chennai when pradeepkumar received a book of thiruppugazh poems by arunagirinathar he saw in the preface that it had taken v t subramania pillai 15 years to get it published that started the classical musicians fascination for the literary work a 15th century collection of tamil religious songs dedicated to lord murugan and led him on a fouryear journey culminating in the documentary arunagiri perumalei wanted to take up some tamil literature and dwell deep in it he says when this book came my way i knew this would be itthe documentary was screened by the us consulate general in partnership with the cp ramaswami aiyar foundation after a musical performance by pradeepkumar and band mate susha on mondaythe documentary is a passion project in which pradeepkumar traces arunagirinathars footsteps as he sets out to discover and document the saintpoets journey in places where legend holds he composed the thiruppugazhpradeepkumar was chosen for the fusion arts us exchange program in 2008 which he says opened to him a world of cultures and musical traditions from around the globe the documentary itself features a live music concert in which pradeepkumar susha sean roldon and a 16piece orchestra from boston massachusetts performs the poems of thiruppugazh these run alongside the narrative and along with a series of lively illustrations that susha createdwhat id collected were just stories and had to be shown in some way he says i wanted it to look like turning the pages of a comic thats why the illustrations this is also my own journey i have looked at arunagirinathars life through the lens of his own work