If ever one needed a reassurance that Kavalam Narayana Panicker’s craft and influence will outlive him, for generations to come, the Tagore theatre here on Monday evening served enough of it. Twenty days after his passing away, his disciples from Sopanam got together with actor Manju Warrier to bring on stage one of his landmark Sanskrit plays, Kalidasa’s Abhinjnana Shakuntalam .
On stage, towards the let end, was placed a smiling portrait of the master, watching over every move, every gesture and every emotion of the actors.
In his last days, unmindful of his worsening health, he would sit in the Kalari, chiselling to perfection what would be his final mark on stage. After his passing away, before the play could be staged, his disciples thought it fit that they pay a tribute by staging it on the day he wished.
Marking the beginning of the play was Kavalam Sreekumar’s rendering of the sloka Ya srishti . Manju Warrier, on her first stint on the stage, played the lead character of Shakuntala and Gireesh Sopanam, the role of King Dushyanta. With sparse props, the audience were made to feel the sylvan surroundings of Kanva’s hermitage and Dushyanta’s majestic palace, as the story was told through dance and music. The dialogues in Sanskrit did not hinder the audience from communicating with the play.
The story being familiar, the focus was on how each of the episodes was interpreted. The extended sequence in which Shakuntala bids adieu to the ‘Vanajyotsna’, before she sets off to the king’s palace, drew applause from the crowd which had filled up to the brim. Politicians, and film and theatre personalities were in attendance in large numbers.
