Priyamanasam : Effort to revive Sanskrit language through a movie

Priyamanasam : Effort to revive Sanskrit language through a movie

Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, 13 July 2016 0

A woman wearing a flowing white skirt and a blouse looks at her lover with tears in her eyes and he matches her tears with equal exaggerated pain.

Their apparel makes one expect them to begin speaking in South Dravidian or Telugu, and to the undisciplined ear, that might somewhat be true. however pay close attention and it becomes apparent that they're speaking Sanskrit.

This is Priyamanasam, believed to be solely the third Sanskrit language motion picture ever produced. It has won the National Award within the Sanskrit language films class for 2015. it's additionally the sole Sanskrit language film to win a prize in its class -- the 2 previous films, Adi Shankaracharya and Bhagavad gita, won the National Award within the Best Film class.

In a totally different story, rhythmic flutes introduce one to a village known as Karunadu on the banks of Kaveri river, during a short animation film sequence. Going by the music and also the pastoral setting that accompany the animation, there is very little to arrange the viewer for the Sanskrit language narration that follows.

A young girl warns of the bridge that humans need to make over the Kaveri and also the disturbance that it may bring over the whole village. a completely crowd-funded venture, Punyakoti is that the initial animated film to be created in Sanskrit language.

Ravishankar V, head at Center of Excellence, HR Services and Learning BPO at Infosys BPO and also the author and director of Punyakoti, is rapturous with the response the project has gathered. The film has been able to collect over Rs forty one hundred thousand (Rs four.1 million) thus far, crossing his target by Rs one hundred thousand (Rs one hundred,000).

Ravishankar has been able to rope in huge names, like musician Ilayaraja and actor Revathy, and has created quite buzz on social media. Based on a well-liked Kannada folks song by a similar name, the film may be a new take the fable of the "cow who forever speaks the truth".

It is ironic that for a language that's believed to be many thousand years recent, there's still scope for firsts. however this is often additionally characteristic Sanskrit language being relegated to the realm of pure scholarship, instead of being actively engaged with during a cultural environment.

For Sanskrit language enthusiasts and students, there are not several choices to expertise the language outside their lecture rooms. Reena Bhatnagar, a Sanskrit language teacher at Somerville college in Noida, says the sole theatre she remembers looking is Abhijñanashakuntala, the famed play by Kalidasa.

"But even that was potential when I rapt to Indian capital from Sitapur in state. There are not any such opportunities in smaller cities," she says. Bhatnagar encompasses a PhD in Sanskrit language and remembers speaking the language in faculty. "But it never came naturally. solely people who come back from a pure Sanskrit language instructional background -- wherever their entire education was in Sanskrit language -- associate speak it while not it ostensible contrived."

This could even be as a result of Sanskrit language was, in line with some specialists, a refined version of Prakrit, that was the oral communication of the plenty.

Wendy Doniger, author of The Hindus: an alternate History, writes, '...even within the religious writing age, Sanskrit language wasn't what has been known as a room language, not the language during which you same, "Pass the butter".' She suggests that Prakrit, the 'natural language,' might have precede Sanskrit language, 'the refined, secondary revision, the substitute language.'

This is maybe additionally why films are slow to return, particularly once the benefit with that characters speak has got to be elicited into the script as a result of the language itself might not enable it.