The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Semmangudi film launches festival at Music College

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 16, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Semmangudi film launches festival at Music College

Staff Reporter

Documentaries on life, work of great artistes

LIVE WITH ART: Playback singer P.B. Srinivos (right) and dancer Padma Subrahmanyam (second right) interact with students at Government Music College in Chennai on Friday. — PHOTO: R. RAGU.

CHENNAI : The verdant environs of the Government Music College - a campus gleaming after the overnight rains - provided the appropriate setting for the start of a Music and Dance Film Festival organised by the Films Division at the college's Tagore Auditorium.

At the event, inaugurated by dancer Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam and musician P.B. Srinivos, over 600 students of various music and dance institutions in the State had a visual and auditory treat in store with several documentary films on the lives of musicians and dancers.

Beginning the session was a 20-minute documentary on Semmangudi Sreenivasa Iyer. The biographical film on the man known as the Carnataka Sangita Pitamaha, captures the glory of his musical career and also has rare scenes of him going through his daily routine breathing and living music till the end. This was followed by a documentary on flautist Hari Prasad Chaurasia. The film on Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar maestro has been directed by P. Pati. The film won a certificate of participation in the International Leipzig Documentary and Short Film festival for Cinema and Television.

The film on Ustad Allah Rakha, the tabla maestro, produced by G.P. Asthana and directed by Shekhar Nair won a diploma in participation at the first Tehran International Film Festival Tehran. Kathakali, on the classical dance form of Kerala, which won a certificate of merit and a cash prize for producer Ezra Mir and Director Mohan Wadhwani, was also screened.

Tala and Rhythm and Mridangam was a documentary on the percussion instrument. Amir Khan, a black and white film portrays the life of a singer at his classical best and there is a film on Padmabhushan Kalaimamani Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam, directed by Suresh Menon. Films on Yamini Krishnamurthy, Raja Radha Reddy, Sheikh Chinna Maulana, the nagaswaram maestro, directed by V. Pakkirisamy, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, a 62-minute documentary on the sarod maestro, Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam are among the others. He said that the Films Division office had more than 1,500 films on music in a compact disc format out of 9,000 films in all areas. People who wish to buy films on any subject may contact the Films Division office at Shastri Bhavan in Nungambakkam or call at 2827 5360.

A documentary film festival will be organised at the South India Film Chamber of Commerce Theatre on October 26.

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