Cinema, other art forms should showcase Indian cultural values and traditions: Venkaiah Naidu

The former Vice President was speaking at the release of two volumes of essays on Tamil literary giant Ki Rajanarayanan, at an event in Chennai; he said there was much to learn from the lives of our forefathers and the traditions, cultures, values and ethics they upheld

Former Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Monday highlighted the need for media, cinema, storytelling and other art forms to show the country’s cultural values and traditions, as this would help the present generation to get back to their roots.

In his address after the release of two volumes of essays written by different personalities on Tamil literary giant Ki Rajanarayanan, popularly known as Ki Ra, in his birth centenary year, at a function organised at the Dr. MGR Janaki College of Arts and Science in Chennai, Mr. Naidu said there was so much to learn from the lives of our forefathers and the traditions, cultures, values and ethics they upheld.

While old cinema films used to depict this culture, and traditions and values, present-day films were ignoring the past. Films at present were dominated by vulgarity, violence and obscenity, he said.

On the works of Ki Ra, Mr. Naidu said one of the late writer’s important contributions was lending literary credence to the spoken language. The writer, till the end, voiced his belief that the spoken language was the correct form of literary expression, which explained the authenticity in his works.

Mr. Naidu highlighted how Ki Ra’s debut novel, ‘Gopalla Gramam’, which was set in the karisal (blacksoil) landscape and based on the migration of Telugu-speaking people, was a pathbreaking work, which made the writer the father of karisal literature. He recalled how the writer took pride in calling himself a ‘kathai solli’ (story teller)’.

The first copies of the books were received by R.S. Munirathnam, founder and chairman, RMK group of institutions. Editor of Kathaisolli magazine, K.S. Radhakrishnan, who organised the function, highlighted the rich contributions of people who had migrated long ago from present-day Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu, and objected to some people derogatively referring to them as ‘vantherigal (migrant settlers)’.