Sahitya Akademi and Sangeet Natak Akademi award winner Indira Parthasarathy is adept in handling extremities. Both traditional and modern at the same time, he also knows best to combine humour with seriousness.
“We see our traditional elements and appreciate but never interpret them,” he says. “We blindly follow and accept everything without bothering to find the meaning of our traditional practices. Sigmund Freud interpreted Greek mythology of Oedipus and came out with his path breaking finding of Oedipus complex. Western scholarship is for interpreting traditionalism and I am support that,” says E. Pa. as he is popularly known.
His ‘ Nandan Kathai ’ is based on his interpretation of ‘ Nadanar Charithiram ’, a story that has been in circulation among Tamil-speaking people for Centuries. It is the story of a man from the lower strata of society, who, because of his intelligence and aesthetic leanings, aspires to uplift his community and also emulate the upper class. Scared of his rise, the upper class people plot to foil his attempts through fraud. Nandan is enticed to walk into fire, in the hope of seeing the God and is finally consumed by it. “It is all about what tradition has taught me and how I interpret it,” he says. The play is just not about the history of Nandanar but it dramatises a struggle that is both personal and collective, between the downtrodden and the upper class.
Brought up in Kumbakonam, young Parthasarathy was fascinated by the plays of Nawab Rajamanickam. “He created a fantasy world on stage. It was pure magic and thrilled the audience,” he says. After his education he went to Delhi for a career. The Capital’s bustling theatre scene made him stay on. Popular plays from regional languages such as Marathi and Bengali were translated in Hindi and staged. “People like Dharam Vir Bharati and Mohan Rakesh came out with original Hindi scripts,” he says.
Ebrahim Alkazi's ‘ Andh Yug ' helped Parthasarathy see his his potential as playwright. When he started writing a novel for Singapore based Tamil magazine, he realised midway that what he was writing was not a novel but a play. “The plot nicely fitted the structure of drama and I did not want to forcibly convert it into a novel. That became my first play ‘ Mazhai ’ in 1968,” he says.
“ Mazhai has curious sidelights. For its Tamil production, actor Bharatimani of Dakshina Bharatha Natak Sangam asked me to find a woman lead (as the dialogues were too ‘strong' for the troupe's regular actor). That's how writer Ka.Na. Subrahmanyam's daughter became his wife! Balendra (Sri Lanka) who has been staging ‘ Mazhai ' for 30 years now, found a wife in his co-actor after the first show,” he laughs.
The play was well received and the success propelled Parthasarathy to write more. What followed was string of plays like Porvai Porthiya Udalgal , Kala Iyandirangal , Nandan Kathai , Aurangazeb and Pasi . “Most of my plays were translated into English and published in the Enact magazine. Aurangazeb was translated in other languages like Hindi, Marathi and Bengali and staged. Aurangzeb had Raj Babbar as protagonist under M.K. Raina's direction. Vijay Tendulkar had it staged in Marathi. “It became a big success with small theatre groups in Kolkata and Mumbai. Aurangazeb was staged more in other centres than in its original language,” he says.
During Emergency, the Government banned the staging of Aurangazeb citing the dialogues of play may work against the interests of the State. But soon the ban was lifted and Aurangazeb and Porvai Porthiya Udalgal were prescribed as texts for schools.
Parthasarathy’s novel Kuruthipunal , based on the burning of 42 Dalits in Keezhavenmani in East Thanjavur by a landlord, won him the Sahitya Akademi Award. His work Uchchi Veyil was made into a film ‘ Marupakkam ,’ by director K.S. Sethumathavan and won the President’s award in 1990.
He has also written plays Sooravali and Irudhiattam based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest and King Lear, respectively. “I have not translated the play but trans-created to suit the Tamil cultural ambience,” he says.
At present, Parthasarathy is busy writing a book on Tholkappiam as a theatre manual. “More than a book on Tamil grammar, I look at Tholkappiam as a theatre manual. It talks about Thalaivan-Thalaivi kootru and also describes in what situation they should speak. It is nothing but drama. Tholkappiam could have been guidebook for Agathinai ,” he says.
E.Pa. is instrumental in establishing department of theatre arts at the Pondicherry University and he along with Na. Muthusamy are the pioneers of modern Tamil plays. Whatever he writes E. Pa. is conscious to keep it simple as he wants to reach out to more people. “Writing is a social institution. When a kite is flying, you see, it needs an opposition of air to fly. Likewise, I need a reader with whom I want to communicate,” he says.
Some of the books Indira Parthasarathy has authored:
Novels:
Thiraigalukku appaal
Kuruthi Punal
Aagaya Thamarai
Mayaman Vettai
Theevukal
Yesuvin Thozhargal
Suthanthira Bhoomi
Krishna Krishna
Plays:
Uchchi Veyyil
Porvai Porthiya Udalgal
Aurangazeb
Nandan Kathai
Ramanujar
Awards:
Sangeeth Natak Akademi
Sahitya Akademi
Saraswathi Samman
