The two Surabhi plays presented by Mummaneni Subba Rao Siddhardha Kala Peetham in their own auditorium were a wonderful treat for the huge crowd that filled the hall to capacity. The immensely popular Surabhi family troupes specialize in displaying amazing tricks on the stage, complete with beautiful self made settings, effective lighting, quick changing scenes and concealed wire works like birds flying, serpents and tiger on stage and many more tricks, keeping the crowd in awe. The amazing thing is all the cast members, technical helpers, lighting operators and even the instrumentalists – all are from the Surabhi families only and work with superb coordination. The huge crowd thoroughly enjoyed the two productions, responding spontaneously dozens of times. The plays were jointly performed by Surabhi Nataka Samajam, Hyderabad and its associated Sabhas — Vijaya Bharathi Natya Mandali and Sri Sarada Vijaya Natya Mandali.
On the first day the troupe staged Bala Nagamma , a popular folklore taken from ` Kasi Majili Kathalu ’ written by Madhira Subbanna Deekshitulu. The play opens to the King Vanabhoja Raju and queen Bhulakshmi praying for progeny to sage Jatanga. The sage is pleased and directs Bhulakshmi to a mango tree asking her to pluck only seven fruits and take them. However, the queen plucks the eighth fruit out of greed and is immediately cursed by the protecting serpent. Later, the queen gives birth to seven female children, Balanagamma being the last. Bhulakshmi subsequently dies due to the curse of the serpent but before dying she places her children under the care of her nephews, where Balanagamma grows into a winsome young girl and is married to her cousin Karyavardhy Raju.
Wily and wicked magician Mayala Marathi who hears about Balanagamma’s beauty, kidnaps her to his den in the shape of a dog. Karyavardhi Raju goes is search of his wife along with his army but Mayala Marathiturns them all into stones. However, young Balavardhi Raju, son of Balanagamma surreptitiously meets his mother in Marathi’s prison and learns the secret to the life of the wicked tantric. He finally succeeds kills the villain. The grand fantasy story unfolded on stage with superb technical effects. S.V.Poornachandrasekhar who is the driving force behind the Surabhi troupes brilliantly portrayed Mayala Marathi. Others like V.Lekhaj and V.Gnapika (Balavardhi raju), V.Hema Manasa and Sobhadevi (Balanagamma) were convincing. Fine music effects were given by just a harmonium and tabla.
On the second day Srikrishna Leelalu was staged with almost the same cast. The play enacted the birth of Krishna in Kamsa’s prison and ends with the killing of Kamsa. The crowd in the auditorium swelled considerably on the second day. The childish pranks of Krishna like Kaliya Mardanam, Pootana vadha, the appearance of the Universe in the mouth of child Krishna and many more episodes were superbly shown on the stage with typical Surabhi tricks sending the spectators into raptures. The roles were played by V.Rishit and Gnapika (Sri Krishna), R.Madhusudana Rao (Vasudeva) and V.Manasa (Devakidevi). The role of Kamsa was effectively played by S.A.Sivasankar.
Later all the Srurabhi troupe members were felicitated by Nalluri Venkateswarlu, Paladugu Lakshmana Rao, Y.Chakradhar Rao and S.Vishnuvardhan Rao on behalf of the Sidhardha Kala Peetham. Ch.Sundararama Sarma and K.Manmadha Rao did a fine job as coordinators.
