CHENNAI: CSM Subramaniyam, a man in his late 40s, works as a senior section engineer with the Southern Railway for a living. But apart from his mundane professional life, Subramaniyam has a strong mooring in a tradition that is over 366 years old.He has been a part of the 366-year-old Sri Bhakta Prahalada Natya Natakam since he was five. The play is performed on the day of Narasimha Jayanti at Thanjavur by Bhagavatha families who were brought to the town by the Nayak Dynasty in 1645. “Achuthappa Nayakudu, a Nayak king, after the Vijayanagara Empire collapsed in mid 16th Century, declared independence and set up his own kingdom in Thanjavur. I belong to one of those families he brought from the east Andhra region for entertainment purposes,” he explains. Interestingly, the Telugu-speaking Bhagavatha families of Thanjavur have performed this play for 366 uninterrupted years. “No natural calamity or any other deterrent has ever stopped us from putting up the show,” he adds.Only male actors perform all characters including the female roles. “If we did have women in the cast, they would not be able to perform during certain days of the month and that would be a constraint for us,” he says. Subramaniyam has played the part of Vinayaka when he was five. “When I turned eight, I started learning Prahalada’s dialogues and between 16 and 47, I played Hiranyakashyapu’s wife, Leelavati, and now at 48, I am the asura king Hiranyakashyapu,” he recounts with pride.Is it a lack of actors that is forcing the same people to don multiple roles? “No, I belong to a family which is the only one that can perform the role of Prahalada, Leelavati and Hiranyakashyapu. My maternal uncle’s progeny can only don the role of the Narasimha avatar. Right now, my cousin performs the role,” he explains.Guess who plays Prahalada now? It’s Subramaniyam’s son, Anirudh. He practices the movements and dialogues with his father after returning from school.Subramaniyam is a trained Bharatanatyam dancer and also has a background of a musically talented family that has rubbed off well on him. “I also know the fundamentals of Kuchipudi and am now giving my son some basic dance training that is needed to perform this play,” adds Subramaniyam.This play is performed at night. “Since it is summer, we can’t perform during the day and we start our performance at 10pm. It goes on till 4 am. Actually, Lord Narasimha devoured the asura king at dusk (not day, not night). So, we try to make it such that Narasimha kills Prahalada’s father at day-break to keep the play as close to the story line as possible,” explains Subramaniyam. So powerful is their performance that people of all ages stay awake and watch the whole drama.Looking at its popularity, the family should have ideally brought the play to Chennai or taken it to other districts. But there is a hitch. “The mask that we use for the Narasimha avatar is actually the presiding deity of my maternal ancestral home’s temple. So we can’t travel with the mask. Hence the limited performance,” Subramaniyam adds.What really comes as a shocker is the fact that Anirudh hardly speaks any Telugu. His father was brought up in Andhra Pradesh and later moved to Chennai when he was posted at Chennai by the Southern Railway. His sons have been born and brought up in this city and Telugu is hardly spoken at Anirudh’s home. “I write down the Telugu dialogues, the corresponding meaning in Tamil and explain it to him,” says Subramaniyam. The Telugu-speaking population of Thanjavur has put up this play in Telugu for three centuries now and the fact that Anirudh does not know Telugu and just memorises the lines sounds like a threat to this great tradition. But Subramaniyam says that when the necessity arises he will teach his son Telugu.
Comments
0 comment