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| METHUSELAH: Iyer plans to reinterpret Ramayana |
At 87, Ganapathy Venkatramana Iyer, Indian filmdom's
barefoot Methuselah, shows no signs of letting up. Sanskrit, a dying language?
Not while the man who made the country's first Sanskrit film, Adi Shankaracharya,
two decades ago, is around and lining up a new barrage of mythologicals.
Q. What keeps you going even at this age?
A. When you are as involved in making films as I am, age doesn't matter.
The minute you stop, age catches up with you.
Q. What is Krishna Leela about?
A. It is a musical based on kirtans of Sri Purandaradasa and speaks
of the life of Krishna from his birth till the slaying of Kamsa. It has
38 songs and will be released as a film in Kannada and Hindi and TV serials
in Malayalam and Tamil.
Q. Why do you continue making films in Sanskrit?
A. The visual language is more powerful than the spoken language.
Besides, even if I made a film in Tamil or Kannada it would be alien to
people who don't speak these languages. By using Sanskrit, I am trying
to revive the language which I feel is the future language of the country.
The common man may or may not understand my films. I don't make films
to educate or inform the layman. But the people who want to preserve and
revive Sanskrit and those who are spiritually inclined have appreciated
my films.
Q. Is your next project, Ramayana, another interpretation of the
epic?
A. There are over 200 interpretations of the epic. Mine tries to see
yoga through the Ramayana. For example, "ratha" in Sanskrit
means body. The five organs and five senses make up the "dasharathas"
or 10 body movements. So in a sense we are all Dasharathas. Ram's father
had three wives, who are nothing but the Satva, Rajas and Tamas gunas
or characteristics of the body.
-Sandeep Unnithan
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Why India should be scared
CURRENT
ISSUE MAY 05, 2003
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