films Division's festival of short films on music and dance

By Super Admin

A veritable feast to the 'ears and eyes' invites lovers of art in this culture loving city, which has produced some of the stalwarts in this field as the curtain goes up for a film festival of Music and Dance by films Division here today.

The festival, which was inaugurated by renowed dancer Padmabhushan, Dr Padma Subramaniam and famous playback singer P B Srinivas, will screen short films of "the greats" who have enriched the Carnatic, Hindustani and various dance forms through their artistry.

A 20 minutes film on the doyen of Carnatic music Semmangudi Sreeenivasa Iyer, an exponent in handling various ragas for over 90 years, a 14 minutes colour film of Sruthi& Graces of Indian music, a 27 minutes biographical film on sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, which had won the Certificate of participation in International Leipzig Docu & short film festival for cinema and television, in Leipzig in East Germany, a 13 minutes film of Ustad Allah Rahan, the tabla maestro and a 11 minutes filmtala & rhytham & mridangam would enthrall the 'rasikas' and critics alike.

The films on other artists in the festival include Amir Khan, Dancers, Padmasubramaniam, Yamini Krishnamurthy and the Kuchipudi couple Raja and Radha Reddy of Andhra Pradesh, and Chinna Maulalana the nagaswaram maestro from Tamil Nadu.

Dr Subramaniam bemoaned the fact that only cinema attracted audiences and only glamourously presented dances were being appreciated.

films Division Chennai Branch head S M Balakrishnan was also present at the inauguration function.

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