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Kamarajar Memorial House, Chennai
Chennai has many memorial houses where famous personalities had once lived. In the past few weeks, I have been to two of them – Thiru Subramanya Bharathiyar House, Triplicane and Dr MGR Memorial House, T.Nagar. This week I went to Kamarajar Memorial House, T.Nagar (பெருந்தலைவர் காமராஜர் நினைவு இல்லம்). It is one of many two storey bungalows that used be in this part of Madras, built around the early 20th century. This house that Kamarajar had lived during his decades in Chennai was rented by him, after his death Tamil Nadu Government had bought the house from the owner and made it as a museum for the public. Bharat Ratna Thiru K…
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Dr MGR Memorial House
Dr M.G.Ramachandran (17 January 1917 – 24 December 1987), fondly called as MGR, is a legendary leader belonging to a category of his own. He was a super successful actor, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for well over a decade, and a philanthropist par excellence in his times. Such was his charisma, that three decades after his demise, Tamil people still remember him fondly and everything associated with him is viewed with a reverence – just go to MGR Memorial in Marina Beach to see scores of people even now placing their ears on his tomb trying to hear his watch ticking. I was still an infant when he stopped…
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Subramanya Bharathiyar House
நான் பிறந்ததிலிருந்து சென்னைவாசி, திருவல்லிக்கேணி ஸ்ரீ பார்த்தசாரதி கோயிலுக்கு பல முறை சென்றிருந்தாலும், அதன் அருகிலிருக்கும் மகாகவி பாரதியார் நினைவு இல்லத்திற்குப் போன நினைவில்லை. இன்று இதற்காகவே கிளம்பிச் சென்று பார்த்தேன். மகிழ்ச்சியாக இருந்தது. மகாகவி பாரதியார் (Subramania Bharati, a renowned Tamil writer, poet and freedom fighter) சென்னையில் இருந்த போது அவர் வாழ்ந்த வீடு இது, அதைத் தமிழக அரசு 1991ஆம் ஆண்டு வாங்கி, புனரமைத்து 1993ஆம் ஆண்டு மக்கள் பார்வைக்குத் திறந்தது. நல்ல முயற்சி. ஆனால் வெறும் புகைப்படங்கள் மட்டும் தான் இங்கே இருக்கிறது. இந்த மாபெரும் கவிஞரின் எழுச்சிமிகு கவிதைகளைத் தேர்ந்தேடுத்து, பல உலக மொழிகளில் அதன் மொழி பெயர்ப்புகளையும் சேர்த்து, வரும் மக்கள் பார்வைக்குப் படங்களாகவும், புத்தகங்களாகவும், ஒலி ஒளி காட்சிகளாக வைத்திருந்தால் பயனாக இருந்திருக்கும். மகாகவி பாரதியார் நினைவு இல்லம் (Subramania Bharati Memorial Home) இருப்பது திருவல்லிக்கேணி துளசிங்கபெருமாள் கோயில் தெரு (Google map location), உங்கள் வாகனத்தைக் கோயில் வாசலில் இருக்கும் இடத்தில் நிறுத்திவிட்டு வரலாம், இரண்டு…
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Prof M. Anandakrishnan’s 90th Birthday
Read the eBook “Memorable Footprints of an educator” here and the recording of the event in YouTube: Part 1 & Part 2. Padma Shree Prof M Anandakrishnan is an educator par excellence. The former IIT Kanpur Chairman, former Anna University Vice-Chancellor, former IT Advisor to Tamil Nadu Government is an institutional builder as well. So, it was our proud privilege to have got a chance to organize along with his family from the USA his 90th Birthday Celebrations last week. What started as a simple idea from Ananthan Chockalingam, turned out to be an unforgettable evening of wisdom on 16.06.2018 at Hyatt Regency Chennai – thanks to the hard work of Ananthan Chockalingam, Nedunchezhian Dhamotharan and Chellappan Palaniappan, who…
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Nadigaiyar Thilagam (2018)
Nadigaiyar Thilagam (2018) aka Mahanati (2018) in Telugu is a bi-lingual film starring Keerthy Suresh as Savitri & Dulquer Salmaan as Gemini Ganesan. It is a biopic about actress Savitri (1936 – 1981), a legend in Telugu and Tamil Cinema of the 1960s. Doing an interesting biopic about a person who is in a living generation’s memory is not easy, and on that Director Nag Ashwin has succeeded. Starting the narration from the last days of Savitri won our sympathy and got our attention. The film could’ve been a lot better had the screenplay had some elements from point of view of Savitri – in many places it felt like…
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Writer Ashokamitran (2018)
Today marks the first death anniversary of legendary writer Mr Ashokamitran, in his memory, there was the screening of a documentary about him – titled “Writer Ashokamitran” it was directed by Prasanna Ramaswamy. Walking out after the screening, I felt this film was a true tribute to the man. During one of his speeches, the writer says “See the truth of the tale and not the teller” and the documentary lives to that wish by not being a biography – it is a collection of his readers recalling how the works affected them individually. The 90 minutes film is interspersed with a Vaishnava (Alwar) pasuram, Quran’s rendering and a cricket…
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Darkest Hour (2017)
Darkest Hour (2017) – is a fine cinema, that has captured one of the most important appointments of the last century – the appointment of Sir Winston Churchill as Prime Minister just before the war reached the shores of Britain. It shows the hours leading to his appointment, King’s reluctance to invite him to form the Government, the resistance he faces within his own war cabinet, winning King’s approval and finally to turning down a peace negotiation with Germany through Italy and declaring war. The film starts with the scene of a young girl, a typist coming in for her first assignment to Mr Churchill’s room, only to come running down scared to…
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Ramanujar – Tamil Play by Shraddha
Ramanujar (ராமானுஜர்) is a new Tamil Play by Shraddha Theatres, a theatre group in Chennai. The play written by Sahitya Academy awarded author Indira Parthasarathy, is a biography on one of the most important exponents and Acharya (Guru) of Sri Vaishnavism tradition within Hinduism– Sri Ramanujar (ஸ்ரீ ராமானுஜர்). This year (2017), marks the 1000th year of the saint – throughout the year many organisations have been conducting programs remembering Sri Ramanuja’s life and his teachings. Last two years, there was a TV Series too on “Ramanujar” written by former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Kalaignar Karunanidhi. Shraddha’s play on Sri Ramanujar, runs for two-and-half-hour and is directed by G. Krishnamurthy. Probably after many decades, a Tamil Play on…
