NADODI MANNAN, A M.G.R CLASSIC

This is my experiment with 18 lakhs. This was said by MGR in 1958 after stupendous success of the Movie Nadodi Mannan. How humble he is. The movie was a revolutionary in tamil cinema. It had showed the movie world a new way of story telling a new way of film making, a new way of editing, a new way of techniques in double action scenes so on and so forth.

I have taken some of the instances said by MGR in "Yaruku Vetri" way back in 1958, most of writing in video format. MGR's education level is so poor but his writing skills is awesome when I read the Special edition by MGR Pictures. How well he knew and how clear his ideas are for instances the technical side, story side, dialogue side, music side, cinematography side, costume side, editing side and how he knew which actors to do which part etc. MGR is multi faceted that was proved if you watch Nadodi Mannan. We cannot put MGR into a position of mere actor alone.

When he talks about the story part he says that I am not blind sided that Nadodi Mannan does not have any minus points and I am not that stupid, but I can say that it does not have more minus points. See how humbly he uses the words. MGR further goes into how the story was developed in the year 1937-38 he was in the shooting of Maya Machindra, in Calcutta (Kolkatta) one day he went with his friends to watch a Hollywood movie "If I were King" acted by Ronald Colman, one of the scene the Hero says If I become a King ... but MGR did not follow what the dialogues his mind was revolving around the words If I become a King. That is the day when Nadodi Mannan was seeded in his mind, it developed slowly when the time was ripe, MGR went on to produce the movie. Why did he produce then? Because he said it is an experiment so I did not want other producers to loose money if the film fails.

VAIGAI-LIFELINE OF MADURAI

The Vaigai is a river in Madurai,Tamil Nadu state of southern India. The actual name is Vaiyai in Tamil and the name has been referred as vaigai. It originates in the Periyar Plateau of the Western Ghats range, and flows northeast through the Kambam Valley, which lies between the Palni Hills to the north and the Varushanad Hills to the south. The Vattaparai Falls are located on this river. As it rounds the eastern corner of the Varushanad Hills, the river turns southeast, running through the region of Pandya Nadu. Madurai, the largest city in the Pandya Nadu region and its ancient capital, lies on the Vaigai. The river empties into the Palk Strait in Ramanathapuram District. fdf The main tributaries of the river Vaigai are, the river Suruliyaru, the river Mullaiyaaru, the river Varaganadi and the river Manajalaru. All these rivers join with the great Vaigai river nearer to the places around the Vaigai Dam which is situated in Theni district.

Vaigai gets major feed from the Periyar Dam in Kumuli in Kerala. As the Kerala government is refusing to increase the storage level, Vaigai river ends up dry very often. The water never reaches Madurai, let alone flowing into places past Madurai.

The Periyar Dam was built in 1895 by John Pennycuick, who implemented a plan proposed over a century earlier by Pradani Muthirulappa Pillai of Ramnad.

"Greater than the mother bearing child/Greater than the child that is born/Every breath is Periyar/Every word is Periyar/In every place, in all the world/As far as Periyar water flows/Your name will stand-Pennycuick-your name/Though written on water, will always stand".

That is how Anthony Muthu Pillai (1863-1929) had paid tributes in Tamil to John Pennycuick, the engineer who had taken up the "audacious and unprecedented feat of...engineering" for transferring some water from the Periyar river in Travancore State to the Vaigai basin in Madras Presidency. This basin was described by Poet and lyricist Vairamuthu, who hails from this area: "It is a different world. Another planet on the surface of the earth. Ignored by the clouds, cursed by nature and dry land, passed by the Gods with their eyes tightly shut...