Friday, October 07, 2005

Paravai Muniamma

(Photo from Hindu online)

Thanks to Sundar's mention about Paravai Muniamma in his previous blog, I got inspired to know more about this woman and so here goes after my googling:

This 62 year old female folk artist attained her popularity by her peppy voice in the Madurai Veeran Thaane song from Vikram's Dhool movie. Hailing from the agricultural village of Perumalpatti near Vadipatti, this woman is all of bubbling enthusiasm for her age.

Totally, indifferent to her looks and channelizing her personality to match the pomp and splendor of the tamil cinema ulagam, this lady jumped right in with a confidence that has made a difference.

In her interviews to magazines, she references her teacher S. Perumal Konar of Paravai who taught her the basics of folk singing. She comments that her gender and family restraints prevented her from entering the cine field at an even earlier age.

She has been sought after for public stage performances both in India and abroad and has earned quite a bit compared to other folk artists who have been in the field for longer. She has also been paired with comedian Vivek in Thakka Dhimi Tha movie and is selective about the roles she plays these days.

Her other reason for popularity is the cooking show on Sun TV and few other channels, as it seems she creates a rural flavor to the samayal, not to mention the earthen pots and pans she uses. She is a confident woman who is well aware that her future with the film industry as a folk artist may not be long lasting.

Thought that this folk woman was worth writing a blog for.

PS: Sundar-thanks for mentioning her rava seedai recipe in your previous blog.

10 comments:

Rags said...

Yeah..I saw the last week's episode of Sunday Samayal...The Rava Seedai was looking too good... Thru her they are atleast preserving various recipes that would have been buried in the villages...

Unknown said...

mitr, didnt know this info about the birdie.. long live paravai muniamma.. if you want i can record sunday samayal and give you a compendium..

:)

Devilish Angel said...

She is a very good cook!

lakshmi said...

Yeah!Nowadays she's acting in the TV advertisments also.

Raju said...

Nice post.. Interesting personality to choose. I really really like her.. Having spent 8 years in Madurai, I can correlate a lot with what she has said. She has plenty of energy in her voice and it is infectious.. I remember the best scenes in 'Dhool' were involving hers (such as she spoiling Vivek's body building show)..

She has declined to act as a jodi to anyone, so she appears solo on all the movies. If some director needs to have someone as her husband's character in the movie, he has to cajol her real husband to act as her husband.. :-)

She has got a terrific chemistry going with Vivek.. I love the duo..

I didnt know about her cooking exploits. Interesting to know the wheel come a full circle, with village cooking getting popular.

mitr_bayarea said...

rags: true..gramiya samayal is being speard like this..

sundar: hopefully will get to watch the show next week once we have sun tv at our place.

vanathi:hmmmm.

lakshmi: oh is she..enna advts?

raju:couldn't agree more with you on her and vivek acting together.

priya: will let you know if any recipe is interesting from her end.

Me too said...

Guess, she is an example of how recognition came come anytime if you are talented!
I have watched a few episodes of her cooking show and she is so natural!

tt_giant said...

I enjoyed her acting in Dhool with Vivek. "yen raasi libra// adhu enna bra vo!". LOL!.

Intresting to note that she is compereing a program.

lakshmi said...

Yes,she is in the advertisement of a asafoetida powder company.

shyama said...

Sundar's offer of a compendium on P Muniamma's Sunday Cookery shows would be so welcome - for us who do not own a TV. Post on youtube please!