United Visuals, Chennai, presented a musical drama, ‘Sri Thyagaraja’, which was staged for the 125th time, on the final day of the 67th anniversary celebrations of Sri Sathguru Sangeetha Samajam on Saturday.
The play is an inspiration from the book on the saint composer by music critic and writer V. Srinivasan (VSV), for which Varadharajen has shortlisted kritis under the guidance of noted Carnatic singer Bombay Jayashri.
He has identified authentic costumes and discussed concepts with Sri Udayalur Swami and recorded the voices of leading singers Bombay Jayashri, Chertalai Ranganatha Sharma and O. S. Arun, besides having the voice of Shobana Ravi for introduction.
The presentation began by showing Thyagaraja as a man focused on his Nama Sankeertan on Lord Rama. When an arrogant singer from North India visits the court of King Serfoji, the ruler of Thanjavur, and challenges him to pit anyone against him, Thyagaraja comes to the rescue of his king’s pride at the invitation of his guru Sonti Venkata Ramanayya, by rendering mellifluous numbers.
Then the king sends an invitation to Thyagaraja to grace the royal court. He rejects the invitation outright as, being a devotee of Lord Rama, the only things that mattered to him were music and bhakti. The choice of Thyagaraja to live on alms rather than monetise his knowledge creates tension in the family. In between, Lord Rama, Sita, Lakshmanan and Hanuman come to stay with Thyagaraja in disguise. This leads to a lot of emotional situations. The jealous sister-in-law and brother send him out and connive to dump the Rama idol in the Cauvery. A heartbroken Thyagaraja starts singing compositions filled with grief and suffering and moves around in despair, when Rama appears before him and grants salvation.
Varadharajen played the lead role with maturity and attempted to recreate the genius of Thyagaraja as a singer, composer and saintly being. The title song written by Pirai Soodan, ‘Jagam pughazum,’ aptly summed up the life of Thyagaraja. The coordinated efforts of stalwarts from different fields made the play a unique combination of iyal , isai and natakam .
S. Padmanabhan
