Interview: Jeyamohan

Ooh.. bookmarking this one! *rubs hands together*

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hari prasad

To that one guy who often requests Baddy to talk something about literature in a video , your wish has been granted.

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sachita

Wow… this is one interview that I didnt even realize I have been waiting for.

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Jeeva Pitchaimani

Two of my favourite icons talking to each other! Jemo might not have known how great a writer/critic Rangan is. Very curious to see this.

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vijay

Caught a few mins of discussion around Kannadhaasan..his ‘unakkum keezhe uLLavar kodi, irupadhai paarthu nimmadhi naadu” encapsulates more practical philosophy than 400-page fat books on Nietzche or Kant..

On his ‘raw’ vs applied literature, kavidhai vs paadal, even supposedly spontaneous poetry has your iambic pentameter and all that..so was’nt that also applied in some way? Could it have been a spontaneous creation if it is so carefully stitched to a meter. Or did those poets in question had internalized these forms so much that even their inspired outbursts ended up being structured like that?

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vijay

“IlakkaNam maarudho, ilakkiyam aanadho”…you are such a fan of this line are’nt you? 🙂 Kind of like “theLivum ariyaadhu, mudivum theriyaadhu mayangudhu yethirkaalam” which has its own set of fans.

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vijay

Forget poetry, what does he think about the current trend of having ridiculous Tamil movie titles like “Greatest of all time”, “Beast”, “Thuglife’, “Good bad and Ugly” and all that..? ..

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vijay

On translated works, beyond a point(for better reach) it could become pointless.. Like translating Kamban’s poems to German. Or reading Shakespeare in Tamil.

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Readers Write In #684: The Hall of Thousand Pillars | Baradwaj Rangan (wordpress.com)

Do read this translated story of J.Mo’s if you want a taste of his writing.

The Thousand Pillared Hall.

“It quickly moves from wonder to disquiet to horror.” “eerie and extremely dreamlike.”

If nothing else, will make you see notice the sculpture in south Indian temples better.

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Dinesh

Jeymohan criticized Manju mmel boys which was supposed to be a all-girls film.

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mailmanju

BR, I don’t know if you realise it, but you are creating a legacy. I have been following you for over 12 years reading your intricate details of movie reviews, music reviews and readable interviews. However, whether you intended or not, with the digital move and in the space of video interviews, you have been making waves. Having a range from interviewing newbies like Ananya Pandey, Anushka Sen to highly intellectuals such as Jeyamohan, the kind of questions you ask based on the interviewee, their age, their dynamics, their experiences. It’s amazing. Look forward to many more interviews.

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brangan

Thanks mailmanju 🙂

We started this series to go beyond interviews around a particular film etc., and we started with this one below. So many aspiring screenwriters wrote in about this one. A lot of what Jeyamohan has said isn’t exactly NEW to those who have been following him/his blog, but I wanted to put it down on ‘digital’, as you say.

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RK

Watched the entire video in one go & it was fantastic and more than satisfied my expectations. It hardly felt like 90 mins. As BR has commented, none of what Jeyemohan says in the video is new to his regular readers but the way he says it & your genuine appreciation made it absolutely great. And judging by his reactions, he seems to have a good time too.

I would have loved it to be more conversational with more BR, but I am becoming greedy. Maybe another video.

Two of my favourite icons talking to each other!

@Jeeva: I second that. And how well do you know your Rangan vaathiyar, to write a RWI about serious literature just a day before this interview that starts with the very same question!

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Jeeva Pitchaimani

@RK haha 🙂 Rangan told me the same!!

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pseudo writer Murakami 🙂

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You know what would be really nice? To see a JMo story/excerpt from a novel in the New Yorker — now that we have good translators like @suchitra & @Priyamvada, the same people the author has thanked during the course of the interview.

Why not –right? NY does publish translated stories from other languages. I’ve recall having read Japanese, Yiddish there…

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rmahalik

BR, enjoyed the interview. Insightful discussions. There is a good flow.

I had a great laugh seeing your reaction when he made the comment on the Japanese writer…Murakami….came across as you couldn’t agree more!!

