On Stamps - cinema

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

M.S. Stamp and the story



The image inside the K.Subrahmanyam stamp is of a lady spinning the "charka" or spinning wheel.This is from his film "Seva Sadan" based on Munshi Premchand's novel.The lady spinning the charka is none other than M.S.Subbalakshmi.K.S introduced her in films,not just her but others like M.K.Thyagaraja Bhagavathar and T.R.Rajakumari.KS was an advocate who took to making films.He started making movies in the mid 1930s and one of his films was even banned by the british for being to "patriotic".He addressed several social and national issues in his films.He was instrumental in founding several trade bodies for the film Industry and can verily be called the father of the Tamil screen .THE BEAUTY ABOUT THIS IMAGE IN THE STAMP IS THAT M.S WAS ALIVE WHEN THE STAMP WAS RELEASED.This is normally not done but as the authorities did not know that the image was her's and as the image was too small it went unnoticed.
The other stamp is for the movie moghul,known as the Cecil B Demille of Indian Cinema,S.S.Vasan.He founded the Gemini Studios and made such grand movies like "Chandralekha".The famous drum dance scene from the movie is shown on the stamp.