|
||
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
Astrology
Chat
Cityscape
Classifieds
Entertainment
Health
Matrimonial |
 |
|
||||||
|
I know Rudrayah, the director and producer of ‘Aval appadiththaan’ since 1975. When we met for the first time, he was doing a course in direction and screenplay, in the Chennai Government Film Institute. And the others who worked for ‘Aval appadiththaan’, cinematographers Nallusaami, Gnanasekaran, Arunmozhi, Editor Kannan where all his Institute-mates. Babu, the Asst. Director of the movie was the classmate of Rudrayah. It was director Jayabharati who introduced Rudrayah to me. I was working in a Tamil newspaper, Annai Nadu, then. Jayabharati and I were residing in Adambakkam then. We used to stand near the foot-over-bridge of the St. Thomas Mount Railway station for hours together and discuss and exchange our ideas on cinema, journals, literature and almost all other related subjects. Jayabharati was then the Asst. Editor of Dhinamani Kadir. He had submitted his script for the movie ‘Irandu pEr vaanathai paarkiraargaL’ then, to NFDC. There was a preview theatre in a lane close to the Gowdiya Math in Royapettah. It was a Sunday. Jayabharati and I went there to see ‘Somana dhudi’. Rudrayah had come there too and Jayabharati introduced him to me. That’s how our friendship started. Rudrayah was residing in Lloyds Colony, Royapettah at that time.
Rudrayah seriously went about starting his own film company immediately on completion of his course. He started a company under the name and style Kumar Arts, with the help of his sister’s husband. It started functioning from a bungalow in Alwarpet, next to the bungalow of P. Suseela, the popular playback singer. Incidentally, it was from here that the National Pictures - the company that made Parasakthi - functioned. Ananthu (late) who was the Asst. Director of K. Balachander helped in many ways in filming ‘Aval appadiththaan’. He helped in getting the call sheets of Rajini, Kamalhasan, Sripriya and others. Though the Rudrayah wrote the story, it was Ananthu who gave an excellent shape and finer touches to it. In fact it was he who suggested the title, ‘Aval appadiththaan’. Somasundareshwar (director Rajeshwar) who was Rudrayah’s film institute friend wrote the ‘one-line’ for ‘Aval appadiththaan’. ‘One-line’ is a very brief sketch of the structure of the story. Then Ananthu, Somasundareshwar and I started working on the scenes and dialogues. Rudrayah had the knack of assigning the right scene to the right person and getting the dialogues accordingly. Kamal and Rajini were very busy then, since they were acting in a number of movies simultaneously. Sripriya was the number-one heroine at that time in the industry. All the three were in the peak of their careers and were extremely busy. But the readiness with which they responded and co-operated for ‘Aval appadiththaan’ is something commendable and unforgettable. Rudrayah has a very wide knowledge on the best films of the international arena. He had strong opinions on many directors of other countries and the films that they had made. He used to discuss them with Kamal and Ananthu. Nallusaami, the cinematographer did have a taste for aesthetics and had a unique approach. He used to tell us about finer details of lighting effects in many Bergman movies.
Ilayaraja was an upcoming music director then. He used to be present right on dot at 8.00 am, on the days when he was to score music, along with Gangai Amaran. They would come to the office of Kumar Arts, together. Ilayaraja used to just roll one tune after the other from his harmonium even in those days, endlessly. There is a song in the movie, sung by Sivachandran. ‘Panneer pushpangale’. Rudrayah gave me the cassette with the tune for the lyric and asked me to pen the lines for the tune. I tried my hand at it for one whole day. It was not my cup of tea to write lines for tunes. I could not do anything worth the while and returned the cassette to Rudrayah. Gangai Amaran then wrote the lines for the tune. Kannadasan wrote the song ‘Vaazhkai Odam sella.’
Vannanilavan
|
|
||||||
|
||||||
Twenty years have rolled past since
‘Aval appadiththaan’ was released. Most of the technicians who worked for the movie were newcomers and for many it was their first film. 
Rudrayah came when he was doing his final year in the Film Institute. It was one of his fond and longstanding dreams to film the novel ‘Amma VandhaaL’ of T. Janakiraman. I even wrote the screenplay and dialogue for it and went to Delhi to get the permission of Janakiraman. He readily agreed for the proposal. But somehow it didn’t work out and the project didn’t get off the ground. 
Rudrayah and Nallusaami used to discuss the scenes to be shot for
‘Aval appadiththaan’ at least two or three days in advance. As for the dialogues, he used to tell me about the scene in detail. He would not be easily satisfied. He would ask for rewriting the lines, if he was not happy with what was written. He did not film
‘Aval appadiththaan’. He sculpted every frame. Ananthu used to visit every morning and also in the night. It was he who was responsible for the success of the characters played by Rajini and Sripriya. The shooting went on smoothly because almost all of the dialogues were ready by the time we went for the ‘take’. Even camera angles were pre-planned and there was not much difficulty in going ahead with the schedule, quickly and effortlessly.
‘Aval appadiththaan’ was released on Deepavali that year. It was released in two theatres in Chennai. Kamadhenu and - I don’t remember correctly - either it was Emerald or Blue Diamond in the Safire theatre complex. I recollect vaguely that it was in the Safire theatre complex that ‘Aval appadiththaan’
was on show for more number of days than in Kamadhenu. Almost all newspapers and magazines were appreciative of the movie. But it was not a commercial hit, or at least a success, to our expectations. But, nonetheless, it has become a part of the list of select movies to remember in the history of Tamil films.