His comment on lyrics post MSV, I feel that way too. Lyrics don’t do justice for the compositions…it is a not a reflection on the song writers…guess that is what they could do with the time given. Either they didn’t stand the ground or composer didn’t push (or wait) for better lyrics most of the cases. It will be good RWI topic where readers can call out songs where lyrics do justice and where it is better to listen to instrumental version.

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brangan

Got this via email (sharing with permission):

Coming to your latest interview with Writer JayaMohan, I would like to my views with you personally. I restrict myself to Lyrics & Music leaving Writing & Cinema as I am not fairly exposed to that area though I have a fair amount of ideas in regard to that area.

I disagree with Jayamohan’s view that there were not so many poetic lyrics forthcoming in the Pre-Kannadasan era. Ku. Ma. Balasubramaniam, Thanjai Ramaiadas Marudakasi, Pattukottai Kalyanasundaram and K.M. Sheriff havegiven beautiful poetic lyrics better than Kannadasan. Predominantly, I repeat, Predominantly, Kannadasan’s most o the lyrics were of exploring philosophical truths and situation / story based songs which were well emulated – equally by Vaalee. Vaalee has given some unforgettable poetic lyrics like Maduraiyil parandha Meen Kodhiyaiyai, Azhagu Dheivam mella mella, Putham Pudhya Puthagame, Kanaa KaaNum kanngaL mella, to name a few songs that came to my mind immediately.

The Success of MSV – Kannadasan / MSV – Vaalee collaboration was primarily due to the level of perfect understanding between them. Though MSV had tuned in many pre-written lyrics too (when the song situation demanded OR when a song had a more lyrical value), most of the songs were created in the combination of both the aspects “Tune for Lyrics” and “Lyrics for Tune” put together. In 2014 or 2016 “Hindu Thamizh Dhisai” Deepaavali Sirappu Malar” that carried an intereview with Vairamuthu, Vairamuthu shared this information as shared by MSV with him. MSV had reportedly responeded to a query from Vairamuthu in this regard, stating that for many songs, if a Tune strikes him for a given situation, he would get the Lyrics to the Tune from the Writer for the Pallavai & Anu Pallavai Portion and he would leave the CharaNam Portions to be written by the Lyricists and then he would create and construct the tune for the CharaNam Portions. IF Striking Lyrics came First, then he would tune the Pre-written Pallavi & Anu Pallavi and would in the same flow create tune for the CharaNam portions and would leave that Tune to the Lyricists to fill up the same. He said this understanding was the secret behind the success of his inuumerable songs. (I don’t want to enlist here some of the striking songs came under this modus operandi aswell as the Tunes created for the completely prewrittn Lyrics as it would be a Lengthy one).

Yes, Vairamuthu, no doubt, brought in a fresh air in the Thamizh Flm music with more poetic content in his lyrics in innumerable quantities though before his entry Pulamai Pithan, Muthu Lingam and Naa. Kaamarasan gave a good number of poetic lyrics (although their romantic lyrics for MGR Duets may predominantly sound raw like a Chandilyan’s description of his novels’ female characters).

Vairamuthu was able to give poetic lyrics in plenty till the recent controversial fiascos surrounded him.unfortunately. Beginning from Pon Maalai Pozhudhu, Megame Megame, Manidha manidha ini un VizhigaL sivandhaal Ulagam Vidiyum, KaNNana Poo magane Kann urangu Sooriyane, Rojavai Thaalaattum Thendral, Poovil vandu Koodum kandu Poovum KanngaL moodum to Kattre yen Vaasal vandhaai, Oru Vellai Mazhai ingu Pozhigindradhu, Maargazhi Poove Maargazhi Poove, Nilaa Kaaigirdadhu, Neram Theigiradhu, Thaayaarum ariyaamal ooraarum kaaNaamal (Film: Thithikudhe 2008), Oru Dheivam thandha Poove, there are many striking lyrics with a telling poetic beauty.

