DEVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Honestly, I am not a movie savvy. But I have sat through all the kinds. They have all made me cry. Either they were too good or they were a torture!
One and only movie that I have literally assimilated every bit is DEVDAS; the third directed by SHRI SANJAY LEELA BHANSALI (note the SHRI). The legend has directed a couple of movies but never have I seen the same magic existing in any of his earlier or later works. One of the reasons why I look up to him is he could pull off the impossible act of getting the real actor out of SRK! I watched DEVDAS only and only for Aishwarya Rai (Ash). After I watched the movie, I couldn’t believe that it was a torture! I somehow felt guilty about it. The 2nd time I watched it on TV. It was bearable that time. It was the third time I watched the movie that something caught my attention…apart from Ash and those award winning songs!
Once we had a little discussion about the various versions of the movie in college. The first had K.I.Saigal in it. The second had the dream cast of those time,Vaijanthi mala, Suchitra sen and Dilip kumar (the first two are in black and white). The third version(2000)had the dream cast of today’s times, Aishwarya rai, Madhuri dixit and Sharukh khan. The fourth was DEV D(2009), the most contemporary version of DEVDAS.
My favorite professor SIMON expressed his views about them. He din’t find the Ash starrer catchy at all.

Aishwarya rai in DEVDAS

I beg to differ here.

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN ………experience culture?

I love all civilizations. I would love to know about their culture. Let us take Egypt! I go visit the pyramids! Wooow! Masterpiece! Now I know everything about Egyptian culture! I love Indian culture too! So let us hit Rajasthan and catch up with their folk dance, and to know about south Indian culture, let us feast our ears and eyes to carnatic music and bharatnatyam! (:o)
So you think you understood their culture? NO! (wish you could hear me scream!)

It does not work in this manner friends! You might probably understand their ART but never their culture! ART and CULTURE… They are different but inter-related! ART is a part of CULTURE. ART is an outburst of creative thoughts and putting it to action while Culture is the way of life! If you really need to go in depth about one’s culture, then probably you need to become one among them! BE A ROMAN IN ROME is such an apt quote that sums up my message!

Not many days ago, while travelling in an AUTO in the unavoidable heavy traffic of MUMBAI, I spotted this tourist with a very peculiar vehicle! It was a cross between a cycle and a inclined cart carrying himself and his bags. The whole picture gave me such a thrill and crave to explore places his way! Now you understand what I am saying? Instead of renting a car or a tourist bus, see how well he got in touch with the place! We got to learn from what we see around! And that way we learn the most and the best!(:))

Art is definitely an important PART of understanding a culture but the various other folds are food, manners, festivals etc. But all these are not to be experienced individually!

TN Sheshagopalan kacheri @ Fine Arts

15.08.2010
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY FRIENDS AND FOES! :P

For a 5.30 pm kacheri of Sri. T.N.Sheshagopalan (who hails from Madurai :D), I ended up at the FINE ARTS society’s auditorium only at 7.30 pm with my 30 yr old best friend KALS (Kalyani hariharan). I could hear him end a really heavy song garnished with thundering mirudangam beats and ganjira. The auditorium appeared packed but somehow we managed to find seats in the last rows.
As soon as I took my seat, I could see very little black haired heads among a sea of cotton colored ones! As expected… Honestly I have never heard T.N.S. sing. I totally depended on KALS’s very unconvincing opinion about him. She claimed that only very few of his songs were masterpieces. But I, unlike her, have no enough knowledge to opinionate on such great vidwans!
As I am a huge FAN of ragam reethigowlai, I was hoping that he sings a song based on this ragam in the remaining 2 hours of the kacheri. He commenced with a song which was based on Abheri. No qualms at all! DID YOU KNOW (:P) that abheri was the 1st ever ragam that I fell for? And coincidently I like all ragams which are derived from KHARAHARAPRIYA ( reethigowlai too is a janyam of this ragam).

He sang the alaapanam as if his lungs and food pipe were well lubricated with nalla yennai (:/). I was eagerly waiting for him to soak into that ragam and present its most beautiful form ever to us but in vain. Somehow somewhere I felt that he wasn’t using the right combination of swarams in his alaapanam. With a slow death of his voice, a gradual birth of the music of VIOLIN( my most favorite instrument) happened and filled the auditorium with divinity!