Thursday,March19,2009

ABYTE OF LIFE

THE ANIMAL GUARDIANSOCIETY

Rescues homeless puppies and kittens

FREE CIRCULATION

Vol. 3No. 52

G. ETHIRAJ

The veteran costumer ofblack and white movies

0302

Biker

BOY

Meet 12-year-old Ajay,the youngest aspiring racer in the Chennaicircuit Actor Asin’s assistant, who was employedunder her in Mumbai till the shooting of theHindi

Ghajini

, has reportedly gone missing.Police sources said the missing person was Nalamuthu Kumaraswamy aliasMuthu (23) of Karumari Amman Koil Streetin Gandhi Nagar, Redhills, who was Asin’sassistant for over three years.On Tuesday afternoon, Muthu’s motherSudalai Vadivu (46) met suburban Com-missioner S.R. Jangid and lodged a com-plaint regarding her missing son.Sudalai Vadivu said Muthu relocated toMumbai in the beginning of 2008 after Asinstarted acting in the Hindi version of

Ghaji-ni

. “He met with a motorcycle accident inJuly 2008.I went to Mumbai and took care of himand brought him back to Chennai as hiscondition was bad,” she said.Muthu later went back to Mumbai upon Asin’s request in November 2008 and didn’treturn, she added. As part of the investigation over Vadivu’scomplaint, Redhills police contacted Asin’sfather for an enquiry. He informed policethat Muthu had quit his job in January 2009itself.Further investigation is underway.

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ERGO CORRESPONDENT

feedback@goergo.in

ASSISTANT MISSING

Asin’s

PAGE 08

ERGO

Thursday, March 19, 2009

NAMMA CHENNAI

t’s time to raise the spirits in you. BambooBar at Savera Hotel is hosting the ‘ShooterFest’. Shotter, an alcoholic beverage,consists of one type of alcohol or a cocktailof different alcohols often mixed with otherbeverages. These can be shaken, stirred,blended or simply poured.The fest will have shooter experts fromaround the world shaking up exoticvarieties of shooters in exquisite style.Kamikaze, Woo Woo, Ira, Lemon Drop,Fourth of July, B-52...there are many moreto choose from. The fest is on till March 31.For details call 9710947363/ 28114700 (extn1937/1938)

year ago, Nithya Pari was atypical student, dividing her time between studies,her department newsletter,blogging and sketching. A grue-some accident she witnessed oneday was a turning point. While onher way to a printing press, shenoticed an orphaned puppy onthe road and walked over to petit. She was in for a rude shock as abike ran over the tiny dog, right infront of her eyes the next second.Nithya finds it difficult to tell thisstory. “It died in my hands. There was blood coming out of its ears.” A few days later, she saw anoth-er lost puppy and thought: “Whatif it happens again?” Instead of dismissing the thought, she rec-ognised it as a real possibility andtook the pup home and begancalling her friends one by one insearch of an owner. Her friendShiyamili eventually adopted himand there was no looking back.TAGS (The Animal GuardianSociety) was founded in Decem-ber 2007 as a voluntary organisa-tion. It has now grown to include12 members and has changeddozens of lives. The group has anonline presence and maintainsan adoption system which is onpar with international NGOs. Themembers whom Nithya describesas “the best team ever” rescuehomeless puppies and kittens,foster them till takers are foundand then follow-up throughphone-calls, emails and personalvisits to ensure the pets’ well-be-ing. Nithya reveals that it’s partic-ularly tough to find homes forfemale puppies. One such puppy found no takers, at which pointshe adopted it herself. Elsa, hermuch-loved mongrel, is now two years old. With no income, experience orfunding, they pursue their volun-teer work amidst hectic college work through social networking sites, word-of-mouth and housecalls, one of which involved a 30km bike ride in the blistering heat. “One of our members is not well-off but she does everything she can,” says Nithya when asked what keeps them going despiteno external support. “If you wantto do something, you can do it.”Now in her final year at AnandInstitute of Higher Technology,20-year-old Nithya has beenplaced in Infosys. The future’slooking bright for her, ditto forthose being watched over by thisteam of 12.

To send them your wishes, log onto tagsonline.co.in or search for “TAGS” in Orkut Communi-ties.

