Comments on: Between Reviews: Why He Mattered…

By: bhuvanesh

bhuvanesh — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:13:35 +0000

i am quite surprised u say what made him stand apart is his ability to appeal to those who thought in english. Because, people who grew up in towns, where lack of english – that essential lingua franca of greater cultural engagement – was a main disadvantage , were the main beneficiaries of his writings as he brought to them in Tamil all that he deemed good and loved enough to write about.

And vairamuthu, truly made a path breaking entry into the Tamil literary scene.
And it is a big comedy to mention bharathiyar against vairamuthu.
And bharathiyar’s essays? My god! those sanskritised tamil lines!!!

‘gyalam karuthinum kai koodum
adi naanum avanum oru katchi
antha kaalam oru naal sollatum
naan kadalai eritha thee kuchi”
Well, vairamuthu is unmatched in lyricism.

By: raj

raj — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:19:35 +0000

btw, here’s a sample of bharathiyaar:
http://nambharathi.blogspot.com/2005/11/60-1.html

This is picked from the site of the guy who ‘tossed your article after the mention of Vaira as Modernist god’. This should help you see where he comes from.

By: raj

raj — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:21:37 +0000

br, i dont think he made me fall in love with the language. Indiran thottathu mundiriye(just becaue it rhymes, I mean why not kandasamy chettiyar thottathu mundhiri?), acham-macham, viyarvai-meesai stuff really put me off. Its not just that. There is a bit of phoney-ness to his word play. I cant explain it. I thought even the much-maligned kalaignar has better prose that makes you rapture at the possibilities of twisting language to your whims. Not that I am a fan of Kalaignar – you must really read Bharathiyaar’s Essays to understand what it is to fall in love with the language thanks to one poet.
About modernist, I dont have much idea. I dont know what is modernism . But i dont think he broke any new ground on Film-Lyric writing. I personally dont think he achieved any new technique that Kannadasan hadnt patented but maybe I didnt analyse enough – we need to discuss specifics here to see where we meet/diverge on this one.

By: brangan

brangan — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:57:38 +0000

raj: But why would you disagree on that VM bit? I’m just saying that he was ONE of the “many other Tamil writers” capable of making “any rank newbie fall in rapturous love with the language.” You don’t agree with that? Or that his early work was modernist in the sense that it broke away from earlier styles of lyric writing in quite a startling manner? That’s “modernism” too, right? Just curious why you disagree so.

By: raj

raj — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:07:57 +0000

BR, you shouldnt worry about sounding condescending. You might well condescend on mere mortals .
The readers should make an effort to see the writer’s POV just as the writer( as in good writers like you) try to see all angles while analysing,well, anything.
Yes, i would disagree on the Vairamuthu bit, too. But if someone tossed your article away just because of that bit, that person is not worth a thought from you.

By: brangan

brangan — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 10:36:22 +0000

raj: Thanks. Interesting read, that.

Anon: Thanks for the link. It looks like he’s made all sorts of assumptions about what I’ve read of Sujatha, and misunderstood the Mani Ratnam bit — and that’s really his prerogative. But yeah, looking back, I guess I should have used another phrase for “no one has zeroed in on”. It does sound rather condescending. Oh, c’est la vie.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:15:37 +0000

http://www.lazygeek.net/archives/2008/03/duh.html

By: raj

raj — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:14:55 +0000

http://www.geocities.com/sujathapage/english/einterview1.html

Here’s the link to the interview wheere Sujatha mentions the snippet on Ninaithale Inikkum. The exact words are
“If KB hadd filmed it exactly as Ihad written it, it would have been a model screenplay”

By: raj

raj — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:43:05 +0000

br, actually apparently Sujatha gave a whole done screenplay to KB for Ninaithale… but KB changed ot as per his sensibilities and ‘greater’ understanding of cine-fans’ requirements:- ).
“naan ezhudhiyadhai appadiye eduthirunda padam miga nandraga vandhirukkum” was Sujatha’s comment on NI

By: brangan

brangan — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:52:20 +0000

s: I think he just gave the “story knot” for Ninaithaale…

raj: Haven’t watched it in a long time, so can’t say about 16V in particular, but in general, I find that very few films are as good as you remember them to be.

APALA: Yeah, we’re really quite hypocritical in that respect. When it comes to movies like Boys or Shriya’s dresses, an out-of-nowhere repository of “Thamizh kalaachaaram” will be unearthed.

randramble: That was one hell of a sly needle in a banana