A feast of theatre
GUDIPOODI SRIHARI
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A festival of mythological plays had the audience in a thrall.
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SNAP SHOTS A still from the play `Kurukshetram'
Kinnera Art Theatresorganised a month-long festival of mythological dramas at the Thyagaraya Gana Sabha as part of its 29th anniversary celebrations. It invited theatre troupes from all over the state.
P. Lakshmana Rao, known for his portrayal of Anjaneya in Sriramanjaneya Yuddham, inaugurated the festival. Included in the festival were 25 verse plays, as also plays staged by all-female cast.
It is said that some mythological theatre lovers came to the city and stayed here just to watch these plays. Around 40 troupes took part. One of the highlights was the play Kurukshetram performed non-stop for six-hours.
That means the entire text was gone through. Krishna's role was played by four artistes, two artistes played Dharmaraja, two Arjuna and four artistes played Duryodhana's part.
The play, written by Tirupati Venkata Kavulu, had a Maya Sabha scene added on from another play. It is mono-action bit of Duryodhana played by P. J. Sarma, a film artiste, known for his stentorian voice. Gummadi Gopalakrishna of Hyderabad, A. Koteswara Rao and A. Venkateswara Rao of Tenali and P. S. Naidu of Rajahmundry dominated the show playing the role of Sri Krishna in different acts.
A still from `Ramanjaneya Yuddham'.
Some of the interesting plays were Srikrishna Tulabharam, which was staged by an all-female cast belonging to Surabhi families with Jamuna Rayalu as Srikrishna and Jayanirmala as Satyabhama and V. Chandralekha as Narada.
The inaugural play was Sri Ramanjaneya Yudham, with the legendary P. Lakshmana Rao playing the role of Anjaneya. His son Venkata Ramanjaneyulu and Gummadi Gopalakrishna played Srirama in two different sections of the play.
The theme is about how Srirama and his devotee Anjaneya get ready for a fight on a petty issue of Srirama vouching to kill `Yayati' and Anjaneya swearing to save him. It puts to test whether Rama is great or Rama Bhakt is great.
Gayopakhyanam written by Chilakamarthy and staged by a troupe from Srikakulam is still considered one of the few plays that have great theatrical appeal, with literary flavour. Here it is Arjuna who stands in defence of Gayudu, facing Srikrishna who vouches to kill him for inadvertently spitting into the palms of Srikrishna, while he was travelling across the sky.
Finally, Lord Siva halts the possible disaster. In the main roles were G. Balarama Swamy (Srikrishna), Bingi Rambabu (Arjuna), Tirupati Nayudu (Narada) and B. A. Dara (Gayudu). The artistes kept up the tempo rendering verses impressively.
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