Chitralekha, using her magical powers, brings home the handsome man who comes to Usha in her dreams and steals her heart. Interactions between the naive Usha and the worldly-wise Chitralekha give viewers glimpses of their personalities and the depth of their relationship. Although Chitralekha makes fun of Usha, she takes her leave after advising the young princess. With this, Usha-Chitralekha , a scene from Banayudham, a play written by Balakavi Rama Sasthrikal, concludes.
Women-centric play
The scene revolves around the two female characters and the dominant mood is that of sringara (romance). Also, being less eventful, it is all up to the actors who appear in these roles to make it an engaging scene. The organisers did right by choosing promising youngster Kalamandalam Jishnu Ravi for the role of the young Usha and experienced actor Margi Vijayakumar to enact the elderly Chitralekha.
As far as Usha is concerned, Chitralekha is her trusted confidante and not just a maidservant. This gives some space for an actor to make the most of the character and Margi Vijayakumar did exactly that. While portraying Chitralekha making sketches of the men who might have disturbed Usha’s sleep and crept into her heart, all based on the clues given by Usha, Vijayakumar made it more relevant by adding short anecdotes of each to describe the person. For instance, she suggests that the man in the dream might be Lord Krishna, reminding her of the incident where he steals the clothes of the gopis, drawing parallels between Krishna and the man who stole Usha’s heart.
The actor in the role of Usha has to play along. Jishnu rose to the occasion, aptly responding to the extempore acts of his stage partner. However, although it was not such a huge factor, one thing that looked out of place on the stage was the cardboard that was used to depict the sketchboard. A better stage prop could have been considered.
Even though the actors did their best, the very nature of the play made it a little monotonous as it progressed. And it was there that Kottakkal Madhu, with his impeccable rendering of the lyrically rich padams, kept the audience involved. Earlier, he led the vocal music for Purappadu and Melappadam as well. As a singer who is particularly known for his stylised rendering of these portions, it was not his best performance but it was still enjoyable.
Melappadam presented by Drisyavedi as part of the 21st edition of 'Kerala Rangakalolsavam'.
He was accompanied by Kottakkal Vengeri Narayanan and he proved to be a worthy companion during the play, but it looked like he was a little out of his depth in the prelude.
As far as the percussionists were concerned, it was hardly a challenge either for Margi Ratnakaran or Kalanilayam Manoj, and the two were at ease accompanying the actors on the maddalam. However, melappadam was a different scenario altogether as Kalamandalam Krishnadas joined them, taking the lead on the chenda along with Kalanilayam Krishnakumar. The performance wasn’t elaborate, but it was a neatly planned one, giving glimpses of the calibre of each one of them. For Purappadu, Kalamandalam Sudeep performed the customary dance sequences.
The performance was staged under the aegis of Drisyavedi, as the inaugural programme of the 21st edition of Kerala Rangakalolsavam, organised jointly with Samskruthi, Margi and Kutiyattam Kendra.
