Nishumbita theatre group presented a documentary drama on Natyashastra recently at Ravindra Bharati under the aegis of Department of Language and Culture, Telangana State.
Theatre exponent Rammohan Holagundi, had in the past presented more than 300 plays in theatre art, which includes, folk theatre, Shakespeare plays, street plays and experimental theatre apart from conducting various workshops in theatre acting and management, for aspiring artists. He adapted the monograph on Natyasasthra of PSR Appa Rao and made a unique presentation this time.
Right from the evolution of of Natyashasthra by Bharata Muni to the modern age theatre, the director took the presentation flawlessly.
The presentation used different languages to showcase the different art forms in our country.
Right from the use of stage to stagecraft, make-up, properties usage, back stage management, lighting, sound and music were covered in the play.
The visual explanation on each of the above aspects looked like it was a workshop being conducted for youngsters and theatre artists who would like to learn the theatre art.
The size of the stage was beautifully demonstrated with the artistes showing the dimensions with the use of colourful ribbons.
The navarasas were depicted by the artistes with their facial and physical expressions. The group also used bits of their earlier popular plays like Agni Varsham , Karrigadu and other plays to portray the different moods of the navarasas.
A suthradhar or a narrator took the audience by introducing each aspect of natyashastra and explaining the 49 human emotions perfectly.
All the artists interchanged their roles for each mood in quick succession and in absolute coordination. The group also showed their talent in singing and dancing too apart from the stunt scenes depicted to show one of the navarasas. The team work of this group was perfect and all credit goes to the director for training them perfectly.
The depiction of these various cultures was humorous. However, the length of this documentary-play was quite lengthy and it spread to almost 150 minutes and at times it dragged and seemed repetitive in showing the moods of navarasas.
Vinay Nallakadi as the narrator did a marvellous job of remembering the text for the entire documentary apart from enacting the scenes including dancing, singing and performing stunts too.
The dances in the play were choreographed by Vijay Ayancha who also played several roles and danced with ease and grace. He was supported by Krishna Priya Valluri and Abha Naktode.
The stage props, hand props making and coordination was done by Rakesh Savati, who was also the stage manager. Make-up was done by Anil Kumar, supported by Babu Rao with costumes. The stunts were choreographed by Keshav Deepak, The music vocals were trained by Parthasarathy.
Vinod Ganapatiwar assisted the director , who compiled the music, designed the sets, conceptualised and dramatised this magnum opus.
