Play recreates the world of a writer

Introspective

Neenasam Tirugata, the touring theatre troupe started by Neenasam performed, ''Nammolagina Basheer'' in the premises of Kote School in Shidlaghatta on Friday night.

The play recreates the world of the legendary Malayalam writer Vaikom Muhammad Basheer with fantastic authenticity.

A complex canvas comprising lively, colourful characters; the play “Nammolagina Basheer” by Neenasam Tirugata, is not just a splendid weave of a variety of people and their ways of life, but also a brilliant juxtaposition of the comic and the tragic.

Rajeev Krishnan, who is a Vaikom Muhammad Basheer expert puts together a kaleidoscope of the legendary Malyalam writer’s stories, which captures the concerns of the writer brilliantly. Irony, satire, joy and sorrow — the play now cast in Kannada, achieves with equanimity all that is true of the writer’s works.

And with a lightness of touch. Each of the male actors become Basheer, at once extending the scope of his personality, to include one and all.

Basheer’s world has deeply personal moments charged with a rustic energy and fiery passion. It is to the credit of the production that it arrests the modern outlook of Basheer without any pretences of the modern age. The play retains an uncorrupted old-world charm in all its wholesomeness not losing sight of the progressive views of the writer.

The highpoint of the production is Rajeev Krishnan’s ingenuous stagecraft. The manner in which one thing morphs into another is remarkable.

Connecting factor

The actors put out a brilliant performance. The world of Basheer does not seem alien to the thoroughbred Kannada world of the Tirugata team. Their body language, their swagger and the world that they recreated was intimate to Basheer’s own. And Basheer became our own.

Basheer’s deep attachment for his mother who, despite all her hardship dreamt “big” for her son, which had no whiff of the material world in it, was movingly portrayed. The freedom struggle, his school days... invokes the period of the writer with a touching authenticity.

Neenasam Tirugata travels to different places and stages plays mainly to a rural audience. They also performed for the people of Shidlaghatta. The troupe comprised of 20 actors and backstage technicians including sound, lighting and music.

Says Natraj L Tiptur, a member of the troupe, “Bringing prominent plays on stage and experimenting on stage is our aim. Every year in July a troupe in created for training and the preparation goes on till October. The premier is held in Heggodu in Sagar taluk and later it is staged in various parts of the State. Most of the expenses of the play is subsidised by the donations received during the performance.”