Tulu Cinema at 35

Enna Thangadi was the first film to be released in Tulu in 1971. Tulu cinema is turning 35 this year. Rightly for the occassion, film Sudda made it into the international headlines few days back, with it winning the award for the best Indian film at the eighth Asian Film Festival "Ocean - Cinefan" held at New Delhi. The film is based on a Tulu play Bojja by Narayan Shetty Nandalike and was directed by P N Ramchandra. The film depicts the gradual fall of the feudal system in coastal region of Karnataka.

Speaking of Tulu films, first film that strikes in my mind is Koti Chennaya with its immortal songs Padumaleda Brihma and Ekka Saka. Though the new version of Koti Chennaya was made and released this year it made less impact than the original. Koti and Chennaya were twin brothers and heroes of Tulu Nadu and their story is beautifully depicted in the film. Other films which worth mention are : Pagetha Puge, Beesaththi Babu, Tudar, Badkada Bile, Mari Bale, Bollidota, Sathya Olundu, Dareda Budedi, Kaasdaaye Kandani, Yer Malthina Thappu. K N Taylor is the prominent name associated with Tulu films with the films he made. More recently, in the 90's, one film which was huge hit and run successfully in Bangalore too was Bangar Patler starring Kannada actress Sudharani. It also won national award for the best film. It ran for 107 days in Jyothi Talkies in Mangalore.

Another film which made in the 90's was September 8, directed by Richard Castelino, starring Kannada actor Sunil and Kannada writer, Dr. K Shivaram Karanth. The film was shot in 24 hours (One complete day from 6 AM to next morning 5 AM on September 8th - to be exact 23 and half hours) entirely in Mangalore, a record in the world cinema. 9 Cameras with 9 units were used for the completion of the film in the given time.

To mark the 35th year of Tulu cinema a programme was held in Mangalore on Friday, August 25. Kannada actress Jayamala inaugurated the programme and music director V Manohar inaugurated the 7 day long Tulu film festival. Jayamala expressed her desire to make a film on Abbakka, the queen of Tulu Nadu who faught bravely against the Portuguese.

Last year some 7 Tulu films were announced. Some of them had theatre artists like Naveen D Padil who has already made a name for himself with his Tulu dramas like Pudar Deethiji, Nervous Narayane, Oriyardori Asal. Hope to see more and more Tulu films hit the screens in the near future.

A scene from Kadala Mage

Updates : 20th January 2008 : Kadala Mage was released in 2006 and went on to become a hit and had Diganth (of Mungaaru Male and now Gaalipata fame) in a lead role. Diganth hails from Theerthahalli, Shivamogga/Shimoga.

Updates : 02nd May 2008 : Birse starring Tulu drama veteran, Naveen D Padil was released on 11th April 2008 in Prabhath Talkies, Mangalore. You can read the review of the movie here.

Regards,
Raveesh

References :
- mangalorecity.com
- mangalorean.com
- daijiworld.com

Literature : Local or Global?

Thought of writing something about literature. And this post talks about whether literature can be global or local. Read more to find out.

Which do you enjoy most - story of Bangalore guy(if you are in Bangalore) or of some unknown guy in the streets of London or New York? Whatever may be the arguments, I feel that when you read story which involves the characters and environment of your home town or village, you will appreciate it much better. That's why Goruru Ramaswamy Iyengar's Naani makes more sense to us than Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer.

As such every literature is local. Author tries to explain his experiences in the local context only. In this era of globalization, literature is one area on which it had less impact. Though this is changing with the global internet connectivity and this virtual world changing people's lives across the world. People sharing their experiences in the web nowadays can make more sense around the world now.

So it was hard to identify Charles Dickens's David Copperfield among us whereas characters in Dr.Kota Shivaram Karanth's novels were easy to identify. When I say literature is local, language can not be a barrier. So it is more joyful to read R K Narayan's English novel Swami and friends and even imagine the imaginary town Malgudi. When it comes to humor writings, this is more prominent. There would be hardly anyone who had not enjoyed Padukone Ramanand Rao's Kodeya Vichara(if you had read that lesson in the school days).

Even when a Indian author travels to a foreign country, there too he sees it through the eyes of an Indian. So when you read travelogue of a Indian author, it is more convincing. So you will sure enjoy Goruru Ramaswamy Iyengar's humorous travelogue Amerikadalli Goruru.

But there may be exceptions. Urbanites who would have grown in different environment may find convincing and make more sense out of the writings of a foreign author.

Your comments are welcome.

other news : Sad to see Cricket tri-series in Lanka, first becoming bi-series and then a monoseries (with Lanka at home, just kidding). But rain disrupting the series is nothing new to the series played in Lanka. But this is one of the few occassions when the entire series had to be called off.

Raveesh

Heroes in the End

You feel immensely happy when you see the hero winning in the end of the film fighting against all odds. Anybody remembering Revanth in the movie Beladingala Baale when at the end of the movie solves the puzzle to find the Beladingala Baale's address when he is in a chess tournament.

We are like that. We wait till the last minute to do our work. Let it be the paying of bills, finishing the assignment in colleges or planning for a trip. And its more joyful when finish your work in the end when the pressure is mounting rather than you do it in the beginning itself. Out of the chaos you find the solution and it is better. You are more happy to see Indian cricket team winning the final against Australia after losing all the matches against them in the league stage rather than winning all the matches including the final. Strange isn't.

Remembering a incident in the school days. Our teacher asked that how many of you would like finish the homework much early before the submission date. Hands raised were few. But when asked how many of you would like to finish the homework on the day before the submission date many hands were raised. Many of us still would remember the last minute assignment completion whether in school or in college. In college that was different, come early in the morning to college finish the assignment work just before the lecturer arrives. And how can I not mention the day or night before the exam when you yourself are tensed and get calls from all of your friends for those extra tips for the exam. Even remember some of my friends saying proudly 'I read all in the last 2 days and still able to finish and write the exam'.

