HYDERABAD: To adapt a William Shakespeare’s play into a regional language is not an easy task, but Nishumbita theatre group did a good job of it, with the Bard’s tragedy Othello at Ravindra Bharati recently.
Using the Telangana dialect, the play titled Karrigadu which means a ‘dark guy’, connected well with the audience. It was nice to see a good turnout for a Telugu play that too presented by a local theatre group.
Shakespeare’s Othello was based on issues of betrayal, love, jealousy against the background of Venetian warfare. Director Rammohan Holangudi did a good job of adapting this complex story in Telugu language that too with a local dialect. Karrigadu is a fictional character who fights for his tribe and water necessities of his village somewhere in remote Telangana.
The fierce leader Karrigadu falls in love with an educated, upper caste girl, the beautiful Seethamma and marries her much to the chagrin of the girl’s father and his henchman Saidulu, the hunchback villager. This hunchback represents the role of Iago in Othello . Another trusted supporter of Karrigadu is Dharmesha, his first lieutenant. Disappointed at not getting the coveted post, Saidulu plans a conspiracy against Karrigadu by taking the help of the rich Buchigadu and instigates him to ensure that both Karrigadu and Dharmesha fall apart by using the soft target Seethamma.
Saidulu successfully poisons the mind of Karrigadu who falls prey to the false allegations and kills his dear wife. Later, on learning the truth, he commits suicide. Though the plot is a replica of Othello, the way director Rammohan Hollangudi handled the scenes with the Telangana village background was appreciable. The scenes where he depicted the evils mind with imaginary two devils hounding Karrigadu were well crafted.
All the actors performed with full energy but the actors who stood out were Nikhil Kandhari as Saidulu. His mannerisms and facial expressions showed the crookedness of the character and he overshadowed all other actors. He was also one of the few actors who spoke the Telangana dialect perfectly.
Vijay Ayancha as Karrigadu was good in his role and he displayed his skills in dance and the fight scenes. However, at times he slipped in his Telangana dialect. Soumya Rammohan as Seethmma was good and acted with the dignity the role required but her pronunciation of Telugu gave away the fact that it’s not her mother toungue. Krishna Priyavalluri as Saidulu’s wife was another character who got the dialect perfectly; she also performed her role with ease. She incidentally was the assistant director of the play. Dinesh Kaushik as Dharmesha also gave a neat performance and was ease with all moods of the scenes he enacted.
The settings were good and choreography by Keshav Deepak kept Telangana folk dances in mind while composing; he also played the role of Seethamma’s father.
The live dappu and song rendered by Bhaskar and Krishna Chiatanya Joshi was also a highlight of the play and it depicted the folk art of Telangana state. The costumes were designed with good taste, so was the makeup done by Anil Kumar and Vikram .
