Film on Sanjay Subrahmanyan: screenings on Dec. 24 and 31
On location at Kalakshetra - Sanjay Subrahmanyan, Prasanna Ramaswamy and R. V. Ramani
'Aarar Asaipadar' (Desired Melody) is a film on the art of Carnatic music vocalist Sanjay Subrahmanyan and it was premiered in November at The Hindu Friday Review Festival and received rave reviews.The film looks at his received tradition, his creative art and the process of repossessing the tradition.
Now, this film will be screened at Satyam Cinemas on December 24 and 31 mornings.
Picturing the musician in his personal space, the film shows him practicing, teaching his disciple and in a dialogue with a great master.
Moving through a sound design of music and other sound patterns which range from music through temple bells to the shriek of horns and woven through a tapestery of images of nadaswaram players, temple festivities, dance, iconography and architecture, the musician is set among the locales and the music imposed as his reflection or the recollected memory of the narrator.
The central part of the film punctuates the aspects of the music and the personal history of the musician through an interview.
The film also brings sequences of the musician travelling on the road, bringing pictures of street scenes, temple festivals and a great heritage temple from the 8th century, a boat sequence in a mangrove, there the melody along with the sounds of birds and water becoming the melody of the boatman.
Running for 85 minutes, the film showcases the art of one an outstanding artiste filmed in his prime years.
It also serves as a document on the great south Indian classical music as a form, its prime composers and the concert framework of today. The title of the film 'Aarar Asaippadar' is a phrase from one of the compositions of the 18th century composer Muthu Thandavan.
The music selection, sound design, script and direction is by Prasanna Ramaswamy who is into theatre, writing, film and activism. The film has been shot by R. V. Ramani / M. J. Radhakrishnan.
At Sathyam Cinemas 'Sree' theater at 10 a.m. on the 24th and 31st of December.
For online bookings, go to www.thecinema.in from December 21. Reservations can also be made at Sathyam cinemas.
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