A documentary on Sri Lankan thavil exponent Yazhpanam Thedchinamoorthy Pillai is the lone Tamil non-fiction film to win a National Award in the past 17 years
Titled Yazhpanam Thedchanamoorthy—Music Beyond Boundaries , the film won the Best Arts/Cultural Film at the 63rd National Film Awards. “A victory for every aspiring Tamil documentary filmmaker”, as he calls it, the film’s director Amshan Kumar says it was an opportunity to resuscitate the works of a person who facilitated a great cultural exchange between the Tamils of India and Sri Lanka. “I didn’t know much about Thedchinamoorthy Pillai when I started making the film, over two years ago. It began with just three photos but I was able to collect 25 photos along with over 24 hours of non-professional recordings from his performances. These will invaluable to a generation of music lovers who would otherwise, have no access to his works,” Kumar adds.
While most of the maestro’s performances were held in the 1960’s across both sides of the Strait, he talks of a period were large crowds used to gather in Thanjavur to listen to his performances. “At times, Indian Tamils project a sense of superiority in our artistic pursuits compared to Sri Lankan Tamil artists. But Thedchinamoorthy dispelled any such doubts because he was easily the best thavil player of the time.”
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Despite winning the National Award, Kumar says, it is still a struggle to showcase the film in India to a larger audience. “I’ve been struggling to find a spot on TV to screen my film. Thedchinamoorthy has several ardent fans who remember him and his unique playing style very fondly. Despite having so many 24X7 channels, it’s sad that I can’t find a single one hour slot to screen a film about a legend.”