Thenali Raman in rustic glory

DAWN WAS breaking and the birds were beginning to chirp. The eastern sky slowly began to get brighter and the Thenali Raman story was coming to an end in the Therukoothu performance at Prisai village. Some of the villagers who had dozed off rolled up their mats and stood up to wait for the play to finish. The little children climbed on to the stage to crowd around Sambandam who had kept up a great performance for eight hours. He had not lost any of his zest at 6-30 a.m. still full of energy to give off his best as the dying Thenali. The sun came up sharp as the play ended and the actors all lined up to sing ``Devi Arulvaye...'' the traditional mangalam of Koothu appealing to Devi to grant rain.

Chithirai (April, May) is the peak season time for Koothu. Many villages reeling in the heat and not having work to do in the fields commission Koothus to be performed as ritual or as drama. And a season with an election around is all the more significant for the folk performers since political parties are interested in commissioning various performances to draw and retain an audience.

``Thenali Raman'', a full length Theru Koothu, was inaugurated at Purisai village on Sunday, April 29.

A historical character as the protagonist is a first time for Therukoothu which generally produces episodes from the Mahabharatha or Ramayana.

It is a bold gesture. Therukoothu has to struggle to survive today with stiff opposition from movies and dance groups who dance to recorded film music and they seem to be more popular even in temple festivals. Yet Koothu is a dynamic form that energises and reveals a culture that can comment on the happenings of the society.

Though the content is generally mythological, the treatment is always contemporary.

It was thus the most appropriate that the inauguration of a historical Koothu was preceded by the honouring of three giants of contemporary Tamil theatre for getting awards from outside Tamil Nadu.

Author and playwright Indira Parthasarathy for getting the Saraswathy Samman. Na. Muthuswamy for the Sangeet Natak Akademi award, Prof. Ramanujam for the G. Sankaran Pillai award. That the felicitations became long speeches and that the audience was not really interested in what was being spoken was predictable. Na. Muthuswamy was natural and articulate in his reply.

The Thenali Koothu was full of josh too. Written by S. N. Thiruvengadam of Sengadu village nearby, and the lead actor Sambandam himself, it was produced with a grant from the Department of Culture, the Ministry of Human Resources and Development, Government of India.

The story of Thenali Raman who made people laugh with his wit and humour was treated in the traditional Koothu format. Though this was the first presentation, all the actors seemed to be totally involved. Sambandam and Munuswamy pitted against each other as Thenali and Thathachari were glittering in their depictions. That this was a story from Andhra Pradesh and not native to Tamil Nadu was not a detterent at all. The Tamil cultural context was very well brought out. Pure energy and clever depiction were the hallmarks of the event.

In the traditional Koothu format, the audience-artiste interaction works on cultural memories. The audience knows the story of Draupadi and the Pandavas and relive their memories through the play. Here, though the legend of Thenali Raman is popular in many parts of India, it had to be introduced in its context of 16th Century court of Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagar. The story of Thenali Raman who was born in Garlapadu in Andhra, grew up in Thenali after his father passed away, his poverty and his witty ways, the legend that he received blessings from Goddess Kali, is told with poignancy and with wit. The Kattiakaran links the story asking questions of the characters who enter, and placing them in their contexts at most times being irreverent.

The songs were all in the traditional Koothu songs mode and that brought in the familiarity angle too. Thenali was shown as an intelligent and a humane person and his death at the end, when he could not convince people that it was not another of his tricks, was really poignant.

This Koothu will become a part of the traditional repertoire. And will be commissioned by villages just as the earlier Koothu, produced by the Purisai Kannappa Thambiran group, called ``Khandava Vana Dahanam'' on environment, within the epic of the Mahabharatha.

V. R. DEVIKA

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