ANANDI SPEAKS ON KALKI'S WORKS

In this second and concluding part of the interview, Anandi delves on her impressions about Kalki's works.

Not many of them were successful, because people already had preconceived notions about his characters, as they had already read the novel. Speaking of Sivagamiyin Sabatham...when people think of 'Sivagami', they think very highly of her dance, as was depicted in the novel. You cannot possibly reproduce the same aura on screen. And cinema cannot and will not depict the kind of  purity that was associated with her dance. And so, it was not very popular. But his play, Kalvanin Kadali, was very successful on screen, and so was Tyagabhumi.

Tyagabhumi was about the freedom struggle, so it was banned. The makers of the movie came to know that the movie was about to be banned, so they played the movie non-stop at the Gaiety theatre. When the police came and asked them to stop the show, the theatre owner asked for the warrant. So, until the police could get the warrant, the movie was continuously played. For five days it ran continuously to packed houses, and then they banned it. Even today, it’s considered among one of the classics in Tamil movies.

Tyagabhumi dealt with topics like, superstition, women’s rights, issues which were new in those times. People used to camp at the railway station to get a copy of Ananda Vikatan (Tyagabhumi was first serialised in Ananda Vikatan). Ananda Vikatan used to be transported through train to villages. At Kalki’s 100^th anniversary celebration in America, one of the speakers, Mr. Rao, said, "we used to live in a village at that time. The train used to come into the station at 3.30 a.m. We used to wake up at 2 a.m and go sit at the railway station. As soon as the package was offloaded, we would make them open it buy our copies then and there, read it and only then come home. It was that interesting, that explains the success of Tyagabhumi".

So many publishers are publishing his works now. And all of them say, that they are all selling well. Most of his novels are well appreciated. Recently they have come out with ‘Kalkiyin Kadithangal’ (kalki’s letters). They have taken some of his best writings and put them together in this book. Generally, Kalki’s writings are well received by the people. There are two reasons for this. One thing is there will be humour in all his essays. Even in the saddest situation he will find something funny. When he first went to jail and was chained; his mother and aunt went to visit him in the jail and were shocked to see him in chains and started crying looking at him. He just laughed and said, "You should be glad that the Government has provided for chain and bangles at their own expense, why are you feeling so bad about it". So, he used his sense of humour to make people read.

Also people wanted to know what his opinions were on various issues. If Madurai Mani Iyer is singing in Chennai, the whole of Tamil Nadu will want to know what he had to say about Madurai Mani Iyer’s performance. Even people who had not listened to the concert wanted to know his opinion on the concert, which means that there was something very interesting about his writings. Writing the way he did, was something very great at that time, because there were no precedents to his writing style. Neither to his style or genre nor to the way the magazine was written. People talk about it even now. They say there is nothing that Kalki has not done, there is nothing left to be done. There is no scope of starting something new. Because, Kalki had experimented with everything, when it comes to the world of magazines... be it short stories, essays, cartoons, travelogues... he went to Sri Lanka in the 1930s and wrote a travelogue on Sri Lanka. People there were fanatical about Kalki. He was very popular there.

Even when he used to deliver a speech somewhere, it used to be full of humour. So people never used to allow him to speak first at any function. Because once he is through with his talk, the audience will walk away. So he used to invariably deliver only the vote of thanks. Even that used to be so funny, people used to be literally rolling on the floor.

It does not have the same flavour as the Tamil version, as it is very difficult to translate Tamil idioms into English. For example, how would you translate ai aiyo into English. Ho! Ho! Does not mean ai! Aiyo! This exclamation can convey happiness as well as sorrow. So, how do you do this. But on the whole, I think the translator has done a very good job. Some of the Tamil words are retained as such. He has taken a lot of pains to do this. I have to give credit to him for the pain he has taken

It’s a bit difficult to say, but there are some short stories, which I really enjoy. Some of them have some very strong messages. Some are very touching, for instance, Kadithamum Kaneerum ( letter and tears) and then Kedariyin Thayaar (Kedari’s Mother). Because, both deal with issues about women. Most people like his ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ (Ponni’s Son), I like Sivagamiyin Sabatham, because it has a lot on music and dance. I still wonder, how he knew so much about dance and music.