We had a lovely function to mark the 50th anniversary of the film Veerapandiya Kattabomman. This was jointly organised by the Soviet Cultural Centre and the Sivaji Family. I compered the event in addition to designing and bringing out the special day postal cover.

I am reproducing a small report made by Mr.Raghavendra , a die hard Sivaji Fan in an internet forum discussion.I stronglu urge anyone who is interested in the Cinema of Sivaji Ganesan to view the threads in this forum. In fact this thread on Nadigar Thilakam is the oldest and longest continuous one….The address for this page is –

http://forumhub.mayyam.com/hub/viewtopic.php t=12282&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=495

Needless to say you can go to the beginning, the index and navigate your way through the forum. I quote –

As you said, in spite of the odd nature of the Day ( The election results had just come out), there was substantially good crowd at the function. Mr. Marudu Mohan, who is doing research on Nadigar Thilagam, spoke in detail of the chronology of the legacy of Veerapandiya Kattabomman. Mr. Veeramani of Gem Granites, Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan of Russian Cultural Centre, Mr. Thangappan of Indo-Russian Chamber of Commerce were among the dignitaries who spoke. Mr. Thangappan presented the clipping of Nadigar Thilagam’s speech during the Golden Jubilee of Indian Independence celebrated there in 1997. Mr. Parthiban (the actor who played JACKSON Durai)was very staunch in lauding Nadigar Thilagam and clearly underlined it was Nadigar Thilagam, who was the only actor who did not act in PUBLIC LIFE and POLITICS. Avar cinemavil mattum than nadippar, nija vazhkkaiyil nadikka theriyadu. The Post Master General released theSpecial Day cover received by the Director of Russian Cultural Centre. The event was preceded by an exhibition on Memorabilia of the film Veerapandiya Kattabomman. The exhibition contained display of paper cuttings, award certificates, etc. Ms. B.R. Vijayalakshmi (The daughter of the producer and director Mr.B.R.Panthulu)has also presented for display, the shields, the certificates, the sword and the soccer, and the photo album taken during the shooting of the film. Besides, the display contained among other cuttings, the achievements of the film at the Box Office as wrote here by our Murali Sir, and Telugu paper cuttings sent by another fellow hubber, A. Balakrishnan, 50-th Day, 100th Day, 25th week ads, NT’s writing on his experiences at Cairo. –

Unquote.

Also honoured was Mrs.S.Ve Shekhar , who is also the grand daughter of the music director, G.Ramanathan. It is pertinent to point out that at the Afro Asian Film festival held in Cairo three awards were won by this film – Best Actor – Sivaji ganesan , Best Picture Kattabomman and Best Music – G.Ramanathan. Hence it was nice that all these three great film personalities were represented by members of their family. The surprise was the veteran actor Mr.Parthiban , an erudite Gentleman , who came for the function and requested that he be permitted to speak. His speech really came from the heart.