It was a black day for Tamil cinema. The death of K N ‘Panchu’ Arunachalam on Tuesday of cardiac arrest has robbed the industry of one its most celebrated scriptwriters, producers and filmmakers. He was 76.
He wrote down almost 1,000 songs that his famous uncle, the inimitable Kannadasan created, before making a mark.
Known as the man who introduced Illayaraja in ‘Annakilli,’ Arunachalam was a voracious reader who thought differently and came up with scripts that were big commercial hits in 70s and 80s.
While director S P Muthuraman, a distant relative, said his unit grew on a pillar like ‘Panchu’, Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan became commercially successful through his movies. Tamil cinema, dominated till the late 1970s by Sivaji and MGR flicks, changed after his entry. Folk music and village themes became the rage. In ‘Bhuvana Oru Kelvi Kuri’, he practically reinvented Rajinikanth, known until then for negative roles.
It was his scripts that made ‘Bhuvana Oru Kelvikuri,’ ‘Mullum Malarum’, ‘Aarilirunthu Arubathu Varai’, ‘Engeyo Ketta Kural’, ‘Sri Raghavendra’ and others blockbusters. Kamal Haasan, till then considered an A-centre star, in 1982 became popular in B and C centres with Arunchalam-scripted ‘Sakalakala Vallavan,’ the first Tamil film to do a business of Rs 1 crore.
Director Bharathiraja said: “Today, Illayaraja, Gangai Amaran and I are having three square meals only because of Panchu. He was not just a good script-writer, but an amazing personality as well. A good human being, he could be approached for anything at anytime. In fact, for close to 40 movies, I used to run my screenplays through him.”
“He belonged to the golden era of the industry. He studied cinema, breathed cinema. The best gift he got in life is his peaceful death, and friends and well-wishers like us. Respecting artistes was his forte, he took suggestions from one and all… added the director.
Film critic Vamanan said Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth were lucky to have subjects scripted by him. “Take ‘Kalyanaraman’ or ‘Netrikan.’ Such roles could be pulled off with ease only because of his screen-play and scripts.”
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / TNN / August 10th, 2016
Jyothilakshmi in “Vichitra Dampathyam” (Telugu). PHOTO: THE HINDU ARCHIVES
Yesteryear actor Jyothilakshmi who was famous for playing the ‘bad girl’ in the ‘70s, passed away in Chennai on Monday midnight.
The 63-year-old actor breathed her last at a hospital in Chennai . She was said to be undergoing treatment for cancer. She made her film debut, starring in T.R. Ramanna’s Tamil film ‘Periya Idathu Penn’ that had actors Saroja Devi and M.G. Ramachandran in the lead.
She has over 300 movies to her credit, in all the four South Indian languages. A trained dancer, her skills on the dance floor were used to the best of her advantage by filmmakers and she soon became a constant fixture in most films.
She faded into oblivion around the late 80s but the fact that people still remember her speaks volumes about her popularity. Starting off as a child actor, she did her bit as a heroine in some films, but what established her in the industry were roles that were akin to that of a gangster’s moll and her ‘item’ numbers.
All through the 70s and a part of the 80s, Jyothilakshmi appeared to dominate in most South Indian films and her screen presence went on the vane when her sister Jayamalini made her entry on the celluloid screen. Telugu movies that became popular include ‘Gandharva Kanya (1979), ‘Sitaramulu’ (1980) and the hugely-successful film starring Akkineni Nageswara Rao, ‘Prem Nagar’.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Cinema / by Suresh Krishnamoorthy / Hyderabad – August 09th, 2016
Desikachar practicing yoga, while his teacher and fatehr T. Krishnamacharya looks on.
T.K.V Desikachar, son of Indian yoga master T.Krishnamacharya , passed away in Chennai on Monday. He was 78. TKV Desikachar is the son and student of T. Krishnamacharya, popularly known as “the father of modern yoga.”
The Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram trust in Chennai was founded in 1976 by Desikachar as an ode to his father’s teachings.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Internet Desk / Chennai – August 08th, 2016
A man dressed as MGR standing near an exhibit at the Hindu Spiritual and Service Fair | Sunish P Surendran
Chennai :
THOUGH the Tamil Isai College was established 60 years ago, only about 150 students have enrolled. The college offers courses in ancient Tamil musical instruments. College authorities decided to spread awareness about the school at the Hindu Spiritual and Service Fair on Wednesday. N Padmini, a Bharatanatyam lecturer at the college, said, “This is the first time we are setting up a stall here. We feel that nobody knows that such a college exists.”
The college was started in 1932 by Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiyar in Chidambaram and eventually found its place at the Raja Annamalai Mandram. Besides music and dance, the college has classes in Tamil history and literature. The college is on the top floor of the hall, but the teacher claimed that not many know of its existence. “People attend shows there, but don’t know what happens at the hall. We don’t have a proper board too because the Metro barricades and settlements outside hide the signs,” said Padmini.
Tamil musical instruments like veena, mirudhangam, nagaswaram and thavul are taught at the college. Moreover, the college has rare instruments from the 18th and 17th centuries like the kinnari yazh, mayura veena and pancha muga vadhyam. “We have instruments that only some museums might have; we restore them, but don’t have students willing to learn or even try their hand at them,” said another teacher at the stall.
The institution also has an evening college for students, who are interested, but cannot afford to attend the day college. The college offers three-year diploma courses and invites students of all ages. Padmini said that since the youth are hesitant to pursue music as an immediate career choice, many do other courses and then come back to music, while others wait their whole lives and choose to learn music or dance much later in life. “We have no age bar; anyone can choose to learn. No restrictions,” she added.
Apart from the music college stall,another stall at the fair displayed over 25 Tamil musical instruments collected from around the State, from a cow-horn to several types of mirudhangam. S Sivakumar, who runs the stall, said the display was an effort to get visitors to learn about the instruments and get a idea of how vibrant Tamil music was. “It is believed that there was less illness and there were fewer health issues in the past because there was music to listen to and music healed diseases. Nowadays no one listens to anything classical,” he said.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service / August 04th, 2016
A bicycle café, active clubs and more than 100 super randonneurs. The author explores Chennai’s vibrant cycling culture
As a culture that now celebrates all things quantifiable — a fitbit to track your steps, an app to count how far you’ve run — fitness is at the epicentre of our tech-focussed lives. From the calories you’ve consumed to the weights you’re lifting, there’s a number that makes it all worthwhile. If you didn’t Instagram a screenshot of your Runtastic app, have you even really worked out?
You’d assume then that this cycling fad that seems to be sweeping the city is just that — a fitness phase. Is cycling the new running? The new boot camp? Surprisingly enough, for all the avid bikers we spoke to, fitness came at the very end of their list of priorities. Whether it’s waking up at 5 a.m. to cycle, or spending the weekend on long rides, many of them may have started cycling to get fit, but they all agree it is way more than exercise that they are out to get now.
Creating culture
“Please don’t call it a themed restaurant,” Ashish Thadani clarifies at the very beginning of our conversation. Too many people have misunderstood what Ciclo (pronounced chee-klo), India’s first bicycle cafe, is attempting to do, and Ashish is eager to explain. As someone who cycles every day, Ashish admits that Ciclo was not conceived as a revenue spinner, but is more passion than business, as he’s excited to promote a lifestyle that he has grown to love. The cafe is a place where Ashish is hoping to build a common platform for the various cycling clubs in Chennai — there’s an entire wall where the jerseys of six reputed clubs are framed and proudly displayed.
The team jerseys displayed at Ciclo Cafe. / Photo: M. Vedhan / The Hindu
The cafe’s other speciality is the cleaning and repair services it offers bikers, who can have a snack while getting their rides fixed. And it’s not just pro-bikers — the cafe offers all customers a chance to rent cycles at the nominal rate of Rs. 200 a day to try their hand at cycling. With other Ciclos set to open in Gurgaon and Hyderabad, this time with shower and locker facilities, Ashish is hoping the bicycle cafe culture catches on all over.