Our movies reflect our attitude and sometimes it influences the latter. We want happy adventurous endings in our films. So for all, the title suits the best "Heroes in the End".When success comes to you on a daily basis you are obsessed with it. So when greater challenge comes before us, we would enjoy facing it.

What's In A Name

Time and again this question has been asked and it has never been easy to answer the same. As far as individuals are concerned, their name is the word which is used more by others than by themselves.

Movie names are always interesting. There, gimmick is part of the game when naming a film. Kannada film star Upendra started the trend in Kannada film industry, of using unconventional names for his films. Look at this titles : Om(Symbol and not the word here), 'A', 'H2O' - unique in its own sense.

When we talk of names I remember a story heard in my childhood : 2 students were quarelling in the class, so the teacher gave the punishment of writing their own name, 100 times. But again there was trouble with one of the guys name being Shiva Kumar and another being Somanahalli Somanna Gowda.

Movie names are interesting to observe, as they are the ones which grab the attention of the viewers first. And there are often disputes over the name of the film with one producer already registered that name and another trying to look for the same name. Thats why the caption we see at the bottom of film titles to resolve any dispute. For example Deewar - Let's Bring Our Heroes Home was named so to avoid any clash with Deewar the Amitabh block buster of yesteryear. In Kannada, Namma Basava was renamed so because Basava was already registered. But in the posters, Namma was too small and Basava was prominent.

Origin of company names is very interesting. Look at these : Reebok - is the alternate spelling of rhebok(changed to Reebok in 1960 from a original name Mercury Sports), Adidas - from the name of the founder Adolf(Adi) Dassler, Cisco - short for San Francisco, ESPN - Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.

There are instances when a newcomer to the city get confused to get into the wrong place, because there are two areas in that city by the same name. If somebody's name matches with that of some celebrity he/she gets unexpected honours and what not. Thats how the world is, when you here a catchy name you are sure to have some impression about the person you are going to meet.

Comments are welcome.

Raveesh

referred links for the info in this post
- Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_company_name_etymologies
- Answers.com
http://www.answers.com/topic/reebok-international-ltd

Kanglish

With back to back articles on cricket in the last two weeks, now its time to look upon the new topic, Kanglish. By this time you must have guessed it, ya its about the influence of English upon Kannada and the dialect hence formed, especially in namma bengaluru.

When Radio Mirchi was launched few days back in Bangalore, its punch line said sakkath hot maga, an example of what now has become prevalent, Kanglish(Kannada + English). Kanglish is everywhere, from new age bangalore youth gossip to foot tapping numbers from Gurukiran music. One song from Puneeth's movie goes like this : classalli lectureu boraadre pictureu or another one from Gurukiran's music goes like, ee kanasina highwayali nooraaru turning ide.

One thing about this lingo is to add an extra 'u' at the end of english words in most of the cases, to make it kannadaized, say roadu, pictureu, wasteu etc. This must have come from the fact that most of the Kannada words end with a 'u' in the end.

Nowadays, it is a transformation of another type, invention of new words. while in conversation with my friend, happened to hear the latest invention nodable(worth watch). He was telling "aa filmu nodable alla maga".

"Swalpa adjust maadkolli", can be said as the epitome of this lingo or dialect which you can hear, when you are in a crowded BMTC bus or in any queue. This lingo continues to grow in its own way with the young brigade of Bangalore and of course Gandhinagar, the epicenter of Kannada film industry contributing bulk of it.

Raveesh

Cricket In The Time Of Football

Ok, now that it is all settled in football world about who the champion is, it is time to look back at the cricketing world and see what happened during World Cup Football. One change was prominent as far as the newspapers in India were concerned, that football was given wide coverage in the back pages and even in the front pages which predominently belonged to cricket news at any time in India. Not only national newpapers, even regional newspapers were not far behind in this. With this, cricket news shifted to more inner pages with photos in black and white.

Important records were made, broken during this time. Waise bhi cricket me records ki kami nahi hai. Most importantly, it seems that 400 is no longer a run everest in an ODI which no team dared to climb in 35 years of ODI history, with already 3 teams scoring above 400 runs this year. Latest addition to this is Sri Lanka, scoring 443 for 9 against Netherlands. Australia climbed the run everest 434 for 4, March this year proudly. But joy of Australians was short-lived with South Africa outplaying them scoring 435 for 9 with a delivery left, thus the Australian record not even lasted for 4 hours. And now it is the turn South Africans with their record lasting not even 4 months. Cricket is like that, a game of glorious uncertainities.

Partnerships in ODIs is one aspect of the game where Indians have built upon their own records, with wicketwise 5 of the partnership records are in the name of Indians out of 10. But this time their record 1st wicket partnership came under threat and broken again by Sri Lankans Tharanga and Jayasuriya putting on 286 runs for the first wicket against England. Previous best was between Ganguly and Tendulkar for 258 runs against Kenya.

Coming to the impact of football on cricket, England team escaped big media bashing for their dismal 0-5 loss to Sri Lanka in the ODI series with most media covering more football news than anything else. Sachin's exploits in England gained mileage only in cricket sites like cricinfo.com but in otherdays he made news everywhere he went. Jayasuriya became the second highest in number of hundreds scored in one day cricket, a place jointly held by former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly.

I bought Sportstar last week to get to know more about India's series victory in the Caribbean only to find out that only 4-5 pages dedicated to this, which covered the last two tests between India and West Indies. I thought sab football ki mahima hai.

Raveesh