Tuesday 28 June 2016

Ponkunnam Varky - remembering day on July 2.

Ponkunnam Varkey (Malayalam: Ponkunnam Varkey; 1 July 1910 - 2 July 2004) was a writer and activist from Kerala, India. He authored more than 120 short stories and 16 plays and is widely acclaimed as a writer who had always upheld social relevance in his works. Varkey combated against many evils that existed in the society during his days. His stories heightened the values ​​of freedom and democracy. His name was synonymous with protest and he used his literary prowess to launch an uncompromising struggle against social injustice. Varkey was one of the pioneers of the progressive writers 'forum and literary writers' co-operative in Kerala. He was the president of Kerala Sahitya Akademiand Sahithya Pravarthaka Co-operative Society.

Varkey was born on 1 July 1910, in a Syrian Christian family of Edathuavillage in Kuttanad, Alappuzha district (Alleppey), to Kattappuram Varkey Joseph and Annamma Joseph. After his father's death Varkey went to his mother's house at Ponkunnam inKottayam. As Varkey himself had said, his childhood was not a protected one, but based on the dictum of the survival of the fittest. While studying in school, he was attracted to Indian independence movement and the subject matter of his early writings was related to this theme. After high school studies he passed the Malayalam 'Vidwan' examination; the then prevalent qualifying test for language teachers and joined a Catholic school, near Ponkunnam. But his relationship with the management was unpleasant and he left the institution when he was appointed teacher at the Vernacular Middle School in Pampady in 1942. Soon he resigned this job and jumped into the freedom struggle and was imprisoned.

He was associated with the Communist Party for some time and was the secretary of Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham (progressive writers' forum) for five years.

He died on 2 July 2004, a day after his 94th birthday. His wife Claramma had died in 1991. They had four sons and three daughters.

Varkey entered the literary field in 1939 with Thirumulkazhcha, a collection of poems that got rave reviews from the stalwarts of the time. It won the award of the Madras government in 1939. Varkey soon changed his track and chose prose, finding that drama and short story were the most effective vehicles to bring the written word close to the spoken one. He was already in the vortex of the great churning that was taking place in Kerala's social arena; he used his literary prowess to launch an uncompromising struggle against social injustice. This brought him in direct conflict with the then Diwan. were banned His short stories Manthrikkettuand Model in 1946 by the government of the princely state ofTravancore (now forming southern Kerala) on the charge of treason and Varkey was imprisoned for six months.

In 1944, Varkey started the National Book Stall, with the support of people like D. C. Kizhakemuri. But the venture was a total failure; after a few years, it merged with the Sahithya Pravarthaka Co-operative Society (SPCS), world's first writer's publishing cooperative and Varkey functioned as its president.  This was one of the most creative periods in his life.

Varkey has published 24 volumes of short stories, 16 volumes of plays, two collection of poems one collection of essays (profiles of some politicians and public figures) and a volume of autobiography.  His short storySabdikkunna Kalappa has always been considered as one of the best short stories in Malayalam literature. It describes the close relationship between a farmer and his ox.

His dramas were noted not only for its social criticism but with its artistic beauty. The dramas when staged his messages were bringing closer to the masses. His left oriented philosophy and relentless fight against feudalism, its decadent values ​​and institutionalised church made him darling of the downtrodden and, simultaneously a thorn in the eye of the powerful.

The recurrent themes of Varkey's writings are the decadence in the echelons of power and the corruption among the clergy. His style is direct, simple and unostentatious and the characters of ordinary rural folk are his stories, mostly farmers and workers. The focus of his works was on human relationships and man's relationship with nature.  Varkey's writing expedited the evolution of a congenial atmosphere for social change in the first half of the 20th century in India.

In 1973 Varkey was nominated as the president of Kerala Sahitya Akademi. In 1997, Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, the highest literary honour of the Kerala government was awarded to Varkey.

Sunday 19 June 2016

Sweet smile in the world.

Saturday 18 June 2016

Love of the mother

A brief history of Cinema.


Cinema is the Latin spelling of the Greek word kinema , meaning a motion. According to Webster’s dictionary, the word derives from Cinematography. The use of the word comes about in the 1899 in Britain. It is the British word for a movie theatre.
Cinema, or motion picture, is the art of moving images; a visual medium that tells stories and exposes reality. Created in the tail end of the 19th century, cinema is the world’s most recent art form.

The history of film began in the late 19th century, with the invention of 'magic lantern'
optical toys such as the Phenakistoscope and the Zoetrope, which presented short,
repetitive animations exploiting the eye's persistence of vision. Coleman Sellers modified the Zoetrope, replacing its hand-drawn images with photographs, creating the Kinematoscope in 1861. Henry Renno Heyl then projected a series of Kinematoscope photographs, using his Phasmatrope device, in 1870. Projection speeds for silent films were not standardised. The first film the Lumieres projected was La Sortie Des Usines Lumiere A Lyon, in Paris at the very end of 1895.

