Yuvakala Vauhini organised a function at Thyagaraya Gana Sabha last week to celebrate the World Theatre Day and to give away its annual awards to a select personalities who have worked in the field of drama. The chosen personalities were Sarada Prasanna (Gurazada award), M. Arjuna Rao (Bellari Raghava), Jaya Nirmala (Sthanam Narasimha Rao), Chandu Bhaskara Rao (Raghuramayya), S.M. Basha (Garikapati Raja Rao) and V. Babu Rao (Garimella Ramamurthy award). Minister Kasu Venkatareddy presided and gave away the awards.
To mark the event, Yuvakalavauhini also arranged staging of Navakranthi theatre unit's rare mythological play Sri Mahishasura Mardini that won second best production award in the recently held state Government's ‘Nandi Natakotsavam.'
Written by the late eminent playwright and poet Thandra Subahmanyam and directed by M. Arjuna Rao, this captivating play speaks of the increasing cruelty of the demon king Mahishasura and his end. The play was edited to suit the temper and mood of the modern day audience adding some songs and bringing down number of verses. The lyrics and the few verses were written by Jandhyala Subbalakshmi.
Some trick scenes creating celestial occurrences were added, thanks to Surabhi's Poornachandra Rao's skillful stage craft. Harmonium player Chandrababu and his team lent good support to musical part of the drama. Make-up was done by another artist from Surabhi, Raghubabu.
It was a 30-member cast. M. Arjuna Rao played the title role of demon Mahishasura displaying the desired ferocity. M. Srinivas and G. Nageswara Rao played demon's lieutenants. Surabhi Vengamamba was Parvati and played well the emotion ridden role. P.V.R. Murthy was Lord Siva. The roles of Brahma and Vishnu were restricted to just two scenes. Gabrial as Narada, opened the drama. Anuradha, Aruna, Vaishnavi and Subbalakshmi were Parvati's maids.
