When Mani Ratnam 'Met' Nandana Dev Sen!

Karthik Srinivasan has written a small tribute to Tamil writer Sujatha in his post. Here, I am talking about Sujatha's short story "Amuthavum Avanum" which brought Mani Ratnam to direct children as chief protagonists in his film Kannathil Muthamittal after his Anjali (1990). It is a story about Amudha, a young girl.

Nandana Dev Sen is an award-winning actor, writer, and child-rights activist. She has authored many books for children. Her book Not Yet (published by Tulika Publishers Chennai ) is my go-to book in driving code-switching/multilingualism discussions with the FLN participants. Talky Tumble of Jumble Farm provides ample ideas on constructing creative assessments. In 2019, came an amazing book In My Heart, richly illustrated by Ruchi Mhasane (a Puffin publication). It is a story about a young girl, Mia.

While doing my first read-aloud session of the book, I realized the stark parallels between the lives of Amudha and Mia. If you peel the unavoidable charged political context of the film at your own peril for simplicity's sake, both the girls have a sole aim to find their biological mothers. The 'tummy mummies' in Mia's words. If Nina Sabnani's "HOME" talks about same-gendered parents, Amudha and Mia raised the topic of adoption in a very touching way.

Anjali's story was so movingly told by Mani Ratnam then in 1990, lots of credit goes to Vaali the lyricist, and Maestro Ilaiyaraja for his score (songs and BGM, both). Sample the title track and a tip-of-the-hat tribute to Spielberg in this ET-inspired Vegam Vegam song. Amudha has Vairamuthu's lyrics in Oru Deivam Thantha Poove (= O' God-gifted flower) and A R Rahman doing the honours. A special mention for Ravi K Chandran's cinematography, just like Ruchi Mhasane's illustrations for Mia.

My takeaway after Mani 'met' Nandana?

Gunther Kress' multimodality is a powerful idea to take shelter under for any classroom/workshop transactions. Words, images, visuals, BGM, gifs, and memes...all are welcome to make my engagement with learners/participants purposeful and memorable. Combining social science textbooks and amazing books from children's literature with a powerful ad or a moving scene (from the likes of a B R Chopra, a Guru Dutt, or a K Balchander) has always paid rich dividends.

#multimodality #facilitation #socialscience #multilingualism #childrensliterature

Anand Krishnaswamy Dr. Anindita Bhattacharya Nargish Khambatta Pooja Arya Aajwanthi Baradwaj Bhakti Verma Mala Kumar Sastry Adiraju Priyanka Bajaria