CHENNAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, on Saturday, stressed the need to render Tamil religious literature like Thevaram, Thiruvasagam and Dhivya prabhandam in the musical format so that it reaches the masses.
He was speaking at the Founder’s day celebrations of the Tamil Nadu Music and Fine Arts University ahead of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s birth anniversary on Sunday.
The University was established by the Jayalalithaa-led State government in 2013.
Palaniswami said the City was home to artists across Tamil music, bhajan music, Hindustani music, light music and folk music backgrounds.
Speaking on the musical prowess of Jayalalithaa, Palaniswami said she was made to attend music lessons early in the morning as a child and many years later, gave the Tamil community the cherished ‘Amma endral anbu’ in the film ‘Adimai penn’.
Jayalalithaa had envisioned the Founder’s day event that she titled ‘Jayam’ as a confluence of artists, said Tamil Nadu Minister for Tamil Official Language and Tamil Culture ‘Ma Foi’ K Pandiarajan.
“From next year, we are looking to give the Kalaimamani awards on this day,” he said, adding that the University has contributed to the city getting UNESCO recognition for contribution to music.
Speaking at the event, Deputy CM O Panneerselvam said films, as an art, had been used by Jayalalithaa and AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran, to great effect to sow the seeds of ‘good thought’ in the people. She was also proficient in other art forms, he said.
He said, under her leadership, fine arts students got free laptops equipped with softwares such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver to enable them to bring out creative work.