It has been our practice for a while, that as we wait for our team members to prepare a concert, we offer you insights into some peripheral themes in connection with “Parvathi”.
Somewhere, in our belief system, raised as we were, we have this tendency to adulate a past. As time moves on, we still like to keep tabs on some of the great ones that were once with us in a contribution of our Heritage.
Lest people get bored in these times of things that are not quick, we offer you our thoughts encapsulated only in the form of some short notes.
The very much revered MS once again caught our eye amongst many assorted “Parvathi” collections.
Somewhere, in our belief system, raised as we were, we have this tendency to adulate a past. As time moves on, we still like to keep tabs on some of the great ones that were once with us in a contribution of our Heritage.
Lest people get bored in these times of things that are not quick, we offer you our thoughts encapsulated only in the form of some short notes.
The very much revered MS once again caught our eye amongst many assorted “Parvathi” collections.
When you consider, it is rather strange that any American film director, in those days, would make a journey to Madras to make films, let alone one not in one’s native tongue (English), but also without knowing anything of an other’s customs or ways of life given worlds away. But this is precisely what happened when a man called Ellis R. Dungan picked himself up in moving himself all the way from a Barton, Ohio to India in 1935.
Besides an amazing directing debut in Sathi Leelavathi which cast a future Chief Minister and swashbuckling hero M.G. Ramachandran for the first time, he also directed a movie called Meera with M.S. Subbalakshmi, creating a sacred trough called “Meera Bhajans” which made many a South Indian family to hold MS dear to their heart for the rest of their lives.
In Dungan’s bag was also a much heralded direction of Carnatic Music’s greatest pairing MS-GNB in “Shakuntalai”. This was under the banner of Royal Talkies, a Subbulakshmi and husband T. Sadasivam’s own venture into films. As everyone knows the movie was a runaway success and created an aura of its own for MS and GNB, even to this day.
Besides an amazing directing debut in Sathi Leelavathi which cast a future Chief Minister and swashbuckling hero M.G. Ramachandran for the first time, he also directed a movie called Meera with M.S. Subbalakshmi, creating a sacred trough called “Meera Bhajans” which made many a South Indian family to hold MS dear to their heart for the rest of their lives.
In Dungan’s bag was also a much heralded direction of Carnatic Music’s greatest pairing MS-GNB in “Shakuntalai”. This was under the banner of Royal Talkies, a Subbulakshmi and husband T. Sadasivam’s own venture into films. As everyone knows the movie was a runaway success and created an aura of its own for MS and GNB, even to this day.
