Poetry on stage
|
Gummadi Gopalakrishna brought to life the riveting times of poet Srinatha.
|
Poet Recall History retold
G ummadi Gopalakrishna is a popular name to reckon with in verse theatre today for different reasons. Gifted with good looks and a melodious voice with good range, he began playing mythological roles and soon became popular for his portrayal of the role of Krishna in Mahabharata plays of Tirupati Venkata Kavulu.
He slowly glided into playing prime roles also in historical dramas woven around poets. Akella, a social theatre writer, too stepped into penning historical plays. Fifteenth century poet Srinatha's career, having many dramatic moments, is best suited for a thematic theatre presentation. This play, taken up by Gopalakrishna, has become immensely popular for it has a number of verses, originally written by Srinatha, to download into theatre. This play was staged at Ravindra Bharati on Sunday to a packed audience for a cause. The money raised by Satya Kala Nikethan, Gopalakrishna's own unit, was distributed amongst theatre artistes who suffered in the recent floods. The production was well chiseled into a wonderful two-hour drama.
The storyline being in itself a narration of history, the audience could enjoy this real life character and his poetic adventure, proving the adage that ‘truth is stranger than fiction'. Srinatha's poetic life and the time he spent in three royal courts – Kondaveedu of Vema Reddy, where he was ‘Vidyadhikari' and court poet, Vijayanagaram, Palnadu, and the land ruled by Gajapathulu of Vizianagaram – was the play's theme. Srinatha was treated as Kavi Sarvabhouma and patronized by all these kings. His poetic skills won the hearts of these rulers and this admiration for his poetry solved problems between these warring kingdoms.
The playwright wove situations around tales that depicted the poetic prowess of Srinatha to test his skills in striking peace between these rulers. He first seeks the help of Vijayanagara emperor Proudhadevaraya in not supporting Rachakonda, the enemy kingdom to Kondaveedu planning to invade Kondaveedu. The sequence in which he defeats the poet Arunagirinatha, also known by his title ‘Dimdhima Bhattu', as he carried a brass drum as his victory sign was well-presented. Plenty of verses rolled out in the process of winning him and then breaking the brass drum, symbolic of downing the ego of this Dimdimabhattu. The death of his patron Vema Reddy saw his downfall, driving him first to Palnadu and from there to Vijayanagaram's Gajapathi kingdom. The beauty of the narration is the way Srinatha's rightful egoism of his supremacy as ‘poet of poets' is maintained throughout. Padmapriya as poet's wife Sridevi, Ramakrishna Sastry as Singanamatya, B.P. Prasad as Proudha Rayalu, and Salvachari as Dimdimabhattu acquitted themselves well. Gopalakrishna's rendition of almost all the verses of Srinatha received reverberating applause. Malladi Bhasker, Pundarikasha Sarma, Sudhakar and other artistes also presented their roles well. The play, directed by D. Someswara Rao, is worth repeating any number of times, purely to give the taste of Srinatha's classic verses to the present day audience.
G.S
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
