L.V. Prasad Film & T.V Academy- Walk with Director K. Hariharan

Hi everybody
Feels nice to write in my blog after a year.

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to attend an event "Talk and Walk Inside Studio" organised by Namma Arcot Road a recent set up of the Arcot Road neighbourhood. A public talk by the Director of the L.V. Prasad & T.V. Academy, Sri K. Hariharan, on the studio's heritage and walk through the Studio were the agenda. It was open to all.


As I have a passion for videography/docu films I rushed to the venue, a little late due to the distance from my place, rainy weather/festival Saturday.

It was a wonderful experience. Sri Hariharan took us to the hall with high ceiling and different lights fitted to it. From there to the settings like the bar, office room, kitchen, bed room etc and finally to the camera room with projector equipment and the erstwhile 70mm camera. In the meantime we were provided with snacks. Sri Hariharan gave us information about film projector and the 70mm camera of yesteryear.

We then assembled in his class room. We were around 50 in number. Sri Hariharan introduced Sri Sivaraman, the General Manager of Prasad studio for 40 years now. Sri Sivaraman, very passionate about the neighbourhood and also the studio, gave some interesting anecdotes. He could recall the visits of VIPs/Celebrities.

The area beyond Vadapalani Bus Stand was like a village with paddy fields when the studio was
started. There were few more studios, like Vasu Studio, Sharada Studio etc. Beyond Vadapalani the only mode of transport was Jatka vandi. There was only one mess (Subbiah mess) nearby serving as outdoor catering, which provided full lunch for 90 paise.

VIPs like Raj Kapoor, Mrinal Sen, Amitabh Bachchan, Jitendra etc., have visited the Studio.
Mrinal sen once insisted to go to a local South Indian Hotel instead of Star hotel near Mount Road and enjoyed food in a dingy small eatery in that area.

The Vijaya Vauhini Studio was one of the biggest in Asia with 14 floors. But later some floors were closed and Vijaya Hospital was established. The multi speciality concept was first introduced in Vijaya Hospital. The other studios gave way to godowns and multistory complexes.
Once a muddy village Arunachalam Road now has become vibrant where the L.V. Prasad studio is housed.
Sri Sivaraman ended with a proud note about the neighbourhood.

Be it Sri L.V. Prasad, Sri Nagi Reddy or Sri A.V. Meyyappan, they produced national cinema rather than mere Tamil cinemas, exclaimed Sri Hariharan. RajKapoor, Mehboob Khan and other North Indians produced regional cinemas only, whereas we could give in all languages like Tamil,Telugu and Hindi at a time. Great actors like NTR, Ranga Rao, Prem Nazeer and MGR have all lived in Madras as contemporaries.

About L.V. Prasad, he said, the great human being wanted to plough back his entire wealth into cinema, as he earned everything through cinema. He could provide facilities at Hyderabad, Bangalore and Trivandrum when it was requested. His life's mission was to provide a school for film studies in his studios for those who have interest in film making, as he never had formal education in this line. The result, we see today the L.V. Prasad Film & T.V. Academy, established by his son Sri. Ramesh Prasad, for which aptly Sri. Hariharan is the Director who, as all of us know, is an award winning film maker.

Photo 1: Sri. Hariharan with audience in one of the setting rooms inside the studio.

Photo 2: Sri.Hariharan with 70mm film role.

As I had some problem in uploading 2 video clippings in this page itself, am giving the YouTube URL for the same.

The first one is the demonstration by Sri. Hariharan on Film Projector and the second on the 70mm Camera of yesteryear ( the last film probably was 'Ek duje Keliye')

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Iib7xdgTo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiFKgv9rBdw

Madras Day Celebrations – Kilpauk Walk – 16.08.2009, 7 am.

Madras Day celebrations in Chennai has become Madras Week, and slowly expanding to Madras Fortnight & Madras Month.

The organizers are keen on conducting Heritage Walks in different places during this week with a view to highlight the rich heritage of our city which is to be preserved by all of us.

I took interest in Kilpauk walk, organized by Ms.Deepa Sekar on 16-08-09 as I basically belong to South Madras.

The tour programme was like this: 1. The Votive Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, 2. Madras 350 Building, 3. St. George School and Orphanage, 4.Pachaiyappa’s College of Arts and Science, 5. Kushaldass Gardens, 6. Kingston House, 7. Kalki gardens, 8. Citadel Studios, 9.Bhsashyam Naidu park, 10. Tapovan and the last Newton Studios. About 30 people took part and enjoyed the morning walk. A brief account of

the event follows.

