Step back in time to 19th Century India with the English play, Kamalakshi, written by Sujatha Vijayaraghavan and presented by The Madras Players, the oldest English theatre group in India (founded in 1955). Designed and directed by veteran theatre personality PC Ramakrishna, the play is a poignant tale of a temple dancer that entwines drama, classical music and Bharatantyam.
Stills from the play
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Special Arrangement
Working with live music is not new, Ramakrishna says over a call from Chennai in his baritone. “I had already done a play with music in 2019 called Trinity, which was about the three music composers — Tyagaraja, Muthuswamy Dikshitar and Syama Sastri.”
Trinity, which travelled to the U.S. after its premier, was in English, Ramakrishna says, and was based on three short stories by Sita Ravi, the granddaughter of writer, journalist, poet, critic and freedom fighter, Kalki Krishnamurthy.
Ramakrishna, who is also a mridangam artiste, trained under Palghat Mani Iyer, which he states made him keen to work with live music in his plays. “I performed as a mridangam artiste till I chose a corporate career and theatre. Trinity worked and brought in new audiences to the play, including those who usually went to the kutcheri rather than plays.”
Kamalakshi, Ramakrishna says, began a year-and-a-half ago. “I was at a lecture demonstration about Tamil music composers. One of the lectures was about Muthu Thandavar, whose famous work, ‘Terivilvaranu’ has been danced to. You will find this song on YouTube, sung in Sikkil’s (Gurucharan) soulful voice and danced to by Arushi Mudgal.”
Fascinated by the presentation, Ramakrishna says he told Sujata Vijayaraghavan, who was sitting next to him at the lecture, to write a play about a dancer. “She wrote Kamalakshi. She is a musicologist, scholar and a singer, while her daughter is a classical dancer hence, the play has music and dance.”
A popular voiceover artist, Ramakrishna has worked with All India Radio and Doordarshan (as an English news reader). He has been associated with The Madras Players since 1965 and has acted and directed plays for them. Some of his works include Water, Chudamani and Lakshmikanthan, the latter play is based on a famous murder and trial in 1945 involving the death of journalist Lakshmikanthan.
Ramakrishna held the position of a president with The Madras Players for 20 years. “Many people are passionate about theatre and the performing arts. With Kamalakshi, I got a chance to amalgamate classical music and classical dance with theatre in English language, which is my medium of expression. I do, also express myself in my mother tongue, Tamil.”
Ramakrishna defines Kamalakshi as fiction, based on the 19th Century devadasi system, its tradition and culture.”
Sikkil Gurucharan who plays the lead in Kamalakshi, comes in for praise from Ramakrishna. “We are all artists and Sikkil jumped at the chance when I offered him the role in this play. Bharatantayam dancer, Sumitra Nitin, plays the devadasi. They bring to me a freshness that I may not get from a seasoned actor. I may not get an actor who can act and sing, or act and dance. So having Sikkil and Sumitra has been a boon. And they come to me without baggage or pre-conceived notions.”
Apart from Sikkil and Sumitra, the play features V Balagurunathan, Anuradha Ramesh and S Ram.
Ramakrishna was part of many plays in school and college when he studied in Kolkata. He describes Kamalakshi as a realistic play with classical dance and music. “There are no masks. I use actual classical singing and actual Bharatanatyam in the play. It is a rarity to have classical dance and classical music live on stage. There was no point in doing Kamalakshi without dance. The play opened the door for these classical forms on stage.”
Kamalakshi will be staged on February 28, at Chowdiah Memorial Hall, at 7pm. Donor passes for ₹1000, ₹750, ₹499 and ₹250 are available on BookMyShow.
Published – February 26, 2025 09:29 am IST