Suresh Kumar likes to believe he called the cycling craze way back in 2006. Having grown up watching his father run Balaji Cycles, a 100-sq-foot shop, which launched in 1975, Suresh and his brother expanded the business. In 2012, they opened Pro-Bikers, one of the first high-end stores to sell professional bikes in Chennai. From five bikes a month to about a 100 now, Suresh says sales have peaked in the last four years, which is also why he set up a tech workshop with mechanics trained in Taiwan to service these high-end bikes. Suresh is also one of the founders of the Tamil Nadu Cycling Club (TCC), which began in 2010. They organise about 40 events a year, like endurance races, timed trials and workshops, where all the cycling clubs in the city participate. According to Suresh’s estimate, the cycling community in Chennai is about 10,000 people strong, and growing.
“When I started Chennai’s first biking club in 2009,” says Suhail Ahmed, “there were just 10 of us riding on the ECR.” Called ReaXion Cycling back then, their most popular event used to be a ride from Chennai to Mahabalipuram and back. This casual club soon grew to become an information portal called choosemybike.com that helped people find information about bikes in the market. Suhail now works for TI Cycles, where, he admits, he doesn’t get enough time to ride.
Another big draw for cycling is that, like running, this too is a social experience. It is easier to stay motivated when you’re in a group, and while you may start off concerned about fitness, what you’ll get hooked to is the company. Just ask Divagaran Thiagarajan, who started WCCG (We are Chennai Cycling Group) in 2012, as a neighbourhood cycling group. Today, WCCG has different chapters in different areas in the city, where people in the same neighbourhood ride together. Unlike a racing group or randonneurs, WCCG focusses on getting people together and creating themed rides to keep the regulars excited.
For the love of the race
For Aarthi Srinath, the party starts at 5 a.m. All days, except Mondays, you’ll find her at Madhya Kailash at the crack of dawn, geared up and waiting for her team — the MadRascals — Tamil Nadu’s first amateur cycle racing team. They ride for an hour and a half every day and three hours on weekends. Being the only woman on the team doesn’t deter her. “When people ask me why I do it, I tell them cycling is more than an activity — it’s a lifestyle choice,” says Aarthi. It’s a tough choice, considering the commitment one needs to keep up with the team. While there is only one winner at the end of the race, cycle racing is a team effort. There are positions like sprinter (who keeps up the speed), the climber (who takes care of the elevated bits) and even domestic (teammates who get in formation to protect the finishers from wind resistance). “When you’re in a team, you need to trust each other because often, when you’re riding at high speeds, all you can see of each other are the wheels,” she adds. The rest is intuition.
There’s also a need to be entirely self-sufficient when riding long distances. “You need to learn to fix a flat tyre, a fallen chain — when you’re riding alone, you’ve got to help yourself,” explains Aarthi.
On the fitness front, cycling is a great idea, since you tend to burn close to 850-900 calories on a 50-60 km ride. Also, it’s low-impact with no stress on the knees. For Aarthi though, it’s much more than fitness. It’s the love of the race and the adrenalin rush that keeps her — and many like her — going.
It’s the journey that matters
To win the title of Super Randonneur, as defined by the Audax Club Parisien, Partha Datta had to complete a series of brevets (rides that were 200, 300, 400, and 600 km long, in a fixed time limit) in one single year. He has won that title a number of times — and so have more than 100 others from Chennai as of last year, according to Partha. If cycle racing is a test of speed, then randonneuring is the ultimate test of endurance.
A fixed route, control points at regular intervals and a time limit is all you get when you attempt this sport; you need to have the discipline, stamina and time management to make it to the end point in time. With a minimum of 200 km, and a maximum of 1,000 km (in Chennai) brevets, this is no joyride, and yet more than 153 people completed the ECR Classic brevet held by the Madras Randonneurs on June 28.
What kept Partha going when he started off in 2011, is the fact that every ride he organised and took part in, was making history for randonneuring in India. Then, of course, there was that amazing feeling of completing each brevet. He recalls one brevet where it rained for eight hours straight and he even had to deal with a puncture, but managed to make it in time. Of course, there’s also the fact that he enjoys riding. “I enjoy explaining the concept of randonneuring to the strangers I meet on the road, and they never fail to ask me why I don’t just buy a motorbike,” he laughs.
