This year marks not just the 50th anniversary of Kannada receiving its first Jnanpith for Sri Ramayana Darshanam of Kuvempu, but also the golden jubilee of the author’s novel Malegalalli Madumagalu.
- The play will be staged from December 29 to January 31 for four days a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday
- It commences at 8 p.m. and ends by 6 a.m. the next day
- The play has 158 characters, 70 actors, 58 scenes, and 30 songs
- It will be staged at Kalagrama, Jnana Bharathi campus of Bangalore University
To mark the occasion, Bengaluru Centre of the National School of Drama (NSD) and the Department of Kannada and Culture are jointly presenting the fourth edition of the theatre adaptation of the 750-page magnum opus of Kuvempu, which is the depiction of conflicts between tradition and modernity, and individual and society.
The nine-hour-long play will be staged from December 29 to January 31 for four days in a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. The play commences at 8 p.m. and ends by 6 a.m. the next day.
This production, with 158 characters, 70 actors, 58 scenes, and 30 songs, is claimed to be the longest after Peter Brook’s Mahabharata . Over 70 artistes from all the south Indian States, including students of the NSD’s Bengaluru Centre, are playing various characters in Malegalalli Madumagalu , which will be unfolding in four massive open-air stages.
The play, directed by C. Basavalingaiah, an NSD alumnus, was first staged in April 2010 with Rangayana, Mysuru. The second edition was brought to the lush green environs of Kalagrama, Bangalore University campus, in 2013.
Now, to mark the golden jubilee year of the play, the department has decided to stage 20 shows of the play.
Poet-playwright K.Y. Narayanaswamy has adapted the voluminous novel into a nine-hour-long play and film and theatre art director Shashidhar Adapa has recreated Malnad region — where the novel is set — on the 12-acre expanse of the Kalagrama.
Hamsalekha has composed music and Pramod Shigon has done the costume and properties.
Special postal cover released
To mark the golden jubilee of poet laureate Kuvempu receiving Jnanpith Award for Sri Ramayana Darshanam , the Department of Posts released a special cancellation postal cover on Thursday at a function organised by the Department of Kannada and Culture.
Releasing the postal cover, the former judge A.J. Sadashiva said Kuvempu was above awards and recognition; his ultimate aim was becoming human in all circumstances. Ham.Pa. Nagarajaiah, president of the Rashtrakavi Kuvempu Pratisthana, said Sri Ramayana Darshanam was an epic of great depth and dimension. He said the language employed in the epic was a perfect blend of old, medieval and modern Kannada. This work was simultaneously acceptable to the pious and traditional, and admirers of great poetry.
K.S. Marulasiddappa, president of the Kuvempu Bhasha Bharati Pradhikara, said there was no exaggeration in describing Kuvempu as the greatest poet of 20th century Kannada literature.
