HYDERABAD: The mythological play ‘Mayabazar’ performed at Qadir Ali Baig theatre festival left the audience spellbound. The experience was spectacular to say the least and one could not help but laud the cast and crew for the dedicated work that was evident from the moment the curtains opened. The play was high on entertainment quotient, and displayed the prowess of the century-old Surabhi theatre group, that brought the play to the audience.
The subject of ‘Mayabazar’ would remind anyone of the classic movie of the same name and theme starring NTR, ANR and S V Ranga Rao. The movie went down in the anal’s of history as a piece of art and a landmark film for the Telugu film industry.
‘Mayabazar’ is a mythological epic based on the Mahabharata. The story dwells on the love story between Lord Balaram’s daughter Sashirekha and Lord Krishna’s nephew Abhimanyu.
Balarama is keen to marry his daughter to his nephew Abhimanyu, but his wife under the influence of Narada, plans to marry her daughter to Duryodhana’s son Lakshman Kumar. Owing to the pressure from his wife, Lord Balarama rejects the proposal of marrying his daughter to Abhimanyu. How Abhimanyu manages to marry Sashirekha with the help of his cousin brother Ghatodgaja forms the rest of the story.
The direction of R Nageswara Rao, who is also the head of Surabhi group, is flawless.
Each sequence of the drama has been well enacted and made to look as realistic as possible.
The narration is quite interesting and easy to understand for anyone who is unaware of the subject, all thanks to the writer M Venkata Krishna Sharma. Though the play was in Telugu the language was peppered with words from Sanskrit Telugu and only added beauty to the whole set up.
The beautiful sets and fight sequences won the hearts of the people who were seen cheering and shouting amazed by the entire show put forth. The fight sequences between Ghatodgaja and Abhimanyu were thrilling with various pyrotechnics involved and other equipments that were used to make it look as entertaining as possible. The visual wonder in various scenes of the drama are praise-worthy like the way Ghatodgaja uses his ‘magic’ to stop Sashirekha’s marriage.
The actors have lived their characters unquestionably.
R Ganapathi Rao as Ghatodgaja and R J Verma as Abhimanyu are worth mentioning.
Another aspect of the play which caught everyone’s attention were the art and costumes. The hard work and professionalism was visible on each of the background scenes and curtains. The costumes looked colourful and need to be credited for bringing the characters to life. Incidentally, the Surabhi group members design and work on the art themselves.
Kudos to the Surabhi group, which is not only reviving the dying culture of play but also for proving a point that performing arts can be as entertaining as cinema.
