Two Brilliant Plays (BH:D223)

March 13, 2012

Monday night belonged to them; The cast of Little Earthe Theater of Malappuram. Aged 7 to 17, they rocked AKG center as part of the Natya Panchakam theater festival organized by All India Radio! The 800-odd Thiruvananthapuram audience were treated to electrifying comic timing that produced nonstop laughter for what seemed like rather short two hours!

Under the direction of Parthasarathy and Arun Lal, the troupe presented two plays. First, "Claver Rani", an independent adaptation of Vaikkom Mohamed Basheer's famous tale, "Mucheettukalikarante Makal" (The daughter of the 'three card monte' trickster). Followed by "Kunthappi Gulugulu", a surreal Panchatantra style play written by Thuppettan (Subramanian Namboothiri). 

Claver Rani performed on a single set which featured a huge clover queen card that doubled as the door of Sainaba's hut. The beautiful and smart Sainaba is "Ottakannan" Pokkar's (one-eyed Pokkar) daughter, the eponymous 'Claver Rani' and 'Mucheettukalikarante Makal'. She has given her heart to 'Mandan' Muthappa, the stupid pickpocket. He loves her too..."as much as the distance from the depth of the village well that takes two days to reach the bottom if you fall in, till the sky up above". She brings him steaming hot "puttu" with a "sveshallu" (special) boiled egg hidden inside. 

Ottakannan Pokkar will have none of this nonsense. He wants to marry his daughter off to someone from the"Gulf". The village, represented by 'Ettukaali' Mammoonju, the barber, Sakhavu Soopi, the politician, a fresh gulf returnee and the local hitman, take the matter into their own hands. But in front of this crowd assembled in front of her hut, Sainaba denies her love. Muthappa goes on a hunger strike till death. In one of the most beautiful scenes in the play, dimly lit, Sainaba carrying a small kerosene lamp visits the hungry Muthappa. She tells him what to do to win her from her father. Muthappa challenges Pokkar to a game of three card monte and wins. The climax reveals what trick Sainaba had played on her father.

The scene interlude songs were a delightful selection of old famous Malayalam songs. A wonderful crowd pleaser. As numbers like "kaathu sookshichoru kasthuri mambazham" floated in, the audience clapped along. Care was taken to ensure that the tempo of the songs kept building towards the climax. 

The characters born in the immortal genius of Basheer: Muthappa, Pokkar, Sainaba, Sakhavu Soopi, Ettukali Mammoonju all were safe in the hands of the incredibly talented performers. These people are the essence of life in the village, essence of personalities we all pretend to uniquely possess: the insecure father, the idiot lover, the interfering neighbor, the seekers of justice! It is a revelation that Basheer characters need the singular passion and energy that only possibly teenagers can harvest. 

Akhil as Muthappa and Mithun as Pokkar have already won several best actor award in school youth festivals. They have been with the troupe for ten years. Nowadays, Akhil works as a medical rep and Mithun is in college. Those talent scouts of Malayalam cinema who search for freshness in cheap imitation encouraging TV shows and in plush casting couches have sinned even more by not giving these youngsters a wider audience. Akhil and Mithun are rightful successors in the illustrious dynasty of legendary Malayalam comedians like Bahadur, Alummoodan, Pappu and Jagathy! Anila who played Sainaba has a great acting career ahead of her if she so chooses.

The second play by Thuppettan was an intellectual delight. The playwright has won several state awards for best drama. This was his first play that I have seen. I should definitely see more of his work. "Kunthappi Gulu" is a brilliant reworking of a couple of old folk tales. The animals are as articulate as the humans in the play. 

Koran goes in the morning to plough the fields with his bulls. A hungey leopard, with binoculars, spots these bulls and attacks. Koran strikes a deal with the leopard. For sparing the bulls, he will deliver the milch cow that his wife, Chakki, keeps at home. Chakki is furious when she hears about this. But she has a clever plan. 

In the mean time, leopard is getting a massage from the bulls and making them entertain him. "Idhar Avoo, Any Kerala culture?" he asks them. This question brought down the house. They perform "Kummiyadi" as the Kerala culture event to entertain him. The leopard with binoculars watching 'Kummiyadi' for entertainment while making plans of eating the performers soon may not have been intended as a metaphor for the flourishing tourism "industry" in Kerala. Or may be it was!

Chakki appears dressed up as the mysterious beast called 'Kunthappi gulu' which feasts only on leopard meat. The leopard flees for his life. The false pride of the husband doesn't let Koran accept that it was his wife's bravery and wit that saved the family. In stead, he sits recounting false stories of his confrontation with the imaginary imp, Kuttichathan, in the cowshed in 1967! 

The monsoon rains comes thundering down. The cow doesn't come home one such evening. In the darkness of the rain, Chakki sends Koran to find the cow. He mistakes a terrified leopard for the cow and rides it back home. Next morning, the family and the village is shocked to find a leopard tied up in the cowshed instead of the cow. Koran is shocked that this was the animal he rode on last night, but quickly he uses the opportunity to establish his nonexistent bravery. 

The news of the valiant Koran spreads. He is invited to the king's court. But soon he is asked to go single handedly and defeat the problematic enemy king at the border. Koran who has never ridden a horse falls off it enroute. But the story of the man who rode a leopard home terrifies the enemy king who declares surrender even before the battle. 

Nevertheless, Koran can't take this fake life anymore. He begs Chakki to rescue him. She asks him to shun the false mustache and robe of the warrior and get back to the simple farmer loincloth. He does. The villagers who come seeking for the brave, valiant Kora 'garu' don't recognize him. They mistake a local who had put on the mustache and robe as Kora and carry him back to the palace.

Akhil and Mithun who took turns as Koran and the leopard used all their youthful vigor to maintain the action high octane through out the play. Once again, Anila got to be the savior smart woman as Chakki. Special mention must be made of all the supporting cast members and the costume and make up department for this play. Kudos to the directors for getting the kids so well trained in stage usage, voice control and audience handling. It is no wonder that the halls of school youth festival drama competitions are jam packed. The quality is on par with the best of the professional theaters. And to pull off humor, that too smart humor, on stage is a glorious amalgamation of natural talent and nurtured genius.

I wish all of Basheer's stories were converted into plays. Is anyone doing it? As mentioned before, both the plays featured a smart woman whose intelligence becomes the saving grace. Abundant social commentary and criticism were built in as well. It is great that at least a few in the younger generation are getting exposed to the timeless ideas of philosopher writers like Basheer. 

A young actor from Kozhikode who is training for a year at the drama school at Vengode in Thiruvananthapuram sat next to us yesterday. He said that Little Earth Theater troupe had performed at the Arts Village in Karakulam the previous day. It had rained heavily but the audience stayed in the amphitheater. So the troupe performed and improvised to make the the rain water drain overflowing in front of the stage as the village river. 

Anyone who has been on stage will agree that the exhilarating high at the end of a performance is priceless. No super mega paycheck a movie star receives can substitute for the feeling that comes from performing real time in front of a real audience. 

Hoping not to sound too much like Deepak Chopra, I would say, there is an exchange of energy between the performer and the audience. 

It is an energy of attention that has been with mankind since our earliest tribal days.

It is the energy of theatrics to which the origins of all things social may be traced.

Drama is memorable life.