“ilaigaLil kaadhal kadidham vandu ezhudhum PoonjOlai

viralgaLil Meni moozhudhum iLamai varaiyum Oar Kavidhai”

“vasanthangaL vaazhthum pozhudhu unadhu kiLaiyil Poovaaven

ilai yudhir Kaalam muzhudhum magizhndhu unakku Vaer AAven”

Paa Vijay, Snehan, Thamarai and Naa. Muthukumar are other notable lyricsts who have given some quality lyrics thought may be limited in numbers,

I fully agree with Jayamohan’s emphatic view Ilaiyaraja treated the Lyricists badly like his Slaves. Arrogance & Ego are his wellknown traits. To stay in the race, Vaalee had to write lyrics like Raja Rajadhi Rajan indha Rajaa, Raaja kaiya vechha adhu Wrongaa pOnadhille to please and appese Ilaiyaraja.

But, I found in this interview, Writer Jayamohan too was boasting too much about himself though he may be an intellectual writer.

Ok Sir, I am winding up this mail with a hope that you would give a reading to it and take note of my feedback.

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Karthik Chaktravarty

I won’t take Jeyamohan’s views on music and cinema seriously. He himself has said in many of his blog posts that music in general, cine music is not his cup of tea. Not a musicphile. Perhaps he forms the opinion on Ilayaraja from his friends such as Saaji.

In the back, he will say Ilayaraja use lots of Violin. vayalin’a vaasichi thallitaaru.

Surprising to hear Jeyamohan calling somebody like Kannadasan as genius. Because he has bashed Kannadasan’s Arthamulla hindu madam. Don’t know if Jeyamohan is trying to do damage control and put up a positive face after the bashing he did for Manjummal boys.

Also, Jeyamohan will not say anything negative about cine people (because as he says Cinema is sadaiyappa vallal for him).

He will call IT engineers as coolies and break the confidence of so many IT engineers here in India. One has to understand this is the first generation that is thinking beyond a clerical job. IT work is no way a clerical work. Senju paatha theriyum. thaavu theendurum. But Jeyamohan breaks the confidence just like breaking a glass with a small tool. Even Charu Niveditha says the same in different words – this is philistine society which doesn’t know anything beyond movies and IPL but at least he doesn’t directly get into profession or call the professionals as coolies.

At the same time Jeyamohan will directly or indirectly praise IT engineers in USA. Because brahmins are significant in USA. Even there also, our engineers more or less do the same job except that in India is mostly service industry. Since, the cream goes to USA, they do little bit more complex but that is also handled in India. People who work for Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon know how much they are dependent on India’s resource.

Not to forget, Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, Satya Nadelo of Microsoft, Shantanu of Adobe etc are all products of India. They are driving not just because of India’s education system but also because of the opportunities they get there compared to India.

If IT engineers are coolies, then except the actors, main supporting actors, directors, cinematographers, editors, music directors everyone else (i.e assistants) working in cinema industry is a coolie. just a எடுபுடிs even if they work for Shankar or Mani Ratnam or Bala.

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Ah, will need to watch this, so violin tabla man meme hasn’t died yet 10 years or so after a section of Rahman fans spread it across social media?

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“this is philistine society which doesn’t know anything beyond movies and IPL” – Yeah and respectfully, it would be better if that was true if the ‘things beyond’ include religion and caste based hate as they always seem to. Better a herd of ‘decadents’ than the ideologically fervent who will kill or support the killing in the name of ideology.

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Iswarya V

Very interesting conversation for a new audience. Thank you for introducing these thoughts to a different circle. I think this interaction definitely deserves subtitles because the things he talks about go way beyond the scope of just a Tamil speaking audience.

And of course… Nothing like a typical JM rage bait for calling out how uninformed the average Tamil/Indian film audience is. I like the way he described the momentum created by the majority. So many zingers in there!

A portion of the comments section too bears witness to the statement JM often makes – that the “saamaniyan” with a little money resents being identified as “saamaniyan.”

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Rahul

Thanks, Isvarya. I was meaning to ask for subtitles, but the last time I requested subtitles for the Kasarvalli interview, many things he said went over my head, so I was feeling a bit shy about asking again.

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Commenting as I listen. OK, what he said w.r.t Ilayaraja and violins is pretty nuanced and quite a valid viewpoint. He is saying he finds the lyrics irritating and would rather hear the songs played on violins (aka an instrument). I would agree with that…even as a not-a-lyrics guy too much maane-thene gets irritating alright. The distinction between poetry and lyrics was also well argued.

