just to kill 31 people, the weather has cooled down so much.

Marghazhi month (dec 15th – jan 14th of every year) is here and the roads are already filled with kolam and rangolis. The difference between a rangoli and a kolam is that rangoli is in color and a kolam is drawn in just white with the black background of the tar on the roads. That is a silly way of putting it. As always the marghazhi month is cold hence off late people have modernized the kolam technology. Instead of the classical practice of kolaming (sorry for the taminglish) in the early hours of morning, they are kolaming in the night itself. So if you were a latecomer from office, you would have tough time riding the bike without interrupting the kolaming ladies and the kolams, of course. However, because of this kolam culture, Chennai is decorated throughout the month. Gives you a good festive feeling. So as I wade through these kolams every morning on my way to office, I get this feeling of celebration and the morning mood is aptly set for the rest of the day.

Also there is so much happening in Chennai in marghazhi and that makes it HOT. If you are lover of performing arts, this is the place to be. From a range of music to dance and drama, it happens now and here. The Kutcheris have begun and people are busy buying the season tickets to these carnatic performances.

Last Sunday in Vani Mahal, for Aruna Sairam’s kutchery, the hall was a crowded and many of the nodding heads were teenagers and 20’s who were interested in carnatic. This is a very clear of sign that the carnatic music still has a long way to go. Aruna Sairam is rocking the scene just like the last couple years. With her little touch of masculine voice, she hits a boundary even with the toughest of raagas. Some other biggies who are talked about include O.S Arun, Sikkal Gurucharan, Nithyashree, Unni Krishnan and ofcourse my fav Sanjay Subramanian.

Jaya TV conducts performances in Chettinad Vidhyashram school and broadcasting in throughout the month. This morning it was the famous violinist T.N. Krishnan. His acquaintance with violin happened 68 years and he flies down from US like many others to perform in the sabhas of chennai. It was a sheer experience to listen to him in the morning. Vijay TV competing with Jaya in this played the performance of Chinmayi’s Meera Bhajans, this evening. After listening to Chinmayi’s voice in A R Rahman’s E20U18, this was very different and enchanting.

This evening when I was driving down the TTK road, I found that AVM Audios has arranged an audio mela in Sankara Hall. With 10% discount on all items, carnatic music section was crowded like hell and selling hot cakes. I picked up a couple of them by Sudha Raghunathan.

Connected to this Kutchery news, vintage tamil movies of carnatic greats are screened at P.S High Sec School, Mylapore. The schedule includes M.S.Subbulakshmi‘s 1941 hit flick Savithri on 23rd. Also Santha Sakkubai on 24th. When I was a kid, Santha Sakubai was screened once on the doordarshan. I ran out of the house because someone told me that it had more than 40 songs. Now, I am anticipating to watch the same movie, which is one the biggest musical hits of tamil. That is what time does to us.

A rule for the notice-board-sake :

Madurai Meenakshi temple was well maintained with lots of security and ample information boards. Since the bomb-blast inside the campus of the temple, the security has increased multi-fold and surprisingly it is maintained at the same level. One of the security guards in the entrance, wanted to look at my digi cam and he started operating it casually and I was thinking he was doing a security check. Only when he enquired about the camera’s shooting modes, I realized he wasn’t just security checking it but was also inquisitive about the camera.

One of the cleanliest temples I’ve seen where maintaining is a tough task especially now when the sabarimala devotees come in huge numbers to the temple en-route to kerala. I clicked the temple gopurams (temple tower) as much as I liked them. Gopurams are a very good source of inspiration and I was spell bound by the minutest details in the engravings. Every temple in tamil nadu proves time and again that we had some of the best civil engineers, centuries back. I am still amazed and would love to know how they conceived such ideas of gopurams and calculated the measurements so accurately.