At 65, Sundar Rajan holds the title of Grand Super Randonneur with great pride — but congratulate him on it, and he’s quick to tell you that it isn’t amazing, and anyone can do it. After a childhood of cycling every day to school and college, Sundar says he got back to it only in 2008, when he moved back to Chennai and decided to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Regular cycling soon became a habit, and he was looking for a challenge when randonneuring came into the picture in 2011. “I am not a speed guy. I can’t race, but I can manage long distances thanks to my stamina.”
“The best part is that randonneuring demands nothing extraordinary of you — if you put your mind to it, and focus, it’s easily done,” explains Sundar, whose daily routine is now cycling to Mahabalipuram and back in five hours every evening.
The book cover of Cycling in Madras. / Illustration By Akshayaa Selvaraj
A century of cycling
Probably the only city to have documented its connection with cycling over a period of 100 years, Chennai seems to have started its affair with the two-wheel ride right after it was invented.
The effort of a cycling club that calls themselves Cycling Yogis, led by Ramanujar Moulana, Cycling in Madras — from 1877 to 1977 documents every possible connection between cycles and the city. “I was always inquisitive about how the cycle, invented in far off Western countries, came to Chennai, and how it ended up in this form,” says Ramanujar. For him, the booklet symbolises the culmination of his two loves — history and cycling. In fact, the Cycling Yogis came together mainly out of Ramanujar’s love for sharing Chennai’s history as he rode along with friends.
Filled with little gems like the fact that the first bicycle in India was assembled in Madras, the booklet is the Yogis’ way of documenting how the city embraced the humble bicycle.
From indispensible when invented, to relegated to secondary status around the time motorbikes were invented, and now, back in vogue again, the bicycle seems to have come a full circle (pun intended) in Chennai.
Popular cycling clubs in Chennai
ReaXion Cycling – Chennai’s first cycle club, started in 2009
Madras Randonneurs – Pioneers of randonneuring in Chennai
MadRascals – Chennai’s only amateur cycle racing team
WCCG – Chennai’s neighbourhood-based cycling group with five chapters
Cycling Yogis – They enjoy cycling to heritage sites and historic locations
G3 – Chennai’s first all-woman cycling club
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Metroplus / by Elizabeth Mathew / Chennai – August 05th, 2016
Bright colours and creative designs mark Bhuvana’s crochets Satish Babu
Chennai :
Colourful threads, interlocked in loops to create interesting patterns and accessories- this defines the art of crochet making, in a nutshell. While there are only a handful of crochet makers/artists in the city, CE caught up with Bhuvana, a city-based art teacher and crochet maker.
As we enter her ‘art den’, colourful crochet handbags, keychains, bottle holders, neck pieces, hair clips and other accessories stand out. Made from acrylic (artificial threads) to cotton yarns, from t-shirt yarn to jute, Bhuvana shares that procuring good quality yarns is a tough task. “We get synthetic threads and wool here. But if you are looking for the soft, thick, cotton yarns, you have to procure it from Delhi or foreign countries.”
When asked how she was drawn to crochet making, Bhuvana replies “It all began after I saw the movie Barfi (2012)! Priyanka Chopra carries a crochet handbag in the movie. Until then I had only seen old-fashioned scarfs, baby clothes and accessories.After that, for four years, I did intensive research on materials, tools and accessories involved in crochet making. Until then, I didn’t know the difference between knitting and crochet making!”
