In 1892, three years after O. Chandu Menon's Indulekha was published, another Malayalam novel came out from North Malabar. Saraswatheevijayam , however, is largely forgotten.
It cannot claim as much literary finesse as Indulekha , widely regarded as Malayalam's first major novel, but its significance as a social critique is not any less.
Like the novel, its author Potheri Kunhambu never got as much attention as he deserved.
He was a social reformer who walked ahead of his time. A lawyer from Kannur, Kunhambu worked for the betterment of the lesser privileged, especially tntouchables like Pulayas, who were victims of racial discrimination.
On Tuesday night in Kozhikode, Kunhambu's characters came alive on the stage of Tagore Centenary Hall. KPAC’s newest drama Marathan is adapted from Saraswatheevijayam .
The plot
Marathan is the hero of the novel. A Pulaya slave, he is punished savagely by the man whom he worked for.
Saraswatheevijayam – meaning the victory of Saraswathi, the Hindu goddess of learning and arts – traces Marathan’s travails and the change in his fortune. The importance of Western education and religious conversion are the major themes of the novel.
Director Manoj Narayanan feels Saraswatheevijayam has not lost any of its relevance, well over a century after it was written. “Anybody watching the play could relate to it, because the issues Kunhambu wanted to discuss, when he wrote the novel, are still very important,” he told The Hindu .
“When Suresh Babu Sreestha, the playwright, brought my attention to Saraswatheevijayam some four years ago, I felt that it had huge potential for a drama,” Manoj said.
This is the seventh play Manoj, one of the finest directors in contemporary Malayalam theatre and winner of multiple Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi awards, has directed for the KPAC.
KPAC production
It is only apt that the KPAC is producing Marathan. No other drama company has given Malayalam as many revolutionary plays and played as a big a role in shaping the social and political history of the State.
“I am indeed very happy that the KPAC has come forward to stage this drama. After all, it is a company that has produced so many politically relevant plays,” Manoj said.
