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Eternal literature

GUDIPOODI SRIHARI

Telugu University held Jayanti celebrations of Gurazada Appa Rao and Boyi Bheemana.



Act time A scene from one of the plays at the jayanti celebrations.

The Potti Sriramulu Telugu University was busy last week in holding the Jayanti celebrations of two great literary figures – Gurazada Appa Rao and Boyi Bheemanna at its auditorium, in a space of two days. A play was staged as a tribute to that genius playwright and poet Gurazada. ‘Mahakavi Gurazada’s Jayanti’ brought into focus ‘Kanyasulkam’, Gurazada’s immortal drama that was written more than a hundred years ago. Speakers said that the play continued to enjoy popularity among theatre and literature lovers as well, for it is considered as a literary masterpiece written in modern Telugu. Vice-Chancellor of the Telugu University Ms. Manjulatha and Prof. P. Gowri Sankar, Director of International Telugu Centrer, reiterated this point in their address and called Gurazada as Vaitalika (harbinger) of Modern Telugu.

A play Mandi Manishi by the students of Theatre Department of Telugu University was also staged under the supervision of Prof. Bittu Venkateswarlu as a tribute to Gurazada. The play was written by Dr. Avantsa Somasundaram in 1918, adapting a German play by Ernest Tollor. This was directed by M. Phil student Raghuveer Gowd. It was more an ‘expressionist’ play, staged during the industrial revolution, where the labour is against an industrialist. Anuradha played that role of a humanist, interestingly. Venugopala Rao appeared in the nameless character. Margadarsi, a jail warden, was played by Nagaraj Naik. L. Venkateswarlu played Sonia’s husbandThe sets and costumes are intelligently improvised by the artistes of the department. And all the artistes gave a sensible presentation of their roles . For the purpose of set changes, they added some group singing in Greek style. The audience included some big names of the theatre. Celebrating Boyi Bheemanna’s 97th Jayanthi two days earlier at the same venue, speakers recalled how Bheemanna, a Padmabhushan, let the voice of the Dalits heard, read and seen in his poetry and plays. Former Chief Secretary of A. P. Government Kaki Madhava Rao saidthat he got his inspiration, as a five year old child, after watching Bheemanna’s play Paleru.. Vice-chancellor Avula Manjulatha said that the ‘Boyi Bheemanna Sahiytya Peetham’ and Telugu University would jointly take up printing of unpublished works of Bheemanna including the English translation of some of Bheemanna’s works. Secretary of Human Rights Commission, Dr. Chellappa, Dr. A. Vidyasagar and poet and literary critic Addepalli Ramamohan Rao also spoke analysing some of Bheemanna’s works.