THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, 28 July 2007 — NRI businessman B.R. Shetty will open the 75-day long Soorya Festival, claimed to be the longest in Asia, featuring dance, music, and drama on Sept. 21.
One of highlights of the event this year will be the presence of actor Mohanlal, who will be giving an amount of Rs.200,000 to Vaikom Vijayalakshmi, a blind singer and Veena player in the city, Soorya’s chief mentor Krishnamoorthy told reporters here.
Soorya has chapters in all the GCC countries and its ‘Fusion of Karnatic, Hindustani and Western Classic Music’ concert will be held in Dubai on Nov. 13, Abu Dhabi on Nov. 14, Muscat on Nov. 15, Doha on Nov. 28, Bahrain on Nov. 29, Dammam on the 30th and Kuwait City on Dec. 2.
Krishnamoorthy Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi and English films would be screened during the 75-day festival here. The movie festival will kick off with the screening of Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s “The Dance of the Enchanters.”
A painting exhibition ‘Decoding Davinci’ by Francis Anthony Kodamkandom will be held from Sept. 27 to 30 along with ‘Ganapati paintings in Sabarimala’ by Manilal.
The music fete will begin with a classical vocal by K.J. Yesudas on Oct. 1. Sudha Reghunathan, Omanakutty, Dhananjayans, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, Sharmila Mukherji and Rajesh Vaidya will perform at the dance and music festival.
The movie section includes programs like Milestones in Cinema History, Meet the Masters, Pied Piper (children’s film fest), Hollywood Today and India Mainstream. A story festival, drama fest, speech contest, poetry session, Ramayana mela and mohiniyattom festival are also being lined up.
Suresh Gopi in New Role
Malayalam action hero Suresh Gopi will play the role of Raja Ravi Varma, one of India’s legendary painters, in Lenin Rajendran’s new historical film to be made both in English and Hindi.
Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906) achieved recognition for his depiction of scenes from the epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. His paintings are considered the best examples of the fusion of Indian traditions with the techniques of European academic art.
Rajendran said this film is the first on the artist’s life to be made. The shooting will begin in September and the movie will be ready for release by the year-end.
“Even though a few similar projects were announced, so far none has taken off and the one which is now under consideration is in English and Hindi,” he said.
Raja Ravi Varma would be the award winning filmmaker’s 13th film. Rajendran, who had unsuccessfully contested twice against late President K.R. Narayanan from Ottappalam constituency, said the movie would show the trials and tribulations of the great artist who did not get due recognition during his lifetime.
The superstar, who won national recognition for his role in Kaliyattam, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello, said it was a challenge for him to play the role of an artist because it was very different from the action roles that he usually played.
“Yes, this is a challenge because opportunities like this do not come often and I get my daily bread by playing macho roles,” Gopi said.
Rajendran said the film did not just depict the life of the great painter but focused on the pressures that Varma had to face as a painter.
Varma is most remembered for his paintings of beautiful sari-clad women, who were portrayed as very shapely and graceful. His exposure in the west came when he won the first prize in Vienna Art.
“The important aspect that my film would delve into is that Varma always relied on one particular model for all his paintings depicting women. Why he did that is going to be one of the main aspects of this film,” Rajendran said. He added that debutant actresses would play the roles of Varma’s model and wife and he would announce their names soon.
Gopi said drawing or painting had never been his forte and he would have to spend some time with artists to lend a touch of realism to the character that he would soon play.
