Having to wait for a water tanker to get two pots of water for his home in West Mambalam every day, led Komal Swaminathan to the create of one of the most socially relevant stories in a State wrestling perennially with the politics of sharing water.
Written as a stage play by Swaminathan, after he experienced first hand the problems of water shortage in places like Chennai, Kovilpatti, Tirunelveli, Thaneer Thaneer was adapted as a movie by K. Balachander and bagged many awards including two national awards. The movie was produced by Kala Kendra.
The plot interested officials of the SovExport Film Division of the erstwhile Soviet Union so much that they reportedly made a number of copies of the movie, translated it in Russian and screened it across the Union, according to P. Thangappan, Secretary General, Indo – Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The movie was first screened in the Indian Panaroma section of the International Film Festival. The story is about a village grappling with water crisis and how politicians try to make use of the situation for their own greed and advantage.
“It was in late 1987 or 1988 that they saw the film and wanted to translate it and screen it to the people,” Mr. Thangappan told The Hindu . “Look at what is happening now and you will see that the story is so very relevant even today,” he said.
Radical play
When the play was first staged in 1981 by Swaminathan’s troupe, ‘Stage Friends”, the story seemed very radical that the police refused to provide permission for it as they felt that it was showing the government in poor light.
“The show was scheduled for 7 p.m. But, even at 6 p.m., the police did not give permission. The auditorium was already filling up. Finally, Cho (of Thuglak) intervened and we got the go-ahead five minutes before the scheduled time,” Lalitha Dharini, daughter of Swaminathan, recalled. The story hit home with the audience and went on to become the first play to be screened more than 250 times across India.
“He (P.R. Govindarajan of Kala Kendra) was known to take risks. When he saw the play, he saw a huge potential for the story. The story was also quite bold and spoke about an all important problem. He had a great knack for identifying talent and was also responsible for introducing a number of actors who have gone on to do well in the film industry,” a person close to the late Govindarajan said. Govindarajan also personally spent time with the crew in the villages where the movie was shot to understand the enormity of the water crisis, he said.
The film was titled Vadha Vadha in Russian, and was translated by Mr. Thangappan, and Ms. Indumathi, and the translation took nearly two weeks, the former said.
“They (Soviets) wanted to show the importance of water to their people, the situation that people in different parts of the world faced. Thaneer Thaneer was a medium for that,” he said.
Ms. Dharini said the story is still relevant in the present day. She will be commemorating her father's 80th birth anniversary with a show of Thaneer Thaneer on November 18 in Chennai.