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I hear what he is saying about cellphone-itis but would also submit that we haven’t been a ‘reading’ culture for a very long time. I cannot say what it was before my time – obviously! – but at least in my childhood already, most of my male classmates disliked my obsession with books. Things seem to have settled somewhat on social media otherwise when orkut/FB was new, it was somehow seen as a bad thing to write full sentences. I don’t know nearly enough about history to speculate as to whether this has to do with our gurukul culture, that maybe we like to learn only orally or visually and not through the written word.

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But as for the cyber coolie part…yeah, no. You could have said this maybe when Infy, TCS etc were the be all and end all but India’s capability to create digital products has moved a long way ahead of that. I am not saying for a minute that it compares to USA but USA is also the Silicon Valley of…the world! Generalizations about civilizations are ultimately dangerous; the walkman came out of Japan for instance. Bios about Steve Jobs, a designer and marketer par excellence, don’t exactly paint him as a person capable of regarding his subordinates as human beings either and views about Musk aren’t very different either. If you want to really go down that road, you could even argue America commercialized the hell out of whatever remained of European civilization at the end of two destructive world wars…aka the stultifying of creativity, if anything. NOT that I am saying that but if you want to take this argument to the logical extreme, because with all due respect to Robert Zimmerman and his Nobel Prize, you could hardly compare him to Dostoevsky or Michael Jackson to Bach/Mozart/Beethoven.

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Karthik Chaktravarty

On @iswarya’s “A portion of the comments section too bears witness to the statement JM often makes – that the “saamaniyan” with a little money resents being identified as “saamaniyan.””

@Iswarya – it is not about saamaniyan called saamaniyan. they very much know that he is a saamaniyan. But, JM beats them psycologically. There are tens of 10000s of saamaniyan’s who have uplifted the family, married their sisters/brothers, took care of parents and extended family such as perippa/chitappa,,athai , thaatha, paatti etc and all these came from this saamaniyan jobs only.

I agree his point on uplifting the education system and the need to be creators. But tagging others as saamaniyan is over stepping the place a reader gives to the writer. Journa Samas asked the question “why creating a low esteem (தாழ்வுணர்ச்சி) in readers” to Charu Nivedita. Some other reader quoted the same and asked the same question Jeyamohan. Both gave vazha vazha kozha kozha answers.

PS Vinoth raj who watched and learnt movies from VCD cassettes and DVDs without help of subtitles (just from visuals) made movies like Koozhangal and Kottukaali premiered in Berlin. Despite his association with many veterans and exposure to world cinemas (kerala , goa, film festivals), there is yet a movie of his to be screened in international film circuits. (He is keeping the benchmark for IT engineers with people in USA, Europe), then, we can also keep that yardstick for JM to international standards. Despite a juicy subject of KB Sundarambal, Kittapa, Kaaviya thalaivan bombed because of the script. And his son despite working with Mani Ratnam since OK Kanmani (made since 2014), yet to make a movie (No disrespect to Ajithan, I have read him and I love his writings). Will JM give such a long rope to others or to the saamaniyan?

Jeyamohan’s fiction, writings around poetry, spirituality, can be read. But his non-fiction especially reader bashing has to be consciously ignored.

Jeyakanthan, Ki.Ra, Vannadasan, S.Ra have certainly questioned the conscience of the common man. But they haven’t broken them or their confidence.

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mvky

Looks like he is more famous for his opinions than his contribution as a prolific writer. Even if the translations are not upto the mark, let somebody translate his works in English and also in culturally closer south indian languages like Kannada and telugu. I enjoyed reading Vijee’s translated story Thousand Pillars. I wish my tamil is stronger to enjoy his writings. Even his take on music and literature went over my head and I had to listen again to get what he was saying. And the comments are very helpful. Comments are the soul of this blog and I wonder when someone in some other thread said that people dont read comments here.

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https://www.asymptotejournal.com/special-feature/b-jeyamohan-periyammas-words/

Mvky — thanks for reading the story, but JMo is much much much more than that one brilliant story. About him:

Author’s Bio:

Jeyamohan is one of the finest and most prolific writers to have emerged from India. Though he has authored more than two hundred books, spanning re-imaginations of epics, novels, short fiction, travelogues, literary criticism, and more, he has just begun to be translated into English. We have each translated one book-length work of his. This short story forms part of a series of more than a hundred stories the author wrote in 2020, one for each day of the pandemic-induced lockdowns.

