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Metro cultural round-up
Visakha Sahiti organised a function offering felicitations to the noted crusader of poetic drama, Meegada Ramalingaswamy, who won four Nandi awards (best actor, best script, best direction and second best production) for his play `Gunanidhi' at the Statewide drama competitions held in Hyderabad recently.
Dr. Meegada credited with a tally of seven such awards so far, spoke on the evolution of poetic drama, a unique contribution of Andhras to the world theatre. It enjoyed peaks of popularity and acme of glory for about seven decades till about 1960. The excellence of the playwrights of yesteryears in empathetically dramatising the myths, historical, folksy and even social themes in the poetic diction coupled with the brilliance of the actors of the yore who struck an exemplary blend of histrionics and musicianship intoning the versified dialogues and living their roles, recreating the episodes, especially the mythological and historical, as a team on the stage, largely accounted for the grandeur. With the advent of a system of casting of different actors for the same role in differnet scenes (first, second and third Krishna, Arjuna and likewise) coupled with the craze to showcase the actor's lungpower extending ragaalapanas at the cost of the emotional content and dramatic continuity, it reached the lowest ebb of popularity. Thanks to the effort of the Government holding annual competitions for the Nandi awards instituted by it, the renaissance process of the past glory has set in happily. Later, he regaled the audience rendering some choicest poems from some of the classical plays.
The litterateur, Korlapati Sreerama Murthy, who also chaired the session, the female artiste in Dr. Meegada's team, Lalitha Sastry, B.V. Suryanarayana, Ponnada Kumar, R.V. Chalam, Kalipatnam Rama Rao and Chaganti S. Rao, spoke.
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As part of the three-day mini festival of music and dance of young artistes organised by Visakha Music Academy, Kalabharathi witnessed an enjoyable display of prospective talent by the youngsters in music on the first two days.
The fete had a good start with the vocal duet by Indraknati sisters, Katyayani and Durga Priyadarsini. M.V.S. Sarma on the violin and M.V.R. Lakshmana Rao on the mridangam lent good support. Their effort at elaborating `Manasa Etulortune' (Malayamarutham) and `Biranavaralichi' (Kalyani) was pleasing. Lakshmana Rao executed excellent thani.
The second day witnessed a grand start in the vocal recital by M.V.L.N.S. Jwala Prasad. H. Ramachandran on violin and K. Prasanna Kumar on the mridangam lent commensurable support. Besides, Kambhoji Atatalavarnam, meaningful elaboration of 'Ambavani' (Keeravani) and `Needucharanapankajamule' (Kalyani) were the highlights. Kumar's thani evocated good response.
The melodious vocal recital by K. Sarada with D.S. Prakasa Rao on the violin and Mandapaka Ravi on the mridangam provided the grand finale of the music part of the fete. Expatiation of 'Sudhamayi' (Amrithavarshini) and 'Kaddanuvariki' (Todi) stood out.
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The recital by noted young vocalist, Kothapalli Vandana, in the expert company of veteran vidwans Ivaturi Vijayeswara Rao on the violin and Vankayala V. Ramana Murthy on the mridangam marked the annual celebrations of the Sadgurubrahma Sriramadoota Mandiram organsied under the devout supervision of its trustees, Ramachandra Murthy and Ganti Narasimham recently.
The pieces de resistance were the expansive expatiation of 'Chakkanirajamargamu' (Kharaharapriya), an adept raagam tanam and pallavi in Begada in Mathyatalam in Trisra nada. Overall, the exposition stood out for evocative melody, tuneful briskness and scholarly fluency in manodharma.
A. RAMALINGA SASTRY
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