Ponniyin Selvan Varalaatru Peravai

Dear all...

I echo Sps's words about the meet with Writer Vikraman (it was a
highly enjoyable two or so odd hours)..the sumptuous dinner...and
the marvelous two hours that came next, with the team that
originally organized and executed the dramatisation of 'Ponniyin
Selvan nearly 6 years ago, in August 1999. (My God, its been so
long...)

I must also thank Mrs. Seethalakshmi for being such an enthusiastic
member, and for making this great meet possible. Thanks, ma'am! :-)

I go straight to the PS drama speech, because SB-sir has explained
the earlier hours of the meet in detail himself. :)

Talking with Mr. Kumaravel (with his remarkable flair for language,
and his very real love for theatre...and Ponniyin Selvan) was a joy.
Dressed casually in khaki, he sat down cross-legged on the floor
with us, and launched into his story of how he was first introduced
to PS (he read it when he was in his eight standard, I think he
said, and he was so interested that he couldn't put the book down -
much the same experience we all went through, I think :-) - and
then, years later, went ahead with his ideas. He's such a magnetic
personality.

There was Mr. Reuben, who was responsible for the script-writing,
and then Mr. Jayakumar - the hero of our favourite epic, and the
person who played 'Vallavarayan Vandhiyadevan' in the drama. (And I
must say here that he played it with great verve and flamboyance - I
still remember the brilliance with which he brought to life our VD's
enthusiasm and lightness of heart to stage - it was a bravura
performance. I even managed to ask him - the other members of the
meet might remember this - about him handing an alli flower to
Kundhavai, during the drama - that was an extemporized act, and had
the audience in splits. :-)).

We listened to him talk about casting the right actors to do the job
well - about Pazhuvettarayar with his flaming moustache (someone
suggested painting 'Pazhuvettarayar' green!) - and the way Mr.
Kumaravel described his attempts to actually compress a huge five-
volume epic into four hours of drama was humorous - we were laughing
most of the time. :-). There was his account of him trying to find
the perfect cast for Nandhini, and then about how he wanted to
portray Chinna Pazhuvettarayar's aggressive personality (apparently,
the actor who played Chinna Pazhuvettarayar took to slapping some
odd person on each day's show, to demonstrate his ruthlessness - and
no one knew who was going to be slapped, so their surprise was
genuine! ). And then the sword-fight between VD and Arulmozhi ,
which was done with real swords and had sparks flowing all over the
stage.

Incidentally, Poonghuzhali served us dinner (Mr. Kumaravel's wife,
who played that part in the drama). Yep, this was a historic dinner,
indeed.

And about Nasser, who played Adhitha Karikalan, and who always came
to the show straight from the shooting, and so had to rehearse in
the two hours before his entrance to the stage...

Kamala Haasan, who, after the play was over, congratulated each
member of the team, asking - "Mylapore maami ellaam vanthu
paarthaangalaa? Kaiyila book-oda vari variyaa kavanichiruppaangale?"

Our beloved Chembian Maadevi (Mr. Kumaravel's mother, and whom we
also met during the dinner), who described her own experiences of
playing that lady, and about the drama lessons she was given...wow.

...and best of all, we saw a few minutes of a taped version of PS...
(Mr. KV said that we were the first people to watch it in nearly 6
years). And discussed about how to bring back this magnificent
production to the people. So much work has gone into it, after all.

When we left finally, at 11 PM, (we couldn't wrench ourselves from
this great cast), I couldn't resist saying 'Vidai perugirOm,
VandhiyathEvare', to Mr. Jayakumar, who played the part. [I've been
wanting say that ever since I saw the drama. {grin}. And to meet the
cast in person. So this was kind of a God-send.]

I'm hoping we'll be able to see the play again. Really soon.