The Hindu : Karnataka News : Harini hits out at borrowed themes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 22, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

Harini hits out at borrowed themes

Staff Reporter

FIERY TALK: Film artiste Harini making a point. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: The well-known Kannada film heroine of yesteryear Harini has hit out at the tendency among Kannada film producers to resort to plagiarism and borrowed themes. The quality and future of Kannada cinema lie in excellent short stories, novels and plays in the realm of Kannada literature, she said here on Saturday participating in "Maneyangaladalli Maatukathe," the monthly interaction programme organised by the Department of Kannada and Culture.

There is no dearth of good stories in Kannada. Many non-Kannada film producers have remade several Kannada films based on the gems of Kannada literature. Thus, there is no point in Kannada producers depending on borrowed stuff, Ms. Harini said.

Recalling her association with noted directors of Kannada cinema, she said that she learned much from them.

`Naandi'

Referring to "Naandi," a national award winning Kannada film produced by her brothers, Vadiraj and Jawahar, and directed by the late N. Lakshminarayan, she said the film was made after a thorough research on the lifestyle and behaviour of speech impaired children.

Career

Ms. Harini, who identified herself with the classicist tradition of Kannada cinema both as an artiste and as a producer, began her career as a child artiste in the Tamil film, "Haridas" (1941). She donned the role of heroine (vamp in a couple of films) in over 30 Kannada films, including classics such as "Jaganmohini," "Kanyadaana," "Ashasundari," "Nanda Deepa," "Mangala Muhurta," "Rathna Manjari" and "Subba Shastri."

"Namma Makkalu," an in-house production of Ms. Harini, Vadiraj and Jawahar earned the first ever Filmfare award for a Kannada film. "Sathi Sukanya" was her last film in which Rajkumar played the role of Chyavana Maharishi. She bid farewell to acting in 1968 to marry B.S. Rao, a scientist with ISRO. She is now settled in Bangalore.

Ms. Harini is now planning to open an institution, "Sodari" in the city for providing employment to physically disabled people and women without much education.

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