A 26-part Tamil docu-drama on Tamil poet, freedom fighter, and social reformer Subramania Bharati titled Mahakavi Bharati will be telecast on Doordarshan Podhigai every Sunday at 9.30 p.m. from January 21 to celebrate the life and works of the pioneer of the modern Tamil literary style.
Latha Krishna, who has helmed the docu-drama and also penned the screenplay, said it was a fascinating experience to direct the serial and was challenging to depict the period visually. “We deliberately planned it as a docu-drama to help the younger generation appreciate Bharatiar’s life and works,” said Ms. Krishna, executive director, Krishnaswamy Associates.
The serial not only portrays the life of Bharati, but also enhances the experience of understanding the poet through snippets by literary personalities such as Suki Sivam, Sudha Seshayyan, Sivasankari, Vaanavil Ravi, Va. Ve. Subramaniam, Rajkumar Bharati, and Niranjan Bharati.
The snippets on various aspects, such as his character, depth of his poems, and context of certain poems, have been explained in the docu-drama. The serial also dwells into other characters and presents the history then to learn the poet’s perspective. For instance, Chellamma has more shades to her character, said Ms. Krishna. It is a concise explanation of the life and works of the poet with much research by writer and poet Isaikavi Ramanan, she added.
While Mohana, who has produced about 300 programmes, is the executive producer, S. Krishnaswamy is the creative head, and Kevin Darwin is the cinematographer. Rajkumar Bharati, the great grandson of Bharati has composed and sung a few songs, including the title song.
The serial features nearly 36 songs, including those sung by T.S. Ranganathan, Magizhan, Shruthi Shankar Kumar, Arjun Sai, and Darshita, and the song sequencing has been done by D. Ravishankar.
While Naveen Kumar and Isaikavi Ramanan play the title role of Bharati, Deepika and Dharma have acted as Chellamma. The serial features other artists, including Y. Gee. Mahendra as Kuvalai Kannan, Kathadi Ramamurthy as Swaminatha Deekshitar, Logesh Natrajan as Sri Aurobindo, Elango Kumanan as Va. Ve. Su. Iyer, Muthukumaran as V.O. Chidambaram Pillai, Suppini as Kullachamy, and Krithika Shurajit as Yedugiri.
