ALAPPUZHA: Kerala People’s Arts Club (KPAC), the oldest theatre organisation in the state, is all set to celebrate its 75th anniversary. KPAC secretary A Shajahan said that the club has decided to arrange year-long celebrations as part of its platinum jubilee and also to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of playwright Thoppil Bhasi. On the occasion, KPAC will re-launch the drama ‘Olivile Oormakal’ which was penned and directed by Bhasi.
Director Adoor Gopalakrishnan will inaugurate the programme at Karthika Thirunal Theatre in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. Headquartered at Kayamkulam in Alappuzha, KPAC was very influential in popularising the Communist movement in the state.
“During the past 75 years, KPAC has staged 66 dramas. Its dramas were performed on 2.5 lakh stages across the world including the USA, Canada and Gulf countries. The first drama of KPAC was ‘Ente Makananu Sheri’ (My Son is Right). It is said that KPAC was formed in the 1950s by a group of law students -- N Rajagopalan Nair, G Janardhana Kurup, Isaac Thomas, and S Prabhakaran Nair.
They decided to stage Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s ‘Karamazov Brothers’ in Malayalam. Though a public notice was printed in the name of ‘Kerala People’s Arts Club’, nothing came out of it and the name KPAC was later fixed when the four met at Ernakulam for the production of the same play,” said Shajahan. However, he added that the origin of KPAC has been a topic of endless debates and discussions.
“According to O N V Kurup, “Rajagopalan Nair, G Janardhana Kurup, Rajamony, Sreenarayana Pillai and O N V together sought Prof M P Paul’s advice and assistance to form a theatre and they decided to stage a drama, and later the name KPAC emerged at a discussion at CP Sathram in Thiruvananthapuram.
Yet another version subscribes the naming of KPAC to “a project report submitted by writer Kottayam Sreeni to the Kerala State Committee of the Communist Party of India.” Shajahan said. The deep friendship between N Rajagopalan Nair and Janardhana Kurup also saw them coming together to create the play ‘Ente Makananu Sheri’.
Janardhana Kurup, MLAs N Rajagopalan Nair and T A Mytheen Kunju, M P Kuttappan, K S George, Sulochana and Janaki acted in it. Kottayam Sreeni was the troupe convenor and Poojappura Krishnan Nair was its manager. The play was inaugurated at VJT Hall, Thiruvananthapuram, in 1951 and it marked the beginning KPAC’s saga of success,” Shajahan said.