01
MUMBAI: Landmarks dot the landscape of Udayamritham, Amrita TV?s keystone early morning show that has acquired near legendary stature, as it traverses past a monumental 3000 episodes to achieve more towering accomplishments in the future. The signature show that has autographed its way to the ledgers of television history and inaugurates the day?s show-roll at the first blush of dawn, is telecast at 6.30 am everyday of the week, Monday through Sunday.
Udayamritham was the very first programme to be beamed up through the ionosphere from Amrita TV?s satellite antenna and the radio signals transmitted heavenwards declared the arrival of a dynamic new star on the broadcast sphere. For the past 8 years, barring a few stop-press occasions, Keralites had been waking up every morning to the refreshing visuals and strains of this premiere breakfast show.
The show marched to a different drummer from the beginning; while other morning programmes crammed themselves into the stifling microspaces of stuffy little studio?s with the anchor chromed into artificial backdrops, Udayamritham moved to the great outdoors, capturing the dewy freshness of the dawn and the bracing greenery of Nature in its frames, to become the first outdoor show in Malayalam Channel History.
Udayamritham evolved a distinct individuality and character , showcasing our culture and heritage by tuning into with Sanskrit slokas and scriptural verses and offering glimpses of historical monuments and hoary pilgrimage sites, in welcome contrast to the mishmash of interviews, astrology, filmi gossip, health and fitness and other a la carte fare served up in usual breakfast shows. Added to this, the fact that it was fashioned in the format of a travelogue at a time when travel shows had not become part of television glossary, raised Udayamritham up above the rest, into a class of its own. While breakfast shows skim by mostly on banter, the information content is spread thickly over the show, hinting at the phenomenal amount of exhaustive research that has dredged up the background history, giving an A-Z encyclopedic account that has often left
many-time devotees gasping in surprise at the sites and route s that they have missed, but which has been included in the show.
With so much to back it up, not surprisingly, Udayamritham has 4 prestigious State TV Awards feathering its cap. Giving wings to its ambitions, it soared to an uninterrupted 55 minutes real time single video shot which recorded the re-creation of Onam celebrations as it was 100 years ago in the time worn passages of an antiquated nalukettu, a feat that found a place in the Limca Book of Records in 2005.Fired up by the passion to excel, the team pitched their dreams higher by going for the world record, capturing the essence of the mighty Bharatapuzha, by lining up a 12 km stretch of its banks with 25 traditional artistic forms of Kerala, featuring 150 folk artists in the longest single, continuous video shot in TV history of 155 minutes that surpassed the previous longest of 113 minute serial CID aired on Sony TV.
Making channel history has become 2nd nature to the show as in 2012, the team came up with Himapathangal, a pilgrimage to the sacred environs of Mt Kailas, an expedition that covers over a 1000 km across Kathmandu to the icy remoteness of the Tibetan plateau, one of the most inhospitable terrains of the world -it marked the 1st ever channel attempt in India, that too headed by Mochita who ventured on a formidable journey that would have tested even an able-bodied man. On the occasion of the 3000th episode, the Kailash Manasarovar expedition is repeated, on a larger , more detailed scale; this time Mochita is accompanied by Moksha, a group of devotees from Kerala, Andhra, US, Singapore etc who had watched Himapathangalail live on Amrita TV and were inspired enough by it, to undertake such a hazardous journey, to get the gratification of a Kailash darshan.
Having dared to venture where no channel had set foot before, its next project is National Geogra-phesque in concept and imagination- to trace the origin, the rise and fall of one of the greatest civilizations in the world, the Indus Valley, from the ruins of Harappa and Mohanjadaro in Pakistan to its outposts in Afghanistan and Baluchistan, to Indonesia and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
As Udayamritham continues to climb into the far reaches of excellence, those who stand to gain most from its trysts with greatness are its viewers who are assured of a ringside view of rare sights, for many more dawns to come.
Image
