As some other Youngsters’s Day comes up, a have a look at one of the vital earliest Tamil performs for kids, T.Ok. Shanmugam’s Appavin Aasai, with a tender Kamal Haasan within the lead
Even though youngsters had been an integral a part of the Tamil theatre, particularly within the early many years of the 20 th century, when the Boys Corporate motion (the place actors had been elderly between 4 and 13) used to be at its top, there were only a few performs for them. Even though quick skits had been written and carried out on radio, there have been rarely any level performs for kids. An try used to be made in 1955, when the Kuzhandhai Ezhuthalar Sangam organised a drama competition that featured many quick performs for kids through writers equivalent to Bhaktavatsalam, Poovannan and Koothapiran. It, on the other hand, took a person best possible identified for his productions in keeping with ancient topics, T.Ok. Shanmugam, to level a full-length youngsters’s play, Appavin Aasai. The play used to be written through journalist and playwright Trichy Bharathan.
Born in September 1934, Bharathan took a prepared passion in youngsters’s literature, impressed through famous creator Azha Valliappa. He even received a prize for his essay at the significance of ethical tales for kids in a contest organised through Pooncholai, a well-liked mag then. He wrote a number of songs and tales for kids, and Appavin Aasai, coping with the travails of a tender boy and his circle of relatives, used to be one such. Bharathan despatched it to a few magazines, however they didn’t evince any passion. Future, on the other hand, had different plans.
Bharathan gained a decision from All India Radio, Tiruchi, soliciting for a youngsters’s tale working to a length of half-hour. He submitted Appavin Aasai after making a couple of changes. It used to be serialised and broadcast over 3 Sundays and used to be neatly gained through listeners. Some of the listeners, Suba Natesan, who used to be the pinnacle of the Pudukkottai Tamil Nilayam, steered that it’s introduced out within the type of a guide. Additions had been made to the tale and the guide used to be introduced out through the Tiruchi Writers Affiliation.
When TKS met Bharathan
Upon listening to that T.Ok. Shanmugam used to be taking a look to level a play for kids, Bharathan despatched him a replica of the guide. Shanmugam went to Tiruchi to fulfill Bharathan and talk about the guide, and invited him to Madras to paintings at the screenplay and discussion. Bharathan has recounted this interplay in a piece of writing within the Sankaradas Swamigal Centenary memento and it makes for fascinating studying.
Bharathan writes that he gained a heat welcome through Shanmugam at his house on Lloyds Highway. Preparations were made for him to write down the screenplay at a resort, even though Shanmugam steered it may well be accomplished at the terrace of his area, below his supervision. Bharathan made up our minds to write down at the terrace. Every day’s writing consultation started with a dialogue of the scene, and then the dialogues had been written. Shanmugam and his brother Bhagavathy took Bharathan alongside once they went to look at performs within the evenings and offered him to artistes. Infrequently they’d have in depth discussions on that night’s play, which proved to be an ideal studying revel in for Bharathan.
Appavin Aasai, which used to be supported through the Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nataka Manram thru a grant of Rs. 3,000, used to be inaugurated in June, 1965, at NKT Kala Mantap, Triplicane. The play had a mixture of youngsters and grownup artistes. Justice Ok.S. Venkatraman of the Madras Prime Courtroom presided over the inauguration with a number of dignitaries equivalent to suggest Ok. Balasubramania Iyer and actor and political chief D.V. Narayanaswamy within the target market.
The play used to be a grand good fortune. In its assessment, the Recreation and Interest mag counseled the ‘captivating performances of the juvenile artistes’ and credited the TKS brothers for his or her rigorous coaching. It made a unique point out of the lead artiste, a tender boy of about 11, who ‘gave a heart-warming efficiency with subdued appearing’. This boy used to be no newcomer to appearing, he had gave the impression in a couple of motion pictures as a kid artiste. He went directly to transform one in every of Indian cinema’s shining stars. His identify is Kamal Haasan.
The creator is a heritage buff and novice Tamil theatre artiste.
