Through the ages
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Marutirugaata's Kannada Ramayana nicely blended the old and new
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AMBITIOUS EFFORT The entire story of the Ramayana is narrated, recited, sung and enacted in various styles by a team of just 11 actors
The Ramayana and the Mahabharatha have been the touchstones against which every writer of every age appears to have tested out his talent. In the last thousand years of Kannada literary history, at least a few hundred writers must have retold, reinterpreted or composed literary works based on the epics. The two epics have inspired innumerable stage shows in the form of plays, Yakshagana, harikatha, puppet shows and so on. Ninasam's wandering repertorie, Tirugaata, presented a play based on the different versions of the Mahabharatha, during its second performance tour last year. This year the group has taken up a similar exercise based on the numerous Kannada versions of the Ramayana. Two shows of Marutirugaata's "Kannada Ramayana", sponsored by the Karnataka Nataka Academy as part of the World Theatre Day celebrations, were presented at Peer Rangasthala (on the premises of Suchitra Film Society) and Samsa (behind Ravindra Kalakshetra) last weekend.
Conceived and directed by Venkataramana Aithal, "Kannada Ramayana" is an ambitious venture involving extensive research and skilful grafting of disparate material into a harmonious blend. With the old and the new mixed inextricably together, we have Pampa and Adiga, Muddana and Kuvempu, Bendre and Lakshmisha rubbing shoulders with each other and forming a single fraternity. Even children's rhymes and traditional marriage songs find their place in the narrative.
The entire story of the Ramayana, including Uttara Ramayana is narrated, recited, sung and enacted in various styles by a team of just 11 actors who constantly switch roles to play dozens of characters each. The narrative structure is not ruptured at any point, though a single sequence may contain elements from several texts and theatrical forms.
Take the Shabari episode for instance. It starts with V. Seetharamiah's famous poem about Shabari's long wait for Rama, but merges with Kuvempu's version of how Rama tries to hide his identity from Shabari, but is betrayed by his own emotions following a dream about Seetha. While the poet Lakshmisha absolves Rama of all guilt, Manorama is more critical of Rama in her response to Muddana's narration of Rama's story. The influence of the Jain versions of the Ramayana is obvious in the more sympathetic portrayal of characters like Ravana and Kumbakarna. There are no villains in the piece. The introduction of Yakshagana makes the golden deer and Shurpanakha episodes more colourful. Plentiful use of lines and images from Gopalakrishna Adiga's "Ramanavamiya Divasa" highlights the meaning and relevance of the play to a modern audience. His cryptic summing up of the Ramayana contains a veiled criticism of Rama's act of forcing Seetha to enter the fire. (Conspicuous in their absence, however, are the more feminist versions of the Ramayana which have come up in the recent decades!)
The production design and choreography are striking in their simple elegance. Sets consist of just two arches against the back with a pit for the musicians between them. Costumes are colourful and representative. Most props are mimed and the play depends almost totally on the actors' energy and talent, of which there is plenty. The musicians play an equally important role in the play. Only a team as competent and talented as the present one could have made Marutirugaata's ambitious experiment as powerful as it turned out to be.
LAXMI CHANDRASHEKAR
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