One of the notable documentaries in Discovery channel was about the building of Tanjore temple. The single stone at the top of the Tanjore temple gopuram weighs more than 80 tons and it must have been a Herculean task to set it right on the top. But the Cholas were more intelligent. They built a huge sand slide from the top of the gopuram extending 5 kms into the village. The single stone was then tied to elephants and pulled all the way to the top. I was thoroughly spell bound when they prototyped it in the documentary. Even today Tanjore temple stands as one of the mightiest creations of the south indian architecture.

Madurai Meenakshi temple has the kind of silence, despite the huge crowds, which is not present in most of other temples. Combined with the grandness and all other tourist attraction nearby madurai, it invites lots of foreigners.

I’ve noticed off late a notice board just before the entry into the main gate of many temples. It would read as this: 1) Non-Hindus not allowed. 2) Cameras prohibited after this point. Well, while video cameras are something that can be prohibited, the first of rule looks very crude to me. And this rule needs to be looked at introspectively.

Especially for a tolerant religion like Hinduism, which is much more than the rules to worship god, this rule defies the basic principles of the religion. Hinduism is a way of life and this rule seems to obstruct them and brings in the crudeness that misleads others. If Non-Hindus meant the Indian non-hindus alone, it is a much bigger treat to the national unity. Despite of the rule, if they still allow everyone into the temple, there isn’t a need to such a notice-board-sake-rule. Break the rule and let Hinduism open up more kindness and tolerance towards mankind.

I was in Virumandi‘s Country for the last few days on a personal job. Madurai, I meant. Madurai is a fabulous city with tons of historical happenings. When I had been to madurai, few years back it was still a mediocre town trying desperately to elevate to the status of a city that it is today.

Today, Madurai displays lots of growth in terms of infra-structure and population (!!). It is wonderfully lit at the night and looks dazzling. We were staying in the third floor of a 2-and-a-half-star (?) hotel, and it had plenty of dis-advantages except for the single good thing, pure water. For someone like me who has seen the dirty brownish chennai water for the most of my life in India, the deep south of tamilnadu attracts me just for its purity of water. And madurai was none less than the siruvani water in coimbatore. Though Vaigai river looks very good and dry as a barren isolated land, the water in madurai seems amazingly good. If allowed, I would have done nothing but to be immersed in that water for all of my stay.

I wanted desperately to see the Madurai Nayakkar Mahal, famously known as the Aayirankaal Mandapam (Place of Thousand Pillars). It is called as a testimony to the excellence of Dravidian architecture. I missed it because busukku neramachu. It is more famously known for the shot where Arvind Swamy pushes himself in one of pillars and does the famous jump in Kannalaney song in the film Bombay. Yeah, Kannalane song was shot in Madurai Nayakkar Mahal. And if you are one of the handful few who watched Mani Ratnam‘s Iruvar, most of the important scenes where shot there. The amazing scene when Mohanlal comes running into the mahal to see Prakashraj, who is sitting on the top of the roof and thinking of his political moves followed by near-natural conversation these two great icons of tamilnadu.

Striking a conversation with a old man who was in his late seventies, gave me lots of insight into this great city. It has been known as the Dravidian Cradle and the birth place of many political happenings. More importantly Madurai has been the most important town in MGRs life, both filmy and political. I could still see many huge banners for Rajinikanth and predictions of his political life in the heart of the city. Posters all around the place to celebrate the coming of Virumandi Music. These maduraites have a reason to celebrate that. Though shot in the sets of Campa Cola in chennai, Virumandi story is based in the villages like Thenni, Periyakulam which are in and around madurai.

You get some real good Malli poo (Malligai in tamizh or Jasmine). Thats the not the information. Malli Idli is very tasty here and it hails from madurai. Though not very hygenic, the malli idli sold in the street corners are the hot selling after the TASMAC wine shops. Most corners of the streets have a lady sitting with two baskets full of Malli Idlis and good smelling sambar. When asked her, she said, her everyday sales touched closed to a thousand. Want some Malli Idlis? . Take a trip to madurai.

Some madurai pics in my photoblog.