PC Ramakrishna brings his play ‘Kamalakshi’ to Bengaluru

Step again in time to nineteenth Century India with the English play, Kamalakshi, written by Sujatha Vijayaraghavan and offered by The Madras Gamers, the oldest English theatre group in India (based in 1955). Designed and directed by veteran theatre character PC Ramakrishna, the play is a poignant story of a temple dancer that entwines drama, classical music and Bharatantyam.

Working with stay music isn’t new, Ramakrishna says over a name from Chennai in his baritone. “I had already performed a play with music in 2019 known as Trinity, which was in regards to the three music composers — Tyagaraja, Muthuswamy Dikshitar and Syama Sastri.”

Trinity, which travelled to the U.S. after its premier, was in English, Ramakrishna says, and was based mostly on three brief tales by Sita Ravi, the granddaughter of author, journalist, poet, critic and freedom fighter, Kalki Krishnamurthy.

Ramakrishna, who can also be a mridangam artiste, skilled below Palghat Mani Iyer, which he states made him eager to work with stay music in his performs. “I carried out as a mridangam artiste until I selected a company profession and theatre. Trinity labored and introduced in new audiences to the play, together with those that often went to the kutcheri moderately than performs.”

Kamalakshi, Ramakrishna says, started a year-and-a-half in the past. “I used to be at a lecture demonstration about Tamil music composers. One of many lectures was about Muthu Thandavar, whose well-known work, ‘Terivilvaranu’ has been danced to. You can find this track on YouTube, sung in Sikkil’s (Gurucharan) soulful voice and danced to by Arushi Mudgal.”

Fascinated by the presentation, Ramakrishna says he instructed Sujata Vijayaraghavan, who was sitting subsequent to him on the lecture, to write down a play a couple of dancer. “She wrote Kamalakshi. She is a musicologist, scholar and a singer, whereas her daughter is a classical dancer therefore, the play has music and dance.”

A preferred voiceover artist, Ramakrishna has labored with All India Radio and Doordarshan (as an English information reader). He has been related to The Madras Gamers since 1965 and has acted and directed performs for them. A few of his works embody Water, Chudamani and Lakshmikanthan, the latter play relies on a well-known homicide and trial in 1945 involving the demise of journalist Lakshmikanthan.

Ramakrishna held the place of a president with The Madras Gamers for 20 years. “Many individuals are captivated with theatre and the performing arts. With Kamalakshi, I received an opportunity to amalgamate classical music and classical dance with theatre in English language, which is my medium of expression. I do, additionally categorical myself in my mom tongue, Tamil.”

Ramakrishna defines Kamalakshi as fiction, based mostly on the nineteenth Century devadasi system, its custom and tradition.”

Sikkil Gurucharan who performs the lead in Kamalakshi, is available in for reward from Ramakrishna. “We’re all artists and Sikkil jumped on the probability once I supplied him the position on this play. Bharatantayam dancer, Sumitra Nitin, performs the devadasi. They create to me a freshness that I could not get from a seasoned actor. I could not get an actor who can act and sing, or act and dance. So having Sikkil and Sumitra has been a boon. And so they come to me with out baggage or pre-conceived notions.”

Other than Sikkil and Sumitra, the play options V Balagurunathan, Anuradha Ramesh and S Ram.

Ramakrishna was a part of many performs in class and school when he studied in Kolkata. He describes Kamalakshi as a practical play with classical dance and music. “There aren’t any masks. I take advantage of precise classical singing and precise Bharatanatyam within the play. It’s a rarity to have classical dance and classical music stay on stage. There was no level in doing Kamalakshi with out dance. The play opened the door for these classical types on stage.”

Kamalakshi will probably be staged on February 28, at Chowdiah Memorial Corridor, at 7pm. Donor passes for ₹1000, ₹750, ₹499 and ₹250 can be found on BookMyShow.