Last month, Chennaiites saw a host of women thespians on stage, complete in saffron robes, depicting the life of the 49th pontiff of Kanchi Mutt Bhodendral. The play included 30 artistes in total — all females — the youngest aged five and the oldest 75.
The play, Sri Bhagavan Naama Bhodendral, was presented with precision to mark Mahalakshmi Ladies Drama Group’s 25th year.
The drama group is probably the only one in the city which has all women members — from production to acting. It is one of those rare groups in which all the male characters in the play are portrayed by the fairer sex.
Bombay Gnanam, the lady who brought the group together in 1989, reminisces their journey from the Bombay clubs to the Chennai sabhas. Started with just 15 members in Bombay, the group has featured 200 artistes from teenagers to octogenarians. Almost all in the group, barring one, are housewives. “Till now, there are six members who have been with us throughout,” says Gnanam, who is a household name in the city for her roles in Tamil serials like Kolangal and Premi.
Two years before the group was conceptualised, Gnanam had got a chance to play a small role in one of the plays by a theatre group in Bombay. After the play, she thought that her role was very small and that she could have done a much better job. She took to writing her own script and waited for the right time to launch her own theatre group.
“I had written a script about dowry. I thought why not invite a few ladies to act and start with. And that was when the Mahalakshmi Ladies Club was started in Bombay. I was also a member there. So, I sent an open invitation to those who were interested in acting and we got a huge response,” she says. Thus was sown the first seeds of Mahalakshmi Ladies Drama Group.
Then followed the auditions where Gnanam asked the candidates to read out the dialogues from the script, while she analysed their capability and diction. “Since it was my first venture, I was a bit scared myself. Will the person fit into this role? Will they cooperate? I believed that it was not enough if they are interested for just one day. There will be times when they have to come for rehearsals three months continuously,” says Gnanam.
The cream was selected and their first anti-dowry play clicked. ‘It went first class’ in Gnanam’s words. Since then, almost every year the group has been coming out with a new play. They have performed 18 plays in all, in several cities including Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Baroda, Madurai, Sivakasi and Tiruchy. They operated only from Mumbai until Gnanam shifted her base to Chennai in 1997, when she got a call from director K Balachander to act in Premi.
The next play was on foreign craze which portrayed how relationships got affected when someone from the family had to leave abroad. “All plays are relevant to the current day and age. 75 per cent of what we show is real story,” she says.
The other topics by the group include surrogacy, gay and lesbianism, mercy killing, widow remarriage, living together, oldage homes, communication gap between husband and wife, among others.
“Each play is rehearsed for three months, for 60 to 70 times before being staged. Also we don’t just use a curtain and display the background, we use complete sets,” she says. The recent play on Bhodendral had six locations — the Kanchi Mutt, Puri, Kasi, Himalayas, among others.
As a women’s group, Gnanam says they had to face many challenges. “We could not approach anyone easily. Initially, there were even a few who asked what a group of ladies can possibly do?” she says. “Also for a lady, doing a male role on stage is not easy. We manage the costume and I teach them the mannerism, but we cannot do anything about the voice,” she adds.
Yet another challenge was the age group of members, who are mostly 60 plus now. “People joined 25 years ago when they were 40. Now, the priorities have changed. They have to go abroad, or there is a function at home. We cannot catch the members together,” she says.
Despite all that, the group performed to a full packed hall in February. And now, Gnanam and her group are gearing up for the next show later this month, hopefully again to a packed crowd.
The show will take place on March 17, 18 and 19 at RKM School, T Nagar.