Feb 01, 2007 12:32 AM
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(Updated Feb 01, 2007 12:34 AM)
Malgudi days – Typical south Indian village with mangalore tiles on all roofs. I donot know if R.K Narayan had this village in mind while creating this masterpiece. Shankar Nag was able to envision this very story through a village at that time almost cut out from the modern world. But do you know that this very village you saw some years ago on DD does really exist, nestelled in the foothills of Western Ghats, is this beautiful place called Agumbe. Look at swamys house in the clippings I have attached. But didn’t you feel it was all so natural and true, well I did when I was, some where in the 4th standard, where I used to run to my neighbors house just to watch this serial aired some where around 8 pm. Some how I was able to relate to the little swamy and the emotions portrayed by this character.
Swamis home was truly cozy, with antique furnishings, the low roof, the attic, the house had no electricity, and it was all about using the oil lit lamps. The school was something that I recall every time with the teacher who always administered corporal punishment on his students, Swami always bore the brunt of his teachers anger. But managed to get away from it. The title song had a nasal twang to it, that’s what made it so unique that you can remember years after you have heard it. The haunting Swamiiiiiiiiiiiii score at the end of the serial still comes back to my mind.
Some of the series that I still recall are the ones where swami makes friends with the street urchin and the rich boy, also the one in which swami needs to play cricket for his team but manages to get lost in the jungle behind his house finally to find out that his rich friend is leaving the village forever.
On further research I found out that Master Manjunath who played Swami Character, is known as Manjunath Nayaker, You can always have a look at Mr. Manjunaths interview, about his experiences with Shankar Nag and R.K Narayan.
https://rediff.com/news/2001/may/16spec.htm
For more pictures of Agumbe and the Malgudi house visit
https://agumbe.com/photographs.asp?showPic=agumbe_doddamane.jpg&startpic=1
R.K Lakshman, R.K Narayans brother has done a great job in brining the characters to life through his cartoons. R.K Narayan was always known to have written stories which a twist at the climax, So much of talent out in India, I guess people R.K Narayan should be a motivation to all of us to write some thing so clean, realistic, humorous and at the same time memorable.
