Madurai Shanmugavadivu Subbulakshmi (MS) has acted in four films - Seva Sadan (1938), Sakuntalai (1940), Savitri (1941), and Meera (1945). Ellis R. Dungan, the director of Meera, writes in his book "A Guide to Adventure - An Autobiography" (2001):
"Of all the Tamil theatrical motion picture films that I directed in India, the film Meera was considered by my peers and local film critics to be my best – and I am inclined to agree.
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An innovation I brought to Indian films was the 'shooting script', where the script would be broken down into scenes and shots, with action on the left half of the page and dialogue on the right half.
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At the end of a month I was back in Madras with the completed shooting script preparing to cast the film, conduct dialogue and music rehearsals, and construct sets at Newtone Studio.
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There is one scene of which I was particularly proud in this film. M.S. had beautiful large eyes, and I wanted to highlight them during one of her songs. I used a special lighting with equipment that I’d brought with me from the U.S. and isolated the area of her eyes with two ‘gobos’ – one at the top of her eyes and one underneath – and feathered the edges of the gobos by putting a diffusion screen on the top and bottom edges to soften them. The final cut showed only the close-up of her eyes, which filled the screen. It was a beautiful effect.
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Notwithstanding her worldwide name and fame as a musical genius, M.S.’s personal life has always been a very simple one. She is unaffected by her celebrity status and international renown and is of almost childlike innocence and naivete.
...
Since she was always surrounded by musicians in her home rehearsing songs for a recital somewhere, I had to literally wait my turn to conduct film rehearsals. She was quite a busy lady and a lovable one..."
...
An innovation I brought to Indian films was the 'shooting script', where the script would be broken down into scenes and shots, with action on the left half of the page and dialogue on the right half.
...
At the end of a month I was back in Madras with the completed shooting script preparing to cast the film, conduct dialogue and music rehearsals, and construct sets at Newtone Studio.
...
There is one scene of which I was particularly proud in this film. M.S. had beautiful large eyes, and I wanted to highlight them during one of her songs. I used a special lighting with equipment that I’d brought with me from the U.S. and isolated the area of her eyes with two ‘gobos’ – one at the top of her eyes and one underneath – and feathered the edges of the gobos by putting a diffusion screen on the top and bottom edges to soften them. The final cut showed only the close-up of her eyes, which filled the screen. It was a beautiful effect.
...
Notwithstanding her worldwide name and fame as a musical genius, M.S.’s personal life has always been a very simple one. She is unaffected by her celebrity status and international renown and is of almost childlike innocence and naivete.
...
Since she was always surrounded by musicians in her home rehearsing songs for a recital somewhere, I had to literally wait my turn to conduct film rehearsals. She was quite a busy lady and a lovable one..."
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The vcd of Meera (Tamil, approximately 111 minutes only) has recently been released by Movie Land - MLVCD-0093. The Internet Movie Database reports 136 minutes runtime!!
The vcd of Meera (Tamil, approximately 111 minutes only) has recently been released by Movie Land - MLVCD-0093. The Internet Movie Database reports 136 minutes runtime!!
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Chintadripet, Chennai-600002, India.
Phone: 044 - 52027294
