CHENNAI: The two-day literary festival organised by Tamil daily Dinamani begins on Saturday at the Madras University. Former President APJ Abdul Kalam is inaugurating the festival. Tamil scholars, writers and critics from various countries will speak on the occasion. There will be eight sessions during the two days and 32 scholars will take part, while six political leaders will be addressing the festival. Also, there will be a book exhibition.
There will be four sessions on the first day on the topics - Literature and today’s needs, Literature and Arts in Visual Media, Tamil language in Information Media and language and translation.
Scholars like Avvai Natarajan, poet Sirpi Balasubramanian and Maalan, editor, Puthiya Thalaimurai are chairing the sessions while DMK MP Tiruchi N Siva, S Ramakrishnan (Malaysia), Subashini Tremmel (Germany), film directors Gnana Rajasekaran and SP Muthuraman, besides Thamizh Aruvi Manian, Kalachuvadu Kannan and many others will be sharing their views .
On the second day, there will be four sessions on - Religion and Tamil, The habit of reading, Tracing the roots - Literature and Tracing the roots - Arts. Scholars Sudha Seshaiyyan, Tirupur Krishnan and M Rajendran, MDMK leader Vaiko, VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan, World Tamil Forum leader Pazha Nedumaaran, AIADMK MLA Pazha Karuppiah, besides M Rajendran, poets Mu Mehta and N Muthukumar and artiste Trotsky Marudu and many others will speak on varied subjects.
Governor K Rosaiah will be delivering the valedictory address and Professor R Thandavan, Vice-Chancellor, Madras University and others will speak.
Cultural programmes will include nathaswaram recital by Injikkudi Subramanian, Madurai Latha Maheswari’s sand drawing, Dance drama - Dasavatharam - by Zakir Hussain troupe and another Dance Drama - Rajarajan - by Swarnamalya Ganesh.