Early movie cameras were fastened to the head of their tripod with only simple leveling devices provided. These cameras were thus effectively fixed during the course of the shot, and hence the first camera movements were the result of mounting a camera on a moving vehicle. The Lumière brothers shot a scene from the back of a train in 1896. The first decade of motion picture saw film moving from a novelty to an established large-scale entertainment industry. The films became several minutes long consisting of several shots. The first rotating camera for taking panning shots and the first film studios were built in 1897. Then Special effects were introduced and film continuity, involving action moving from one sequence into another, began to be used. In 1900, continuity of action across successive shots was definitively established by George Albert Smith and James Williamson, who also worked in Brighton. Most films of this period were known as "chase films". The first use of animation in movies was in 1899. The first successful permanent theatre showing only films was "The Nickelodeon" in Pittsburgh in 1905. By 1910, actors began to receive screen credit for their roles, and the way to the creation of
film stars was opened. Regular newsreels were exhibited from 1910. Overall, from about 1910, American films had the largest share of the market in Australia and in all European countries except France. Regular newsreels were exhibited from 1910 and soon became a popular way for finding out the news

By 1910, the French film companies were starting to make films as long as two, or even three reels, though most were still one reel long. This trend was followed in Italy, Denmark, and Sweden. In Britain, the Cinematograph Act 1909 was the first primary legislation to specifically regulate the film industry

New film techniques like the use of artificial lighting, fire effects and low-key lighting
(lighting in which most of the frame is dark) for enhanced atmosphere during sinister. scenes were introduced in this period. As films grew longer, specialist writers were

employed to simplify more complex stories. Genres began to be used as categories.
During the First World War, there was a complex transition for the film industry. The
exhibition of films changed from short one-reel programs to feature films. Exhibition
venues became larger and began charging higher prices. By 1914, continuity cinema wasthe established mode of commercial cinema. One of the advanced continuity techniques involved an accurate and smooth transition from one shot to another.

Innovations like sound recording, sophisticated cameras, editing techniques, exhibition pattern, production styles and narrative methods made cinema more impressive and attractive. Earlier history of cinema can be divided into ‘Silent Era’ and the ‘Era of Talkies’. Silent era refers to the period during which films were produced without sound due to the absence of adequate technology. The power of the cinema during the silent era was the power of their stories. Talkies mean the films with sound.

Films of the 1890s were under a minute long and until 1927 motion pictures were
produced without sound. Until 1927, motion pictures for films were produced without
sound. This era is referred to as the silent era of film. During late 1927, Warners released ‘The Jazz Singer’, with the first synchronized dialogue (and singing) in a feature film. By the end of 1929, Hollywood was almost all-talkie, with several competing sound systems (soon to be standardized).

Another categorization of the history of cinema was on the basis of the colour of visuals. Earlier films were produced in black and white films. Colour film revolutionized the medium as the audiences were hugely attracted to colour film as it provided them with a colourful real life visual experience.

The desire for wartime propaganda created a renaissance in the film industry in Britain, with realistic war dramas. The onset of American involvement in World War II also brought a proliferation of films as both patriotism and propaganda. During the immediate post-war years the cinematic industry was also threatened by television, and the increasing popularity of the medium meant that some film theatres would bankrupt andclose. Following the end of World War II in the 1940s, the following decade, the 1950s marked a 'Golden Age' for Non-English world cinema.

At the start of the First World War, French and Italian cinema had been the most globally popular. The war came as a devastating interruption to European film industries. The American industry, or "Hollywood", as it was becoming known after its new geographical center in California, gained the position it has held, more or less, ever since: film factory for the world and exporting its product to most countries on earth. By the 1920s, the United States reached what is still its era of greatest-ever output, producing an average of 800 feature films annually.

This development was contemporary with the growth of the studio system and its greatest publicity method, the star system, which characterized American film for decades to come and provided models for other film industries. The studios’ efficient, top-down control over all stages of their product enabled a new and ever-growing level of lavish production and technical sophistication.

By the end of 1929, Hollywood was almost all-talkie, with several competing sound
systems (soon to be standardized). Total changeover was slightly slower in the rest of theworld, principally for economic reasons. "The Golden Age of Hollywood", which refers roughly to the period beginning with the introduction of sound until the late 1940s. The American cinema reached its peak of efficiently manufactured glamour and global appeal during this period

Creatively, however, the rapid transition was a difficult one, and in some ways, film
briefly reverted to the conditions of its earliest days. The late '20s were full of static,
stagey talkies as artists in front of and behind the camera struggled with the stringent
limitations of the early sound equipment and their own uncertainty as to how to utilize the new medium. Many stage performers, directors and writers were introduced to cinema as producers sought personnel experienced in dialogue-based storytelling. After exploration of the potential of the medium, film started to grow as an independent cultural / entertainment industry, attracting millons of people world over.

Good morning Friends

New thoughts