1. The Votive Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary: Father Amalraj narrated the story. One Mr.Mathias in 1942 prayed mother Mary to Protect Madras from getting bombed during the 2^nd world war. Mary with her mercy saved the entire India. Hence he wanted to build a Church and an orphanage in Madras. One French gentleman Mr. Edgar Raphael Prudehomme donated this land. This place hosts a Church, a Primary School and an orphanage. There are around 820 students, 90% from very poor families with single parent. The orphanage is the asylum for nearly 250 inmates.

Madras 350 is a building commemorating the existence of the City of Madras

built with a dome in the style of small gopuram. We reached this through Umayal Road where there is Shiva Temple which also has Sannidhis for Rama and Narasimha. The Aadhi Pillaiyar statue was found near the pond, on which the temple is constructed in 1950. The place belonged to Mr. Alagappa Chettiar.

St. George School & Orphanage: Ancient old school started in 1715, which also had a hospital with an isolation ward to house students who were suffering from chickenpox. Behind, there is the 500 year old Nawab Palace which is not in good condition now. Adds Mr. Vincent Cunningham, the chief, that there was a school band which has the history of playing before The Queen inside the Fort St.George, when she visited Madras in 1961. During that time the School had classes only upto 9^th standard. Children used to be sent to Dovton School, at Vepery from 10^th standard by cycle.

Pachaiyappa’s college of Arts and Science: 16 Acres land was donated by Pachaiyappa Chettiyar to build a college. This college alumni list has some noted personalities of Tamilnadu like, Mu.Varadarajanar, Nanjil Manoharan, C.N.Annadurai, Anbazhagan etc.,

Kushaldass Garden: It is in Poonamalle High Road. Those days Maharaja of Trivancore used to visit, stay and celebrate Moolam Thirunal here.

Kingston House: This was donated by Kannan Chetty and a Girls High school in the name of Seethammagaru now exists here. Nearby is the Nowroji Road where Rajaji lived.

Kalki Garden: Once the residence of Bharat Ratna Smt.M.S.Subbulakshmi. The Tulasi Madam and the Krishna statue are still preserved. In the piano room, we learn that, all the songs of the film Meera were choreographed and tuned. Later when Kalki Krishnamurthy joined Mr.Sadasivam, the magazine Kalki got published from this house. Now Maharishi Vidya Mandir has taken possession of this house. Ladies hostel is being run here and the school building has been erected by the side. The heritage house has at present escaped demolition due to stay order of the court.

Citadel Studios: This huge property was owned by one brother and sister who remained single and had no heirs to take over. The property was then divided. The movie 100/100 of Jaishnkar was shot here which was a grand success.

Bashyam Naidu Park: Bashyam Naidu was the fourth gen member of Beri Thimmaiah, the Dubhashi who had a significant part in the formation of Madras City. It was a vast 100 grounds garden, later given to children in parts. Still the descendants live there and the lady shared few of her memories. The song ‘Brindavanathil’ of Meera was shot in the garden and the cow which was shown in the song belonged to them. Sakunthala & Dushyanth scenes on charioit were also shot there . The house was a palatial one with a separate cottage as the kitchen.

The Tapovan: Chinmaya Heritage School is run in this place now. Once it was the place of Chinmayananda.

Newton Studio: Once a very costly studio run by technicians, where the shootings of superstars of yesteryear like MKT and NSK used to take place. Bhimsing took over this later. Now Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan is running its School here.

The tour ended by 10.00 am. Heritage walks during Madras Week are mostly arranged by Mylapore Times, a neighbourhood News Paper. Please visit their site http://www.themadrasday.in/ for details.

Surabhi, a family of 63 theatre artistes

Hi everybody. It feels very good to blog after a long gap.

Evam is a theatre group with few enthusiastic youngsters as members and they give real good plays in the city of Chennai. Evam, in April 2009 introduced Surabhi, a theatre group from Hyderabad with a total members of 63 artistes from the age group of 1-1/2 to 60+ to Chennai theatre fans. It is strange to believe that they live together as one family at Hyderabad doing their routine as students, employees, home makers etc according to their age, but all in one common profession, ie acting in stage dramas.

Surabhi has completed 120 years of existence as of now.

We were given to understand the artistes get a complete exposure to the stage, in the form of doing their own make up, preparing the back drops, painting the screens, singing in their own voice, monitoring the trick shots and managing the back-stage during the play. Above all any one can play any role if need be.

This troupe gave a visual treat on 25th and 26th April to the Chennai audience by enacting two legendary plays, namely, Pathala Bhairavi and Maya Bazaar, both in Telugu. The Music Academy hall was overflowing both the days. The audience were fully receptive though the language was the local Tamil.

The two plays had mythology, storyline, comedy, music, trick-shots and the presentation was spectacular.

It was news that Maya Bazaar movie came later as an adoption of this play of Surabhi.

Many VIPs viewed the plays both days.

