It was on January 2, 1925 that P.J. Antony, the first to bring the national award for the best actor to Malayalam cinema, was born. A hundred and thirteen years down line, a few theatre activists in Kozhikode are all set to pay tribute to the legendry actor through a play that links his life and the political, cultural and theatrical history of Kerala from 1925 to 2018.
The play has been titled Inquilabinte Makkal , after one of Antony’s plays. It is written and directed by Bichoos Chilanka under the banner of Chilanka Floating Theatre. The actors in the play are mostly children who have been trained in various aspects of play making under the Chilanka Children’s Theatre.
"One of our greatest revolutionaries"
“P.J. Antony was one of our greatest revolutionaries who challenged all establishments. He deserves a fitting tribute,” said Bichoos.
Antony was instrumental in kicking up an armed revolution of naval soldiers in the British Royal Navy in India when he was a member of the force in the 1940s. After leaving the Navy, he became active in the theatre scene and staged the first music-less play Thettudharana , which was a novelty in Malayalam theatre at the time.
He staged Inquilabinte Makkal in 1958 in protest against the ‘Liberation Struggle’, an anti-communist movement against the EMS Namboodirippad government. He came up with Kaalarathri against the Emergency in 1975. He bagged the national award for the best actor in 1974 for his performance in M.T. Vasudevan Nair’s Nirmalyam as a temple oracle. He passed away in 1979.
Inquilabinte Makkal was first presented at the Palakkad District School Arts Festival.
A refined version involving children handling all faculties except direction, will be staged in Kozhikode on April 12, on the death anniversary of Safdar Hashmi.
