Udayamritham,
Amrita TV’s standard bearing morning show will ink its way to a historic 2500
continuous episodes on February 18th ,en route to drafting more momentous milestones in future. Amrita
TV’s curtain raiser to the day that appears at sun-up Monday through Sunday at
6.30 am every morning, has been telecast non-stop from the day of the channel’s
launch and is the longest running TV
programme in Malayalam today.
Covering each
State in turn, Udayamritham travels
over the entire sweep of the sub-
continent, halting at sites that bear the footprints of history or are the
embodiment of our culture . It braids
together the legends, myths and folklore surrounding the palaces where the
whispers of the past still echo, forts that have withstood the siege of
challengers, tombs that are memorials to men who controlled the destinies of
nations and regional monuments which are the archetype of architectural trends, to present a picture
of our cultural heritage and ancestral legacy in its totality.
Each of the 2500
episodes portrays a fresh slice of history, covering a new memorial or
location; Udayamritham has never gone
over the same ground twice.
The programme
has achieved many distinctions during its 6 year long odyssey: it is the first
programme in Malayalam to transport viewers to the holiest pilgrimage centres
of Haridwar and Rishikesh; an exclusive Gandhi Jayanthi episode shot in the
Mahatma’s ashram became the first Malayalam show to cover the Sabarmathi Ashram
and Porbunder. It found a permanent place of honour in the Limca Book of Records
twice in a row for the longest recorded single
shot in television history, a 55
minute uninterrupted take in 2006 ,which was bettered the next year with
a 155 minute marathon effort.
The Government
recognized the show’s undisputed merit by bestowing accolades in the Annual
State Awards, for compeering, videography and production.
Udayamritham,
which millions of Malayalees wake up to, at cockcrow everyday of the year, continues
with its quest to connect us with our cultural roots, probing into destinations
located far and near to unearth the unrecorded
pages of previous history.
by
Smitha Sivaji
