ALAPPUZHA: Having successfully performed 66 plays on more than three lakh stages inside and outside the state, the Kerala Peoples Arts Club (KPAC) is bringing alive a theatrical adaptation of Uroob’s celebrated 1954 novel Ummachu. KPAC will premiere the play at Vadakara in Kozhikode district on Tuesday.
Into the 75th year since its establishment, the theatre group is all set to stage its 67th play with Ummachu, KPAC secretary A Shajahan told TNIE.
“This year also marks the birth centenary of Thoppil Bhasi, one the founders of KPAC. We are celebrating the platinum jubilee and the centenary, the celebrations for which were inaugurated in May at Thiruvananthapuram,” Shajahan said.
"While dramatist Suresh Babu Sreestha has adapted the work, Manoj Narayanan is the director. Kalesh K, Anitha Shelvi and Shinil Vadakara will enact the lead roles of Mayan, Ummachu and Beeran," Shajahan said.
“Sreekumaran Thampi has penned the songs and Udayakumar Anchal is the music director. Artist Sujathan has created the art scenes for the play,” the KPAC secretary said.
The novel which depicts the complexities of human relationships, love and longing, and loss and suffering was adapted into a film in 1971, with Madhu and Sheela in the lead.
“Human relationships and sentiments are depicted clearly in the novel and we have tried to show those relationships in the two-hour play,” Shajahan said.
Ummachu to be KPAC’s 67th play
Other characters in Ummachu will be played by Kavadiyar Suresh, Binu Soman, Devan Krishna, Sarath Muthukulam, Anu Kunjumon, Sofiya Tharakan, Haridas Adichanelloor, Vashishtan Charummood, Vijayan Kaviyoor, Rajendran Klappana, Jose Punchavayal, and Thankachan Alappuzha, Shajahan said. KPAC’s 67th play will be staged at Vadakara Town Hall at 6.30pm.
KPAC staged its first play Ente Makananu Seri (My Son is Right) at VJT Hall in Thiruvananthapuram in 1951. Thoppil Bhasi’s first play Ningalenne Communistakki performed in Kollam on December 6, 1952, found a place for KPAC in the hearts of Malayalis. Bhasi wrote the play while in hiding. G Janardhana Kurup and N Rajagopalan Nair directed it, with G Devarajan setting to music ONV Kurup’s songs. Singers K S George and Sulochana joined the team. Kambisseri Karunakaran played the protagonist.