Sundari Neeyum Sundaran Gnanum - Drama@Mudhra on Jan 15th,2018

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rajeshnat
Posts: 9907
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Sundari Neeyum Sundaran Gnanum - Drama@Mudhra on Jan 15th,2018

Post by rajeshnat »

Sundari Neeyum Sundaran Gnanum - Drama @Mudhra on Jan 15th,2018
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Drama : Sundari Neeyum Sundaran Gnanum
Written and Directed : Bombay Chanakya

Cast : Atleast 10 dont recollect their names - million apologies
Special Shout Out : Nalli Chettiar , Radha and Mudhra Bhaskar
Sabha :Mudhra as part of their 3 day Pongal Nadaga vizha
Concert Type : it does not matter nirvana or non nirvana no sabha secy will dare to close without the climax. Any case it was open ended evening slot
Concert : Free for rasikas

In late 80's or early 90's i did have few opportunities to particularly see some dramas in Nungambakkam Cultural Academy. I guess the patrons of Music, Dance or Drama are just the same set of rasikas in chennai . I have personally heard few dramas in the last 10+ years. There was one notable Cho Series that was enacted after many years in NGS where Cho Ramaswamy and his extraordinary dream team performed many dramas and I heard 3 out or 7. There are few SVe Shekar, Almost all Crazy Mohans , few YGM dramas etc that i have seen. The last i saw a drama of some team who was enacting on credit card usage(forgot the crew) and then last year i saw the TV Varadarajan enacting himself as Thyagaraja and another Bombay gnanam who was enacting one of the earlier kanchi mutt peethipathi prior to mahaswami chandrasekara saraswati . I also saw one drama of YGM. Personally the pull of drama is just not as heavy as Carnatic Music for me . In life just like Idli and Dosa you also go thru a phase of like ,then dislike and then again like .

Any case Jan 15th, most of the sabhas are shutdown for music . The sabhas in mambalam are slightly better than mylapore in spread of content .There is a bit more balance in content spread across all three arts namely music , dance and drama . Krishna gana sabha is taking a shape as equal music and equal dance sabha . Bharath kalachar has mostly music and quite a few sprinkles of dance and at times also few outliers like Mohd Rafi night with one present singing sensation by name Anil Bajpai who sings as much as Late Rafi . NCA now CCA(Nungambakkam/Chennai cultural academy) needs more publicity and stage infrastructure they are not as big as what they were but i think the drama or dance quotient is not as heavy in CCA but it is predominantly music . Well big deal , if you are in mambalam area you can choose SKGS, Vanimahal, mudhra and Bharath kalachar , personally these sabha patrons are just fabulous. U as a rasika have choice all within 2 kms and donot have to go to mile o pour.

Personally I miss NGS Krishnaswamy who was indeed supporting a lot of dramas.I recollect he once asked me to hear few RS Manohar dramas which i thought was simply spectacular . I went with his recommendation and i thank him as he recommended me to attend few of rs manohar dramas. There was this writer Komal swaminathan who is simply spectacular and is kind of super depth material in layering characters and his writeups were exceptionally good. NGS krishnaswamy has given me lot of personal tips in drama atleast he was my first level filter.Endaroo mahAnubhavulu is more apt in drama than music which is at times entarobhavulu only .

When one decides on drama , it is usually the great crowdpulllers who have more brand and commercial sponsor recognition like say Crazy Mohan, S Ve shekhar etc that we mostly associate with. With they having far more opportunities to perform, we just miss the big tail of drama artists.Unlike CM , drama is more difficult to stage and hence we miss many of them ,At times tier II drama artists(tier II in reach but not in talent) have very less opportunities to showcase their art .I think historically Karthik Fine arts particularly the founder patron Late Rajagopal is known the most to support drama. And in today's era Mudhra and Radha Bhaskar are doing a fantafabulous job along with the generous support of chief patron Nalli Kuppuswami Chettiar who backs up so well .Incidentally all three(Nalli and Bhaskars) were there to cheer for this drama sundari neeyum sundaran gnanum.

Any way if you keep wondering why am i writing all of this, the rule of writing for drama and cinema is not to reveal and completely hide the details .Unlike music where you can damn provide all the details but yet not cannibalize the Music Muse in drama you have to follow non cannibalized writeups.

rajeshnat
Posts: 9907
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Sundari Neeyum Sundaran Gnanum - Drama@Mudhra on Jan 15th,2018

Post by rajeshnat »

Moving On with the drama
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Bombay Chanakya is the playwriter and director of this drama . I heard his name but I just googled bit more now . He has written 25 dramas he has worked a lot with the greatest dada saheb phalke award winner Late K balachandar(KB) .Chanakya has worked in few popular serials along with KB in the last 2 decades is my best guess.Chanakya is the pen name and i find that he was born and brought up in Bombay. Bombay Chanakya is known to write a lot of dramas on contemporary themes and I am assuming he is more known for serious and contemporary themes .

