A couple of years back a good friend of mine, the best cinematographer in town, and I were toying with the idea of scripting and producing a celluloid celebration of the lives of two great personalities to have lived among us in the last (20th) century, the awesome danseuse Balasaraswathi and the empress of music, M.S.Subbulakshmi.
When France can have their own celebration of the life of Edith Piaf as a French film La Via En Rose, why can’t we with an equally if not more rich cultural tradition.
When we went hunting for source material for the book, we found there is plenty of resource available about MS but only sparse material on the life and times of Bala. One book stood out as a valuable treasure of authentic information on Bala and that is Mr.Douglas M.Knight Jr’s ‘Balasaraswathi, her art and life’.
Mr Knight is Balasaraswathi’s son in law, married to her daughter Ms.Lakshmi. It is a painstakingly researched book not only about Bala but on the great artistic tradition of dance in Tamilnadu as well.
Hearty congrats, Crea for coming out with a Tamil translation.
The chapter on Bala dancing at the Thiruthani temple one hot and humid noon, with an audience of only the God at the sanctum sanctorum is the best I’ve read on the legendary singer as well as those on the mutual affection and friendship between two awesome contemporaries, Bala and MS.
The index at the end of the book is of special interest to me. Hope they retain it in Tamil too.
Also, I trust they have retained the photograph of Bala and MS playfully smoking cigarettes, in the Tamil edition too.
CreA informs
வணக்கம்.
BALASARASWATI Her Art & Life என்ற ஆங்கிலப் புத்தகம் தமிழில் மொழிபெயர்க்கப்பட்டு பாலசரஸ்வதி அவர் கலையும் வாழ்வும் என்ற தலைப்பில் 20.05.2017 அன்று வெளியிட உள்ளது.
நாள்: 20.05.2017
நேரம்: மாலை 6 மணி
இடம்: மியூசிக் அகாடமி, மயிலாப்பூர், சென்னை.
புத்தகத்தின் விலை ரூ. 495/-
அரங்கில் சிறப்பு விலை ரூ.400/-