Translators’ Bio:

Based in Chennai, India, Priyamvada Ramkumar translates from Tamil to English. Her debut translation of Jeyamohan’s Stories of the True has been longlisted for the 2023 ALTA-NTA Prose Award. She won a 2023 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant for White Elephant, a novel by the same author. She can be found at priyamvada_ram on X/Twitter.

Suchitra Ramachandran is a bilingual writer and translator. The Abyss, her debut book-length translation of Jeyamohan’s Tamil novel was published this year to critical acclaim. She won the 2017 Asymptote Close Approximations Fiction Prize for Periyamma’s Words, a short story by the same author. She can be found at artisuch on X/Twitter.

Elephant! by B. Jeyamohan, translated by Priyamvada Ramkumar and Suchitra Ramachandran – Usawa Literary Review

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Eswar

BR, many thanks for this interview. You know this already, but I have to say this — you are a fantastic interviewer, BR. Jeyamohan is a joy to listen to when he connects the dots and provides new perspectives. Yet, when he generalises his experiences, it can be difficult not to refute him and turn it into a debate. You were patiently listening to some of his generalisations without interrupting him. At some point during the interview, I wondered if you were even enjoying it anymore. I hope you did. As Mailmanju mentioned in the comment above, you are creating a legacy with your work, and this interview is a fine addition to that list. Thanks again.

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Eswar

https://www.usawa.in/issue-10/translations-10/elephant-by-b-jeyamohan/

Link to the translation of Aanaiyilla that Jeyamohan mentioned in the interview:

Link to the original:

https://www.jeyamohan.in/130198/

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brangan

Eswar: Thank you for that. 🙂

Yet, when he generalises his experiences, it can be difficult not to refute him and turn it into a debate.

According to me (Rahini, Iswarya, this usage is for you 😀 )…

debates are a different type of conversation. My job here (as I see it) is to provide little trigger points that will get the guest talking about things I want to hear (and hopefully, by extension, the audience), and leave these thoughts for the audience to talk or debate about.

For a debate, I feel the entire conversation has to structured around ONE BIG POINT, eg “Is literature dead?” or “Are lyrics literature?”

And the two participants can go back and forth on that — but in that case, I won’t be an “interviewer” and the guest won’t be an “interviewee”… We will both be “debaters”.

I like to label my interviews as “conversations”. I prepare a base set of discussion points, and then let the guest take me whichever way s/he chooses…

And it’s curious how these tangents come about. For instance, with Bhansali, I had prepared a more generic question in mind about his music. (“Why do you use raag Yaman so often?”)

But when he mentioned “Guddi” by way of answering an earlier question, I recalled “Hum ko man ki shakti dena” in Raag Kedar, and I reframed my music question in a much more specific (I hope so!) manner, on the spot.

That’s the loveliest part of these interviews, because there’s a bit of your own subconscious that’s triggered (like in any serious conversation in real life), and the conversation takes an unexpected little detour.

The real problem is those who speak superbly off-camera and then clam up on camera… Aaargh! That’s when I get comments like “BR is talking so much and not letting the guest speak” 😀 And I hate that! 😀

But this line of yours has made me wonder how I will fare if asked to participate in a debate type of show 😀

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Venky Ramachandran

I am midway into this interview – I wouldn’t agree with comments here that he is boasting himself. As an ardent reader of Jeyamohan, I would say that had he been writing in English, we would have feted and celebrated his works at par with legends of art. I wish BR could have delved a bit more into Jeyamohan’s explorations around philosophy as I find his views breathtaking and dazzlingly original in that domain. As an “advaitin” literateur (as he admits himself), I would go far to say that after Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Chaturvedi Badrinath, I find him to be the foremost Indian author to bring an intricate amalgamation of western and Indian philosophy in such original ways! In his comments about his work, I hear his deep angst of how tamizh culture has become so averse and cynical to “literature”. I spent few days in MH recently and I could see how much love they have towards marathi literature. Sadly, such culture is limited to pockets in TN.