A year ago,she started her own label, EM’s Crochet art and artifacts on Facebook and has been showcasing her work on the page. “Since I also teach and paint, I make crochets whenever I get time. In fact, my goal is to incorporate crochet in art,” she says.“Abroad, crochet art installations are very common. Even in India, some artists have done such installations and I intend to do something like that.” With a plethora of styles and stiches in crochet, she explains a few such as single, double, triple crochet, granny squares and bobble stitch. “One interesting thing about crochet is that each stitch in crochet is completed before proceeding to the next. This makes it easy for us to remove a particular loop in case of changes,” she explains. Tapestry crochet, which is predominantly seen in carpets and mats, is another interesting style, adds Bhuvana. “This type of crochet making is not as easy, but its output is very beautiful. It involves working parallely with multiple threads of different colours. I am currently working on stocking material for that,” smiles the artist.
A Masters graduate in painting, she shares that any form can be achieved in crochet. Even stuffed toys! “I made a rat out of crochet. The loops are interlocked in the required shape and then the opening is stuffed with cotton before the final stitch. I am currently concentrating on making more toys,” she says. Shedding light on why crocheting is considered a women’ job in India, she avers, “Firstly, it’s not just a women’s job. I have seen a lot of men doing crochet in foreign countries. But, I don’t understand why it doesn’t happen in India. I know very few men who do it here,”adding that when it comes to accessories, men don’t prefer crochet. “They think it’s feminine. But key chains and crochet bracelets can be used by them. Some of my male friends have bought them from me,” she beams.
Bhuvana has exhibited her paintings and crochet art works at Bangalore and will also be a part of City Souk, Chennai. For details, visit: https://www.facebook.com/emsartandartifacts
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Roshne B / August 04th, 2016
If you are pining for some hot ghee drenched dosa while trudging through a cold North American autumn, you have just been offered yet another choice to indulge in the taste of home. It seems one of South India’s most beloved restaurant chains is set to take its first steps into the United States of America.
The US Consulate in Chennai tweeted out late on Saturday night that Adyar Ananda Bhavan, popularly known as A2B, is planning to open its first branch there next month.
“A2B in the US? Yes! Chennai’s @A2BRestaurant plans 2 open its 1st outlet in US in Aug 2016!,” went the US Consultate’s tweet. It’s facebook post had a bit more information.
According to the Consulate, the decision to open shop in the North American nation was a “direct outcome” of the chain’s participation in the U S Commercial Service’s SelectUSA Investment Summit held in Washington D. C recently.
A2B will be following in the footsteps of the now iconic Hotel Saravana Bhavan, which already has three hotels in the United States and 56 outlets across the globe not including those in India, according to its website.
A2B meanwhile has no branches overseas and 95 branches in India. The chain began three decades ago as a small sweet shop started by founder K S Thirupathi Raja in Chennai. Now at the helm are his two sons – Managing Director K T Srinivasa Raja and K T Venkatesan.
The management of the chain could not be reached for comment.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Jonathan Ananda / July 30th, 2016
The road in question is in Adyar, shortly after the bridge / Photo: Special Arrangement
That is an intriguing name. The road in question is in Adyar, shortly after the bridge. It had me scurrying home to consult Venkatesh Krishnamoorthy’s book A Tale of Two Schools, which documents the history of the Sankara Schools run by the Indian Education Trust. Much of the details in this article are from that work.
Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Colonel Henry Steel Olcott founded the Theosophical Society (TS) in 1875 in New York. They acquired the 27-acre estate of the thickly wooded Huddlestone Gardens on the banks of the Adyar River in 1882 and established the world headquarters of the Society there in 1883. Annie Besant, who became its President in 1907, was instrumental in the Society becoming a huge 266-acre estate by 1910.
The TS needed a press for printing its tracts, and in 1907, Annie Besant purchased the necessary machinery and established it just outside the estate, on a narrow road adjoining the Society’s world headquarters entrance. By then, the Theosophists had ‘sanskritised’ Besant into Vasantha, and the printing facility became the Vasantha Press, the road taking its name from it. An interesting aside is that the Besant School begun by the TS had its prayer dedicated to Annie Besant. The song composed by the legendary Papanasam Sivan is in raga Vasantha and begins with the words Devi Vasanthe!
The foundation stone for the Vasantha Press was laid in 1908, and it became functional a short while later. In 1914, Mrs Besant acquired the Madras Standard, a daily, and renamed it New India. The paper, which electrified the freedom movement with its demand for Home Rule, was initially brought out from the Vasantha Press.