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Tomorrow’s leaders have already gotten a kick-start in public service and are powered by nothing but the will to make an impact

SRIYA NARAYANAN

pets@goergo.in

Founders of a better society

Israeli ﬁlms

Aviva My Love

and

Big Eyes

will be screened today aspart of the Israeli Film Festival at South Indian FilmChamber Theatre, Anna Salai. The fest is open to alland the screening will start at 6.30 p.m. For detailscall 98401 51956

Founder of TAGS Nithya Pari(seated, third from left) and hergang of guardians

PHOTO: M. KARUNAKARAN

Say cheers!

Thursday,March19,2009

ife still revolves around the sew-ing machine for this veteran cos-tumer who entered Kollywoodalmost four decades ago.Septuagenarian G. Ethiraj was astar costumer during his prime, thelist of cine stars for whom he has tai-lored clothes being endless.Making his debut in Kollywood asassistant of costumer Janakiraman inthe late ’60s, he ﬁrst stitched cos-tumes for actors S.S.R., A.V.M. Rajanand Sowcar Janaki for the ﬁlm

Than- gadurai

Down memory lane

“I worked under chief costumer Ja-nakiraman in four to five movies.Those days, it was the cameraman who used to finalise the colours of costumes. Pure white was not usedthose days, though what was finally seen on screen was only black and white. So we used to dip whiteclothes in yellow dye and use themafter that,” says Ethiraj, who hasdone more than 50 films in severallanguages as chief costumer.The costumers’ union was startedin the early ’70s and to gain member-ship one had to pay Rs.12 at thattime. But now the same membershipcosts Rs. 1 lakh. “You have separatemembership cards for assistant cos-tumer and chief costumer. In orderto get the designation of chief cos-tumer, you should have at least donefive movies,” Ethiraj says.Though Ethiraj has not gone out of India for shoots, he has visited mostof the spots in India. Along with thecrew, the chief costumer and threeassistants are taken to the shooting spot. “Though we would havestitched the clothes and finished thedress rehearsals earlier, we will beneeded there in case of emergencieslike alterations.”

Work is worship

“Once during the shooting of Ja-nakaraj-starrer

Pai Marakkappal

, we were all stationed in Mettupalayam.The plan was to shoot some scenes inUdhagamandalam. The director andcameraman were in Ooty and we were downhill. Suddenly, we got acall at our hotel from the director,informing that they were planning toshoot a song there and they neededcostumes.It was an unplanned shoot and it was late night when we received thecall. We started searching for textileshops and almost everything wasclosed. We then went to the house of a textile shop owner, made him openthe store and purchased the fabric. We stitched the clothes overnightand by morning everything wasready,” Ethiraj recalls. Asked whether the entry of actors’ wives as costume designers has af-fected their work, Ethiraj says the star wives are just designers who do notknow to stitch. “They have to cometo us for stitching the clothes. Nowa-days, most of them buy readymadeclothes from shops and call them-selves costume designers.”Ethiraj has retired from Kollywood,but he stills makes clothes for com-moners. His son, E. Loganathan, is inthe ﬁeld now.Following the steps of his father,Loganathan has also developed apenchant for tailoring, the latest mo-vie in which he worked as costumerbeing Dhanush-starrer

Padikkatha-van

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Costumer G. Ethiraj is a veteran of 50-odd movies. A trip to the days when white clotheswere a no-no in black-and-white ﬁlms

Stitches in time

Costumer G. Ethiraj at his tailoring shop.Photo: S.S.Kumar

They have to come to us forstitching the clothes.Nowadays, most of thembuy readymade clothes fromshops and call themselvescostume designers

Actors A.V.M. Rajan and Sowcar Janakiwere among Ethiraj’s celebrity clients.

FILE PHOTO: THE HINDU

V. HARIPRIYA

haripriya@goergo.in

D ial L for Loser

E ver encoun tered someone whose e yes drip wi th “Ilo we you” message tha t s tumps you no ma t ter wha t you do to sa y “ Thanks bu t no thanks”. Wri te to usabou t your ver y o wn ‘ fans’ and wha t you did toa void them to feedback@goergo.in wi th the subjec tline ‘Dial L for Loser’.