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vijay

Kartik, and for a self-anointed ‘intellectual’ JM has had quite a few instances of saying something only to retract them later on. I think the problem is in putting those on a pedestal who are just good at their own craft and expecting them to be karuthu kandasaamis, and wanting expert opinions on pretty much everything under the sun from demonetization to IT innovation. I call it Kamalagaasanitis 🙂 Charu Nivedita is a joke.

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vijay

“If IT engineers are coolies, then except the actors, main supporting actors, directors, cinematographers, editors, music directors everyone else (i.e assistants) working in cinema industry is a coolie. just a எடுபுடிs even if they work for Shankar or Mani Ratnam or Bala.”

actually even directors are yedupudis a lot of the time, especially if they happen to be somebody like say a KS Ravikumar or C Sundar working in a Kamal movie 🙂

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Venky Ramachandran

Finished this interview finally. How dare he ask “Where is India’s authoritative film critic” in front of you? Even during promotions of Ponniyin Selvan, he wrote about the absence of “film critics” in today’s ecosystem. I wish you had challenged him talking about your work with atleast 50% pride he showed towards his body of work. Although to be more objective and keep aside BR fan hat, your writings as a critic, over these years, have become far more “democratised” as opposed to becoming far more “classicised”. Perhaps, you chose to evolve with the times given that you are the intersection of films and writing in such goldfish times!

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I haven’t read JM’s works and wouldn’t like to comment either way, favourably or unfavourably. But in any event, his generalizations in such interviews are not a good reflection then on his work. Maybe I am dreadfully wrong about this but I don’t remember Bertrand Russell or Richard Rorty making such sweeping generalizations. I’d posit that in modern times, a scientific temper is inseparable from an intellectual outlook but in India, thought leaders still feel the need to grandstand and issue hot takes.

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Venky Ramachandran

It is also important to understand that Jeyamohan himself has talked a lot of his Osho influences and many of his generalization statements have an Osho-like quality to attract attention with a ridiculously absurd statement and make you find out what he has really said in his writings. My sense is that he joyfully plays these games in public to push ordinary masses on a spiritual and literary quest. And much like Osho, he believes that literature makes you a better human being.

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May 26, 2024

@Madan his generalizations in such interviews are not a good reflection then on his work — have to agree with this. In fact, I would rather shut out the conversation with him — which adds nothing to my understanding of his oeuvre — and focus on his work. I am eagerly awaiting 2 of his upcoming translated books:

Vellai Yanai – Fictionalized account of first labor movement of India in the backdrop of Casteism, British Rule and the Madras Famine. Also, the Vellia Yanai in q. apparently refers to the blocks of ice which were transported from New England to Madras (Icehouse) back in late 19th century.
Kumarithuraivi — Fearing the invasion of Malik Kafur, the general of Delhi Sultan Alauddin Khilji, the idols from the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai were taken to the hinterland and worshipped in another temple, where they remained till 1368. From there, they were returned to Madurai once the rulers in the capital thought things were back to normal. So, a wedding of Meenakshi with Sundareshwarar returned her to Madurai, it remains a festive occasion to this day (Chithirai Thiruvizha). That is the theme of this story …Again the backdrop is historical.

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RK

May 27, 2024

@Madan: One of the problems with engaging with any writer on a piecemeal basis is the very real danger of misinterpretation. It is impossible for anyone to convey all the context required with their necessary caveats when expressing an opinion. Unless you read them regularly & put everything that they say in the context of their work, nuances are probably lost.

That is how BR can be termed immoral because he despises preaching in films.

What @Venky Ramachandran & @vijee have commented on Jeyamohan’s methods are quite true. He has written multiple times that he takes a great deal of delight in riling up people & generating controversies. He says that it is a good way to attract new readers. Out of the thousands who come one may turn into a regular reader that he can influence.

The best starting point for his fiction is the short story collection, Aram. The English translation of this work, The Stories of the True is also great. Aram is available on his blog itself. There are also multiple podcasts (Kadhai Osai is the best) that narrate his stories. In this regard, he is the very opposite of Ilayaraja.

Some of his essays on Hindutva in Frontline show that he is an intellectual & not only a writer. You can check out those too.

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