The head Sri. R. Nageswara Rao said that they prefer Mythology as the subject, because there is scope for heavy costume, colour, meaningful songs and trick-shots which will enthrall the audience.

One of the VIP visitors Smt. Padma Subrahmaniam had all appreciation for the artistes and invited them all to her Bharathamuni Foundation for Asian Culture at ECR Chennai.

I have given a glimpse of the above two splendid stage performances as video clippings.
Video 1. Kalavaramaye Madilo (Pathala Bhairavi)
Video 2. Gadodgaj and Abhimanyu Fight. (Mya Bazaar)
Video 3. Gadodgaj as Maya Vatsala dancing. (Maya Bazaar)
Please enjoy.

Akshaya Tritiyai-The glitters are real Gold

This year Akshaya Tritiyai fell on 27th April. Akshya means without diminishing- hence bring in Aishwaryam home which remains undiminished. Thus goes the significance.

This concept was once the pracitise of those section of the society who believed in astrology which says bring in at least one gram of gold to have prosperity throughout the year.

Now the bug has spread deep and wide and people await the d'day to come and rush to jewellery shops.

However this year the astrologers strongly advocated to bring home diamond or platinum or even silver( white metal).

But, no the yellow metal has all the everlasting charm and there was rush for gold jewellery as usual.

Some of the offers the jewellers had announced on that day in newspapers are given for interesting reading.

Rs. 400/- less with gift vouchers : Service charge 1.5% less for credit cards & Vat 1% less for cash purchases.

Rs. 640/- less per sovereign: Shop open from 6.00 a.m to 11 p.m.

Free gold coin for every purchase worth 15000/-

Rs. 45 less on one gram and no making charges on plain gold jewellery.

For the purchase of gold coin equal weight of silver coin free.

Rs. 55/- less on gram of gold: no making charges for gold jewellery: 7.5% discount on diamonds.

Pre-booking of gold in advance to avail the lower rate among the two rates on Akshaya Tritiyai day.

25% less on making charges and 10% discount on diamond.

T.Nagar and Mylapore, the gold jewellery hubs of south Chennai wore a festive look on the day. The pictures below speak of the festivity.

This year Public Sector Banks have introduced Gold ETF - Exchange Traded Funds as an open ended Mutual Fund Scheme which invest in standard gold bullion. This security can be traded in the market as any other scrip. The banks call this as the intelligent way to trade in the purest
form of wealth.

All said and done this Yellow metal has its own charm and popularity. People, from time immemorial, feel Gold is the safest investment whatever be the season or rate.

The posterity-What are we leaving behind?

Recently I happened to see a documentary ‘My name is Palar’ produced by one Mr. R.R.Srinivasan at Alliance Francaise, Chennai.

Palar starts from Karnataka, flows via Andhra Pradesh enters Tamilnad and reaches Bay of Bengal near Cathurangapattinam .

The documentary was elaborately dealing with the atrocity the river is facing at the hands of greedy business community, bureaucrats, politicians etc.


The effluent from the tanneries in Ambur, Ranipet and Vellore are freely let out into the river causing severe health hazards to population around who consume the water.



Once people were using natural herbs like ‘Kadukkai’ and others as cleaning agents to treat the animal skin. The effluent had rich herbal value and the agriculturists used to vie with each other to collect the same and use in their fields to get high quality yield.
Now chromium and nickel are being used in the tanneries and hence it becomes difficult to standardize the effluent water as the ill effects cannot be removed.

The other major atrocity committed on the river is the quarrying of sand 10 folds above the stipulated optimum level by greedy businessmen and the same is sent to nearby states. It is highly unfortunate that the local population is used in this service specially women and children. They resort to assist this as they have no other avocation and means of earning because agriculture has totally failed and the soil has become uncultivable. If the sand mining continues at this rate the Palar belt is likely to become fully dried up and no recharge will be possible even during rainy season.
Now we turn to our Nxgen. We have very dynamic, hardworking, talented and enthusiastic Nxgen today. They are tech savvy and advanced in all walks of life. They use their brains and valuable trainings to serve other countries, make them prosperous and are termed very cost effective. But they don’t realize that the earth on which they stand is becoming parched and cracked.

The middle aged population stands silent spectators knowing well that what they leave to the posterity is barrenness, disease prone water resources and scarcity of quality vegetation. They also realize that if our rivers, lakes, wells and other water resources are preserved well, there my not be water scarcity.

India the largest democracy in the world is facing another election now. It is time the youth awake and strive hard to retain our resources intact. Let them bring home foreign exchange and boost up financial prosperity, but let not the motherland lose all the natural resources slowly because they do not show interest in preserving them thereby denying the benefits to the posterity. Let them take a consolidated effort so that the Newnxgen will be thankful to them.

