Mangling of truth
A. RAMALINGA SASTRY
|
When the rich and powerful go all out to manipulate, does truth stand a chance?
|
PHOTO: C.V. SUBRAHMANYAM
RELEVANT THEME A scene from the play `Nijam.'
Visakha Music and Dance Academy featured the renowned writer and dramatist Rachakonda Viswanatha Sastry's Nijam (Truth) last Friday at Kalabharathi. Directed by Chalasani Krishna Prasad for Jayakalaniketan, it depicted with a telling effect as to how the attitude of getting truth mangled and even manacled, has come to stay as a characteristic feature of present day society.
The playwright, Rachakonda, sought to visualise a lucid picture of such a state of heinous affairs through an ingenious story woven around a masterfully manipulative, highly influential character of a member of parliament Sarvabhowma Rao, his son Sundara Rao and friends — Satyam, Krishna Rao and Madhu, concubine Suseela, and her paramour Soma Sundar Rao besides a host of relevant characters like the superintendent of police, constables, judge, prosecutor, defence advocate and others.
Twist in the tale
Sundar Rao goes on a picnic with his friends, gets drunk, altercates with Satyam over the issue of the character of his father's concubine Suseela, gets upset and in a highly inebriated state kills him. The MP, who managed to get the paramour of his concubine Somasundar Rao arrested by the SI in the meanwhile, comes to know of the crime committed by his son Sundar Rao.
He then masterminds a cruel plan and manipulates using money and power to get the paramour Somasundar Rao implicated in place of Sundar Rao in the murder and later successfully ensures that he gets the death penalty. The tempo of the play was well sustained except when the director Prasad appeared commenting on the events between the scenes in the role of a Prayokta created by himself.
Founder president of the Niketan K. Venkateswara Rao could do better by bringing out the hypocrite in Sarvabhowma Rao more candidly.
Rajeswari, while empathetically lived the role of Suseela, and the others in the cast — Ravikumar, Ramana Murthy, Chandar Rao, D.S.R. Reddy, Venu, Jagdish, P.R. Pantulu, Atcham Naidu, Sri Rama Murthy, Durga Prasad, Rambabu, V. Appa Rao, Ramakoti and S. Appa Rao also performed well.
Stage decor and lighting by Sanjeevi and Venkata Rao, make-up by Bharani and music in particular by P. Raju were appreciable.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
