It was Bharati’s appeal that carried the day. Despite the flaws, P.S. Krishna Murthy and his cast managed to convey the essence of the poet’s life and works in Mahakavi Subramania Bharathi, at Rasika Ranjani Sabha’s new auditorium recently.
There have been plays in the past on legendary personalities with a contemporary touch. In the same vein, Mumbai-based Krishna Murthy turned Bharati’s story into a musical. The use of multimedia should have been effective. But was it?
The huge screen on stage for visuals, pre-recorded BGM, songs, and dialogue were played, with the actors lip syncing to the audio. And this approach to dialogue delivery gave it an artificial feel.
There were awkward gaps between scenes as the audience could see the cursor on the screen searching for each scene’s content file. The production needs to iron out the problems and do a lot of editing to reduce the play time.
Poetic feel
The play also highlighted the poet’s progressive thinking and patriotism. The audience was impressed with the scenes in which actor-director Krishna Murthy played the lead: A young Subbayya at Ettayapuram palace wins over the hearts of the gathering by his inspired exposition of a Thiruppugazh, so much so that the Ettayapuram Raja confers the title ‘Bharathi’ on him.
Although his father wants him to be a professional, Subbayya’s heart is set on writing some exquisite Tamizh poetry —‘Chuttum vizhi chudar thaan’ - the Kannamma songs, ‘Paayum olli nee enakku paarkkum vizhi naan unakku’ . . .and so on till ‘Veeramadi nee enakku vetriyadi naan unakku.’
The recorded singing and music did strike a chord. After the educated and forward thinking Bharathiyar marries Chellamma, his Shakti songs unite them. When Somasundara Sharma, a renowned percussionist, comes to see him, Bharati writes verses, to the rhythmic beats of the percussionist, describing the rain.
Post-intermission, Bharati turns up in the familiar garb — black coat and white turban. The British police call him a terrorist and attack him in order to arrest him, and he responds with, “Achamillai achamillai achamenbadillaye, uchchi meedu vaanidindu veezhugindrapodhilum, achamillai.”
