Kerala - Kochi   

‘Chayamukhi’ now in capital

KOCHI: Do you need a passport to act in a play? That was a doubt an actor of Kalidasa Visual Magic had when he started acting in the troupe’s maiden play ‘Chayamukhi.’ “We were then asking all actors to keep their passports ready as enquiries about the play from abroad were on,” actor Mukesh, who is behind the project, said.

The play, which premiered at Thrissur in March, will be staged in Thiruvananthapuram as part of the Swaralaya Music and Drama Festival on May 11. Filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Communist Party of India(Marxist) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan will light the lamp at the Nishagandhi auditorium at 6 p.m., marking the inauguration of the festival.

“We are planning to tour the Gulf nations during Onam. Even though there are a lot of enquiries, we cannot tour extensively as those like me and Mohanlal cannot stay away for long,” Mukesh said.

The play, written and directed by School of Drama alumnus Prasanth Narayanan, takes off from a moment in the Mahabharatha, but is set in a contemporary context. It has Mohanlal as Bhima and Mukesh as Keechaka.

The production at Thrissur went beyond the expectations of the team. “People were expecting Mohanlal to do some surprise appearance and me to crack some jokes. But they were surprised to see a play perfectly executed, with Mohanlal on the stage almost throughout. The 48-day practice worked on stage,” he said.

Rehearsals are now on to tighten up a few loose ends in the premiere production. “This play was different in the way actors moved about the stage or properties were used. Dialogues were realistic. So it is really hard to replace actors in this production,” Mukesh said. The entry to the play on May 11 will be free, but the audience will be restricted to 3,000. Free passes will be available at the Swaralaya office, G. Rajmohan, chairman of the Kerala chapter of Swaralaya, said. The open stage at Nisagandhi auditorium will be specially made up for the production with a covered ceiling.

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