MALLATAHALLI ROAD:Well, summer might almost be upon us, but it’s hard to believe while you stay up the night to watch Malegalalli Madumagalu being staged four times a week at Kalagrama.
As the wind sways the branches of the trees on the campus and the leaves of the palms erected on one of the sets, the stage adaptation of Kuvempu’s epic novel takes off with a group of jogis who are about to give up their vocation of retelling epics when another group of wandering minstrels meets them. Their head gives the jogis a ring, rumoured to have been found in the Dharmasthala temple hundi, which, he promises, will help them narrate an epic — an epic for today’s generation.
From here on, the stage is set for an over eight-hour saga set in a handful of villages in Malnad — Halemane, Simbhavi, Bettahalli, Megarahalli, Koonooru among them. While the ring is a recurring motif, the plot is a series of episodes of religious animosity, violence, suicide, rape and romance, involving the complex social structures made up of priests, landlords, their slaves and animals. Leeches, a pair of dung beetles and a pig too are characters and a sight to behold. Not to forget the most interesting of them, Huliya.
Though his name translates into Tiger, he’s actually a dog that belongs to Gutti, one of the most prominent characters, who journeys from one village to the another. The stories of the characters as he interacts with them, sometimes causing seemingly innocent mischief, are brought out.
There are Mukundayya Gowda and his slaves Aitlu and Peechalu who are married to each other. Mukundayaa enlists Peechalu’s help to elope with Chinnamma on the night ahead of the latter’s wedding with an old man. Meanwhile, Gutti has himself run off with Timmi. The couple has the blessing of Timmi’s mother who doesn’t want her daughter married off to a converted Christian as her husband intends. She even pretends to be possessed when her husband questions her later on their daughter’s whereabouts. These are the three major couples whose stories end in union, but the relationships between the other over-150 characters are hard to grasp in one watch.
And when the actors speak from the far depths of the stage, you might have to strain your ears to catch the lines. However, the folk storytellers, who can themselves see bits of the jigsaw that forms the plot when they look through the ring, tie it up for the audience between scenes. The ring, the source, changes hands from one group to another; the story goes on.
If the dialogues are delivered a little awkwardly in parts, it’s because 20 of the cast members are new to the stage, and some of them aren’t native Kannada speakers either.
Play pulls off an all-nighter
When the production opened in 2010 in Rangayana, it got people talking not only because it runs through the night but because of its sheer scale—close to 80 actors, around 150 scenes and four stages. It breaks the proscenium structure and the audience travel with the cast as the action shifts from stage to stage. When this reporter went to watch the Friday night show, she overheard two people discussing on how this might be the director’s ploy to keep his audience awake!
This apart, there is a lot of humour in the play—some of it below the belt or with profanities that had seniors tutting—so even if you do doze off for a few minutes, you’re bound to be woken up by the laughter, the wolf whistles, or sometimes your neighbour’s snores. For there are those who come prepared complete with blanket and pillow. There are places where the play drags on a little, especially during the third stage, but a cup of tea or coffee available at the stalls could refresh you. However, this is still a play that’s best watched with company.
Although sets designer Shashidhar Adapa and director C Basavalingaiah are proud that the climax scene, the last piece of action when Huliya drowns, takes place in a real lake, it is here that the actor playing the canine is the least convincing; his vain struggle to stay afloat in a lake where waters are now barely knee-deep takes away from the tragedy of the moment. But almost immediately Gutti and Timmi’s lamentations make you realise the extent of the loss and recall the actor’s superb performance. In the earlier productions, this scene had reportedly brought tears to many eyes.
As it was just the third show, there were a few technical glitches (lighting and audio) on Friday night, but these will hopefully be fixed with a couple more run throughs. The live music, composed by Hamsalekha, more than complements the play as do the sets.
Shows of the play will continue every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday till March 21, from 8.30 pm onwards at Kalagrama, Mallatahalli Road, Jnana Bharathi.
For more details, log on to www.madhumagaluplay.in
