“Kala Yanthirangal” is on Time the Destroyer. Nachiketas lends a helping hand too. Social criticism, sometimes wry, sometimes bitter, follows. A drama of voices on and off the stage, playing badminton with violent questions that nick our intellect. Just when the serves glow, Parthasarathy lets us down by taking the help of Yama himself to conclude the drama.

There are then the remakes of legends. Though Parthasarathy commends Gopalakrishna Bharatiyar for introducing a Brahmin as the “villain” of the Nandanar legend, and tries a vaster implication for the term “parpan”, the drama itself gives untenable twists to Sekkizhar’s original presentation. On the contrary, “Kongai-Thee” is a masterly re-creation of Ilango’s epic. It brings the past and present together to warn about the future. “Sri Ramanujar” is an example of the razor’s edge which the dramatist has decided to traverse, by instituting changes in almost all aspects of the received tradition about the Acharya. The divine humanism of Ramanuja flashes through in brilliant shades.

“Aurangazeb” is frighteningly contemporaneous. In our efforts to promote national integration, we have forgotten historical figures like Dara Shikoh. Dara tries to usher in communal amity and thinks that people will back him. Shahjehan building the Taj Mahal on people’s money is to be followed by another “old man” dream of his: a mausoleum for himself in black marble. All this helps the wily Aurangazeb who plays the communal card against Dara. Who can help a religion or a nation when there are many ready to sell themselves to the party in power?

“Being considered a popular hero is an illusion. It is no different from the love of a prostitute. The people of this country are but herds of sheep thinking of a golden future, mistaking slogans for ideals. I have thought of these bales of cotton as my strength. Today’s intellectuals sell their conscience for a few breadcrumbs flung at them by the rulers. Then why rail at the illiterate millions? Why should I live in Hindusthan? I will not come back. The future of Indians who have killed Truth and buried it on the banks of Jamuna? Aurangazebs, of course. Who can change the fate of Hindusthan?”

There are also adroit adaptations of King Lear and The Tempest to suit the contemporary Tamil milieu and six one-act plays, including “Kovil”, a gem. Wonderful for the stage, and a fantastic read as well. Dialogues are shot through with the Srivaishnava tradition while the dramatist gets delightfully rebellious making his pious listener squirm with the suggestions of a dog-avatar for Narayana. Shades of Nietzche and Zarathushtra carrying away the dead dog! Parthasarathy loves writing dramas. Well, the reader too is sure to love Indira Parthasarathy Natakangal which comes with the eloquent line-drawings of Pillai.

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