I call upon the Nxgen and Newnxgen to have only one identity i.e., ‘I am an Indian’.


P.S. Photos from the documentary screened.

Umayalpuram Sivaraman & Chennai Sangamam 2009

Sangeetha Sangamam, the name that was given to the programme by Umayalpuram Sivaraman and his ensemble. Chennai Sangamam 2009 had concerts of top musicians in the south Chennai parks, like Sudha Ragunathan, Bombay Jayshree, Ranjani Gayathri, Sanjay Subramanyan etc.

But this year's highlight was Umayalpuram Sivaraman and his ensemble. It had senior artistes on percussion and other instruments on one side and budding musician like Bharat Sunder and two more boys on vocal on the other side. Here is a report on this programme that took place at Nageswara Rao Park, Mylapore, on the 13th of January, 2009.

Umayalpuram's beat filled the ambiance and reverberated through the pathway around the chess square. Sri. M.A.Sundaresan gave excellent support in violin and the songs literally poured out in a pleasant stream from his bows.

The programme was titled Sangeetha Sangamam and so had both classical and folk songs.

The first two songs were pure folklore and rendered well by the boys. Then there was the fast number Raghuvamsa Sudha, in raga Kathanakuthuhalam. Then came a song which had pallavi 'Eru mayil yeru', on Muruga in Tamil, next was 'Uyyalalugaviah', by Saint Thyagaraja in Telugu, a lullaby for Rama and the final charanam was again in Tamil 'En kanne kannurangu', all in the raga Nilambari. The blend was very smooth. Similarly 'Ramanukku Mannan' and 'Karunalaya nidhuiye' both in raga Hindolam, were combined and given as one single rendation. 'Muladhara murthe' in Hamsadwani followed with swift phrases.



I take a paragraph break here to tell that at this point one VVIP visitor entered. Yes, your guess is right. Madam Kanimozhi, MP and one of the organisers of Chennai Sangamam came and took her seat on the lawn along with her friends. The main song 'Tamizhai Kalvimozhiyakku' in raga Hamsadwani was dealt in detail by all the three boys adding kalpana swaras. There was also a thaniavarthanam by all the accompaniments. Umayal Sir stole the show and the crowd applauded heartily.



'Vallikanavan Perai' Kavadichindu was enjoyable. Age old song 'Adupambe' was handled in violin by Sri.Sundaresan. The next was the English note and the boys were adept in humming in a soft low pitch for the same

The finale was the song 'Shanthi nilava Vendum' followed by "Vazhiya Senthamizh'.

The rasikas present that day were mostly people from the neighbourhood and not the regulars to music sabhas. But they sat through the entire show and enjoyed the performance in toto.

You may also enjoy the two small video clippings given below.

The artistes of Sangeetha Sangamam:
Mridangam :Sri. Umayalpuram K.Sivaraman
Violin : Sri. M.A. Sundaresan
Ghatam : Sri. Pudukkotai Ramesh
Kamjira : Sri. Sri Sundar Kumar
Morsingh : Sri. A.S.Krishnan
Special Effects : Sri. Murali
Vocal 1 : Sri. K.Bharat Sunder
Vocal 2 : Sri. Nanganallur Ravishankar
Vocal 3 : Sri. Parur Ananthakrishnan

Gomatha Illam

Gomatha Illam

Can you imagine a shed full of cattle, cows and buffaloes, being tended and bred at the heart of the metro Chennai? Yes, the couple Ramu and Bala does it at Mylapore, Chennai at Veerabadran Lane.

Gomatha in Tamil means, ‘Cow, the Mother’ and it is sacred for Hindus. In Gomatha Illam of Ramus there are 20 cows and 15 buffaloes. Breeding these animals is the family tradition of Ramus and they live upto that till date.

Smt. Bala, lady just–above-middle age, looks very pious and soft spoken with very tender, affectionate expression in her eyes as she takes care of all the cattle as her own children.

The couple with their only son runs the entire show. They supply around 75 litres of milk per day, morning and evening to Hotel Saravana Bhavan in North Mada Street, Mylapore and to Grand Snacks in Gandhi Nagar, Adyar on week ends.

This is their family business for generations, says Smt. Bala and hence they want to continue despite the hardships. They don’t realize much profit because the cattle feed and straw prices have gone up many folds. Also they do not have much human assistance to take care of 35 cattle in one place.

We visited them on the day of Mattuppongal, the day next to Pongal, when people show their gratitude to the cattle for providing them milk throughout the year. Previously it was the tradition to take the cattle out, decked up, for a walk on Mattuppongal day and people at their doorstep used to take harathi and offer fruits to the cow and thamboolam to the owner. These things have disappeared now and the puja is being performed indoors only.

I wish the couple a happy and prosperous New Year (Ugadi)