How many of us, particularly those born post-seventies know about the plays of Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar? The number may be very less, not because of the lack of interest in theatre but because the theatre scene has undergone a transformation. However, here is some good news for those interested in knowing more about the works of Mudaliar. For the first time, his voluminous theatre plays have been compiled by a professor from the Department of Tamil, University of Madras. The launch ceremony of the compilation by Prof Ko Palani, published by New Century Book House, Chennai, was held in the city recently.
“Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar is considered as father of modern Tamil theatre. He wrote 97 scripts in total. Both Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar and Sankaradas Swamigal laid the foundation on which the modern Tamil theatre edifice has been built,” said Prof V Arasu, Department of Tamil, University of Madras, at the function.
He added, “The songs as part of his play like Rama Nataka Keerthanaigal were a huge hit in those days and have had many versions. But, this is the first time the complete works of the playwright have been brought out.”
It is to be noted that though, Sankaradas Swamigal’s works were brought out as a book, those were compiled by historians.
Sankaradas Swamigal‘s scripts were not maintained properly. But, that was not the case with Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar. He maintained all the manuscripts of his plays because he too had interest in publishing his scripts as books.
Those works were preserved through the efforts of some researchers and academicians.
“Early plays penned by Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar focused on the reign of kings and queens. In 1930, he wrote a social drama and his biggest contributions to Tamil theatre is the fact that he was the first person to adopt English plays in Tamil theatre. Not only in the form of text, he also followed the English theatre format in his plays,” said Arasu.
In his speech, Professor Se Ramanujam, a renowned theatre academician said, “Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar made many stage plays in different genres like tragedy, comedy, melodrama, farce among others. One of his plays Chandrahari’ was written in the form of absurdity, about Harishchandra, a king who was famous for not uttering a lie in his whole life.”
Palani said, “More than being recognised as a playwright, Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar was always identified with his caste. It took six years to complete this project. Each volume comprises plays of different genres such as historical plays, comedy plays, social plays and adaptations. Besides these works, Sambandha Mudaliar’s short stories are also being compiled and we have plans to bring them out as a separate book very soon.”
The book was released by Prof Se Ramanujam and the first copy was received by ‘Koothuppattarai’ Na Muthusamy. CPI leader R Nallakannu presided over the function.