Lot of friends and relatives are attaching a stigma that excessively listening to carnatic music makes you stereotyped as a way too serious person and devoid of having any emotions centered on laughter etc. I personally feel all this stigma disease is only coming from either watching excess Television or the fact that there is absolutely no provision to laugh in CM concert .Just imagine can a rasika laugh at the midpoints of kantiki sundara taramaku rupave .

Chennai is exceptionally good in the holidays of pongal. Well that is my latest discovery as of 2018 .The music is bit shutdown for sure atleast i have no interest in that fish market kamaraj arangam which still has Carnatic concerts during pongal.The last 2 days I went with my spouse and kid going to The Hindu Lit for life and my kid seemed to enjoy bit more than us .My kid has gone to one drama, one cine film orchestra, one dance and yet has not gone to a live carnatic music concert , the stigma of excessive seriousness in Carnatic Music has to be overcome by my kid but I will wait.

Any way if you still keep wondering what has happened to rajesh writing and if you are still thinking if he is going to write anything about the Bombay Chanakya drama , Let me be honest i was just filling few lines relevantly irrelevant as I faced a bit of mental block in writing about dramas . I am just beginning to think just now that I may have just have enough meat to write about drama without revealing the plot and sabotaging by giving the story or plot.

rajeshnat
Posts: 9907
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Sundari Neeyum Sundaran Gnanum - Drama@Mudhra on Jan 15th,2018

Post by rajeshnat »

No more wait - Really Moving to the drama
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Sundari Neeyum Sundram Gnanum phrase is quite known if at all you were associated with either cinema or music in 80's and 90's . Certainly that title phrase was adequately covered for atleast 3 to 4 segments and tied up with the plot of the drama . The drama psyche of Bombay Chanakya has nearly the same intelligent opening adaptation like a typical K balachandar touch . Like K Balachandar who keeps the actress suhasini or sarita as a main actor in his movies this writer has kept the drama actress as a main actor protagonist in the movie .

The main cast name is NeelAmbari or rather her full name as told in the opening segment was Nallamangudi Neelakantan NeelAmbari ,The introduction of the full name were all K balachandarish . You can assume what profession she would have been .YOu take a guess right now it can be either Doctor, Nurse , Lawyer or Engineer, run your imagination which will go well with drama and not cinema , without me revealing you would have guessed the profession keeping in line with the pragmatism of drama , sets and dialogues etc. Personally i have a connection with the hamlet nallamangudi , for those who donot know that hamlet nallamangudi it is near nannilam , kind of suburb of tiruvarur.

As with all dramas whether it is comical or serious family subject you need main character neelambari to have either a son or a daughter. Neelambari had just one of them and as you may have guessed that son or daughter is not married and young. The name of that young son or daughter has a a name like Ramani .You have male ramani and a female ramani . That was only a slight minor twist.

THe other major twist is the bride or bridegroom that they are looking so that neelambari will soon be a mother in law. That twist is bit of triple sundae and the name is a major twist. The name is bit associated with marriage and there are 3 characters . who could soon have neelambari as their Mother in Law all with the same name trying to hook and get neelambari's teenage son/daughter to be tagged as life partner . There are characters stiched around neelamabari with 3 future son/daugher in laws eyeing on the same daugher/son of neelambari .

The theme is built on the name and verb confusion and the comic interludes were stacked with the power of expressive tamil language in a very contemporary sense. A typical sequence of one person not getting thamizh Ra and replacing with Zha was well done . Usually we have seen stereotypes where tamilians donot get Zha . IN this case it is just the opposite one of them in the cast does not get rA and replaces with zha , one has to give a lot of credit for those scenes and build up of dialogs there- K balachandar must be proud of chanakya there . The plot is tight in creation of knots and I did not feel i got lost with neelambari doze , here i meant the raga neelambari .

As with most plays and in general prevailing social conditions the influence of cinemas into dramas is quite heavy, you have atleast few dialogue deliveries centered on two popular stars of thamizh cinemas . The surrounding cast do a fairly great job , but all along the controlling lever for the drama is the heroine actor neelambari.With all these confusions and misunderstanding the plot was tied enough with quite a lot of knots.

How knot gets untied to a great end in climax was the key and personally I felt this is where Bombay chanakya could have done a better job. The dialogues and supporting body language was its weak point in the climax where the unravelling of the knot was not as classy as it seemed till the build up.

The main actress and their team were introduced in the end. The main actress has come all the way from abu dhabi and has love for theatre. The twist of complex script and playwriting enacting with so many jaarus and karvais did appeal to me but the final korvai could have been bit more sharp. But that kind of abrupt finish is always found in many of the comic themed dramas even with more branded names .I spent my evening well. I will look out for bombay chanakya in particular.