Running into frequent trouble with the authorities, it moved its offices in 1916 to the New India Building on Second Line Beach, from where it was published till its demise, which was probably in 1926. New India Building is now home to another of Besant’s creations, the Young Men’s Indian Association (YMIA). It is temporarily housed there, even as it takes ages to make up its venerable mind over what is to be done with its original home — Gokhale Hall, on Armenian Street.
After Annie Besant’s death in 1933, the TS acquired and ran Vasantha Press for long. An expanded facility was built in Besant Gardens in the TS premises in 1971 and the Press moved there. The Sankara School, set up in R.K. Nagar, Raja Annamalaipuram, at the instance of the Kanchi Paramacharya and spearheaded by P.R. Pattabhiraman, was then looking for property that it could acquire and expand in. The Indian Education Society (now Trust) that manages the school purchased the erstwhile Vasantha Press property in 1973. The school moved in the same year and continues to function from there. The old press building has made way for state-of-the-art classrooms, but the spirit of Besant, who believed in preparing the younger generation for meeting the challenges of the future, lives on.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Society / by Sriram V / Chennai – July 29th, 2016
She is a singer, Bharatanatyam dancer and video editor. Multi-talented.
But it is her unique talent of whistling that has been fetching this Chennai girl laurels. Swetha Suresh is a professional whistler.
She has won the first prize in two competitions at the World Whistling Convention held in Japan between July 15-17, and is already a record-holder for whistling 18 hours straight in 2014. Her name has entered the Tamil Nadu Book Of Records, Asia Book of records and also the Limca Book Of Records. She has next set her sights on the Guinness world records, which she plans to conquer soon.
Asked how she got interested in whistling, Swetha says “I started taking Carnatic music lessons at a very young age and joined a children’s orchestra as a vocalist in my fifth standard. I was fascinated by the sound of the flute and wanted to learn to play it. But at that time, I was unable to. So I tried to whistle the sounds and that’s how I got interested in whistling. As whistlers, we call ourselves ‘flute without bamboo’.”
Swetha’s parents encouraged her unique talent and helped her join the Indian Whistler’s Association (IWA) to develop it.
There are different forms of whistling — blowing in, blowing out, teeth whistling and wolf whistling. Swetha is a blowing-out whistler and she groomed herself as an artist through different innovative training exercises at the IWA.
The World Whistling Convention, which she won, is a biennial affair, and this year it took place in Kawasaki, Japan. There was online audition which she cleared with a top rank, bolstered by which she set about planning her trip. Giving her a leg up, her college, Shankarlal Sundarbai Shasun Jain College, where she had completed her undergraduate studies, sponsored her trip. A few friends also pitched in to help Swetha realise her dream.
The convention in Japan saw 50 contestants from six countries participating in different categories. Swetha participated in the Recorded Accompaniment (Adult female) and the Allied Arts categories. The whistle artist says it was a really tough competition and she felt added pressure because she was performing in front of her idol, Geert Chatrou, a world champion whistler from the Netherlands.
WATCH SWETHA’S PERFORMANCE AT THE WORLD WHISTLING CONVENTION
But this youngster was able to top both her competitions and got the first prize in both. She even got a special souvenir from her idol.
Whistling is usually seen as a roadside Romeo’s toll of choice, and it is never taken seriously. But this Chennai girl has conquered the world stage with her whistling prowess and hopes that people see it for the art it is.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Stanley John / Online Desk / July 29th, 2016
Veteran Tamil poet R Ranganathan, known as Gnanakoothan , died of age-related illnesses on Wednesday night. He was 78 and is survived by his wife and two sons.
Born in Nagapattinam in in 1938, Gnanakoothan attacked the establishment with his own idiom of social satire through his poems. He is considered one of the pioneers of modern Tamil poetry.
His popular collections poems are “Suriyanukku Pinpakkam,” “Anru Veru Kizhamai,” and “Kakarkaraiyil SIla Marankal.”
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / M T Saju /TNN /July 28th, 2016
