Last Sunday, I happened to browse through the newspaper and found that there was a Kannada play called "Sattavara neraLu" (Shadow of the dead) Playwright : G B Joshi. Director: B.V Karanth.
Having heard that it is a good drama, I went to watch it at Ranga Shankara theater.
Indeed it was a different experience as it was my first time. I had never been to a live theater show before. I thoroughly enjoyed the brilliant theater experiments, effects with lighting and shadows, stage design. The timely lyrics of Purandara dasa literature like "illiralaare allige hoogalaare","kurudu naayi santhege banthanthe","aachaaravilladha naalige","aadhadhella oLithe aayithu","Donku baaladha naayakare","Lolalotte" to suit the mood of play enlivens Sattavara neraLu's theme.
Long live Shankar Nag's dream and a bow to the all the artists/directors/playwrights.
Below is the theme of the play - (Courtesy citizenmatters.in)
Subtly pulling a philosophical string and delineating a dreadful tune, Sattavara Neralu shakes the stable philosophical base and intellectually inquires into the eternally rooted and firm beliefs in our society.
Narayana is forcibly pulled into Sanyasa and made seer of a Mutt. A ventri vogue of king maker Krishnacharya, Diwan of the Mutt, seer is ashamed of his pretentious celibacy unable to suppress his un-satiated worldly desires and suffering the onslaught of intellectuals thronging at Mutt seeking philosophical and spiritual clarity subjected to scrutiny and judgement.
Diwan manages to send seer on a pilgrimage and receives news that seer moved heavenward. Diwan immediately builds a Vrindavan in the name of the deceased seer and carries on Mutt activities many years. But seer turned Narayana, actually alive, returns to confront Diwan, Diwan manages to maintain that dead seer is in Vrindavan. Frustrated seer reversed to mortal Narayana threatens to reveal the truth, but incorrigible Diwan challenges that devotees would blindly believe what they practice for ages in deference to and total disbelief of what is blabbered by Narayana because mortal Narayana is now bereft of the seer in him.
