Some thoughts to chew on...
GUDIPOODI SRIHARI
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Artistes drew from `Sahitya Roopakam' to highlight various issues.
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ALL-WOMEN SHOW A sequence from `Mahila Vaibhavam'.
Roopakam is one of theatrical feature in the thesis of Alankara Sastras. Sahitya Roopakam, a literary drama is part of it but with different structure. Roopakam is explained as the artiste donning the face of the character he or she wants to play. There is no particular script in Sahitya Roopakam nor is there a need for rehearsals. The roles should be played by poets themselves or those having enough knowledge in literature.
The `literary drama' has become an important theatrical literary activity for the last four decades, after Ekadandayya Pantulu patronised poets and scholars and encouraged them to recreate a Bhuvana Vijayam scene of Srikrishna Devaraya court with the eight poets (Ashta Diggajas), who were also celebrating the conquers of the monarch and his return. Jammalamadaka Madhavarama Sarma was his contemporary and he played the role of Timmarusu. Viswanatha Satyanarayana played Peddana and Kanda Bhima Sankaram was Krishnadevaraya. Many poets of that time created a sensational court scene filled with literary output.
Much later, Diwakarla Venkatavdhani, professor of Osmania University popularised the art. In his team, he had noted poets with theatrical skills, creating some more features using the other Sahitya Roopakas. One of the architects of these roopakas is Dr. Prasadaraya Kulapati, a great avadhani, good speaker and an extempore poet. In the last two decades these roopakas multiplied — Indra Sabha, Sahitya Dharmasanam, Saraswati Durbar and so on. With the same spirit, the department of Culture, AP, wanted to present some of them and accordingly organised these programs where five of the literary pieces were staged.
Five themes
The department invited five groups to present five different features. The first one was Bhuvana Vijayam with B.S. Krishna playing Krishnadevaraya. Mudigonda was a kind of sutradhar in conducting it. Gandluri Dattatreya Sarma was Peddana. Being an avadhani himself, he suited the part well. Jagarlamudi Shyamasundara Sastry was Bhattu murthy. The role of Tenali Rama was played by Mavuluri Suryanarayana Murthy. Eranki Srimannarayana was Timmana, Srinivasamurthy was Mallana, Pigali Jagannada Rao was Ramabhadrudu, Tirumala Srinivasa Charya was Pingali Surana. These included feats of avadhanam like Samasypooranam.
Indrasabha reflected a thought on how it would be if poets like Nannaya, Tikkana, Yerrana, Srinatha, Pothana, Viswanatha, and a modern Viplava Kavi became part of the Indra Sabha as Devendra's court poets. These roles were played by actors like K. Varaprasad, N.S. Vajpai as Tikkana, Vrushadripati as Yerrana, Sundara Ramakrishna as Srinatha, Sriramamurthy as Pothana, Lakshmi Narasimham as Viswanatha and Phanindra as the revolutionary poet. Most of the script was extempore.
The most thoughtful programme of this Sahiti Roopaka Panchamrutam was Mahila Vaibhavam, especially earmarked to reflect the greatness of women poets and rulers. It was a creative approach; eight artistes played eight different women who left their mark on Telugu soil. It is all presented before Bharatamata. Saradjyotsna Rani played Rudramadevi ruler of Kakatiya dynasty. The women of India as prime ministers, ministers and rulers were also referred to. The play also condemned the way some people resorted to creating restlessness between different religions. Similarly, playing Gowthami Satakarni, Dr. Hema explained how Gowthamiputra Satakarni established the name Gowthami.
The Nagamma character of Palnadu explained how the differences between her and Brahmanaidu led to war of Palnadu, needlessly taking a toll on lives for which Nagamma repented. Dr. Y.V. Krishnakumari was Manchala of Palnadu and T. Ramadevi played Chanamma. Though the rendition became faulty in some roopakas, it had a good impact.
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