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There were no flags or blatant sloganeering in his plays. Ideals, thoughts and messages were effectively blended into riveting plays on human issues.

K.T. Mohammed.

K.T. Mohammed was one of the stalwarts of the theatre scene in Kerala. I was very close to him and we used to have long conversations about theatre in Kerala and the state of sahityam in theatre. Towards the end of his life, K.T. was troubled by both physical and emotional problems. He seems to have been deeply affected by the death of his brother-in-law Kunhali and the untimely demise of his nephew Taj, a gifted and promising playwright.

K.T., the playwright, director, poet and novelist, was agitated by what he perceived as an erosion of depth and values in the cultural field. The last function he attended was a reception that was organised by the residents in his locality.

K.T. was former Chairman of the Kerala Sangeet Natak Akademi and Chairman of Kerala State Film Development Corporation too. K.T.’s prolific talent found expression not only in plays but also in poetry, film scripts, novels and articles. He came to be noticed in the literary world with the award he won for his story ‘Kannukal.’ He was the scenarist of 20 films.

When we evaluate K.T’s contributions as a playwright and theatre activist, we must also remember the background when he first began writing his plays. His ‘Ithu Bhoomiyanu’ came in 1953. He was inspired by Communism and his plays and works were influenced by progressive ideas and thoughts.

Communist party members and sympathisers had already begun their work to popularise their progressive ideas though the works of KPAC in Travancore-Kochi areas. Plays such as ‘Ningal Enne Communistaaki’ and ‘Survey Kalu’ tackled the problems of the oppressed and also threw light on Communist ideas of social and economic justice. Prior to that, our theatre scene was not very promising. The number of playwrights were less; there were plenty of professional troupes but not many of their plays could stand the test of time.

Meanwhile, V.T. Bhattathiripad, Premji and others turned to theatre to reform the Namboothiri community. All these were aimed at making people aware of the prevalent social evils and exhorting them to break free of those. The Malabar Nataka Vedi was active in the areas north of Kozhikode on account of the work of theatre activists like K. Damodaran.

Edasseri’s ‘Kootukrishi’ was a trendsetter that was different from those plays. It is against this backdrop that K.T. staged his ‘Ithu Bhoomiyanu.’ K.T. the playwright wanted his plays to encompass and address two issues – one, the Left progressive ideas and plight of the working class; he wanted those ideals to resonate in his plays and two, he was concerned about the social ills in his community and wanted to react against those.

The ground had already been prepared for the plays that K.T. was to write. It is believed that it was a Nilambur-based Dr. Usman who motivated K.T. to write ‘Ithu Bhoomiyanu.’ There were many protests against the play, some were led by religious fundamentalists.

However, what is interesting is that K.T.’s strong political beliefs were never the theme of his plays but it existed as a strong undercurrent that shaped the plays. Plays such as ‘Karavatta Pashu’ and ‘Ithu Bhoomiyanu’ dealt with issues of everyday life. Political thoughts and messages were subtly woven in. That was proof of K.T.’s maturity as a playwright.

We never hear any sloganeering in Brecht’s play. Similarly the Greek tragedies, Shakespearean plays, Indian classical plays and so on talk about lofty ideals and universal truths by portraying it through human situations, inter-personal relationships, emotions and so on. K.T. belonged to that class of theatre persons. There were no flags or blatant sloganeering in his plays. Ideals, thoughts and messages were effectively blended into riveting plays on human issues.

That is why K.T’s plays like ‘Ithu Bhoomiyanu’ are still relevant, even 54 years after it was premiered.

K.T. the director too was equally talented. We must remember that he was not a highly educated man. After his father’s death, he left Nilambur and became a helper in a green grocer’s shop. Then he became a sorter in the Posts and Telegraph Department. This background was what shaped K.T. the playwright.

He did not get the opportunity to be exposed to European theatre or world-class plays. It was his experiences that honed his innate talent and made him the titan of the theatre scene. This was evident in his works as director too. I doubt if K.T. had many opportunities to observe many plays and learn about using the stage and other such technical aspects.

K.T.’s stage was his and his alone. He was a self-made director, playwright and theatreperson. I have heard that it was the interaction with his actors, that too during rehearsals, that shaped his plays. Although K.T. had the text of the play in his mind, the dialogues were chiselled and polished during the rehearsals.

It should be pointed out that it was K.T’s boldness that gave the Malabar Nataka vedi its first female theatre actor – Nilambur Ayesha.

Although he began as a playwright first and then became a director, later, both these aspects evolved together. That was his style.

Plays such as ‘Shristi,’ Sakshakaram,’ and ‘Samhaaram’ marked K.T.’s second phase as a theatre person. Those plays were quite different from the realistic plays that he had created earlier.

Through such experimental plays, K.T. reminded theatre buffs the need to experiment and go beyond what was accepted as the norm. Due to the finely wrought plays and his creative use of the stage, none of his plays were a flop.

Some of those plays, for example ‘Shrishti,’ eventually became a film.

K.T.’s plays took off from small incidents and characters. ‘Karavatta Pashu’ centres on a cow that we never see on stage; hunger is the pivot on which ‘Shrishti’ is anchored. There is humour... It is unfortunate that there has been no studies worth its name on K.T.’s plays.

His films also revolved on a message or a theme. His ‘Kadalpaalam,’ which was also scripted by him, was a film like that. He did not make films to become famous or rich. He wrote the script only when he was convinced that he had something to communicate to the viewers and that it could be done only by him.

Towards the late Eighties, he was deeply concerned with the erosion in the standards of film appreciation.

For a creative person who was moulded by the great political and social reawakening in Kerala, it was disappointing to watch mindless films and plays that were churned out in the name of entertainment. I think K.T. was one of the pioneers of theatre in Kerala.

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