Overall a very good to excellent drama for near 2 hours with fag end speech and felicitations.

Venkat Ramachandran
Posts: 72
Joined: 05 Feb 2015, 16:47

Re: Sundari Neeyum Sundaran Gnanum - Drama@Mudhra on Jan 15th,2018

Post by Venkat Ramachandran »

Bombay Chanakya's real name is S.Raghunathan. I had seen this drama in Vani Mahal, couple of months back. But personally i didn't like this drama, as i have seen better dramas from him. If you have not seen his previous works, you can watch irandam chanakyan from YT (one of his best)

Ranganayaki
Posts: 1760
Joined: 02 Jan 2011, 06:23

Re: Sundari Neeyum Sundaran Gnanum - Drama@Mudhra on Jan 15th,2018

Post by Ranganayaki »

Very, very interesting read, your chatty personality comes through in every line!! I loved the musical metaphor here and there and the expressive metaphor-laden style in general, so typical of you, but fresh and not boring.

sagars
Posts: 112
Joined: 02 Mar 2007, 19:14

Re: Sundari Neeyum Sundaran Gnanum - Drama@Mudhra on Jan 15th,2018

Post by sagars »

Excellent write up. Reminds me of the great drams I watched in 60s and 70s. include few from Cho, one Jahangir of Sivaji Ganeshan, few from R S Manohar (one Kataga Muthariyan being the best) and also from Major Sunderrajan group. Delhi Ganesh used to have a Drama week at KGS getting the whole team from Delhi. In fact KGS used to have a Drama week those days. not sure whether it is held these days as I am away from Chennai for about 25 years.

rajeshnat
Posts: 9907
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Sundari Neeyum Sundaran Gnanum - Drama@Mudhra on Jan 15th,2018

Post by rajeshnat »

sagars wrote: 17 Jan 2018, 13:02 Reminds me of the great drams I watched in 60s and 70s. include few from Cho, one Jahangir of Sivaji Ganeshan, few from R S Manohar (one Kataga Muthariyan being the best) and also from Major Sunderrajan group. Delhi Ganesh used to have a Drama week
Sagars,
So you are a old timer, If you can squeeze your memory , take your time and organize your thoughts and possibly write bit more on each of the experiences .I was not aware of the two dramas jahangir and Kataga muthariyan at all till you wrote .That would be great.

sagars
Posts: 112
Joined: 02 Mar 2007, 19:14

Re: Sundari Neeyum Sundaran Gnanum - Drama@Mudhra on Jan 15th,2018

Post by sagars »

Thanks Rajesh net . Your post has kindled nice memories of the past. I saw these dramas mostly in 60s, as a 10/15 year old. Difficult to remember much of it. But few scenes still are bright in my memory.
1. R S Manohar dramas: His stage settings were extra-ordinary considering the present technologies were not there. Kataga muthariyan I don’t remember much except for some special effects on the stage. I tried to google to find out who the character is but could get much from google.
Also seen his famous ‘Surapadman’ remember one scene where RS appears as Surapadman in the Tamil Sangam , just before the war broke out with Lord Muruga. His stage preparations were really amazing.
2. Sivaji Troup: I saw only one dramas of his, viz Jehangir. The costumes were excellent. One or two scenes were more thrilling, like the one dream scene, where Sivaji was lying in cot and we suddenly found, a moon and colourful sky moving in the stage. But as a youngster it was more exciting to see Sivaji in stage.
3. Major Sundrrajan; Remember two of his dramas, Major Chandrakanth and Gnana oli (which was later filmed with Sivaji in the lead role). Mostly his drams used to be in single stage throughout.
Major Sunddrajan’s majestic voice and dialogue delivery stood out in these dramas.
4. Cho Ramaswamy: Lot of satire generally targeting the then politicians in general. I still remember a joke in his Mohd Bin Thuglak. Thuglak addressing an election rally, praises his opposite candidates, saying they hard working, intelligent etc. as the audience was wondering, he concludes saying then the opposite candidate has no place in the parliament. I have attended a full week of Cho dramas in KGS.
5. Delhi Ganesh team: those days I think Delhi Ganesh was based in Delhi. He used to bring a team and conduct few dramas in KGS. Mostly social plays. In a review in Ananda vikatan those days, it was mentioned, that as all the artists were amateurs, getting leave for about ten days for all of them for the same period used to be a task. I think in 70s Delhi Ganesh moved to Chennai and film world.
6. Nagesh: Saw only one drama of his ‘ Sarvar Sundaram’ which was later filmed also. But I thought the film was better.
7. Seen few dramas of Kathadi Ramamurthy (remember famous one by name Aiyo! Amma! Ammamma!!)
Any day vote would be for R S Manohar for stage setting, directions and the overall performance.
I think in 80s and 90s we moved over to SV Sekar, Crazy Mohan and YG Mahindras

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