BaLegaara Chennaiah...

BaLegaara chennaiah baagilige bandhihenu
oLage baralappaNeye doreye
naviloora maneyindha nudiyondha thandhihenu
baLeya thoDisuvudhilla nimage..


Raayaru bandharu maavana manege raatriyaagithhu
huNNime harasidha baanina naDuve chandira bandhitthu
tumbidha chandira bandhitthu..


Deepavu ninnade gaLiyu ninnade
aaradirali beLaku…
kaDalu ninnade haDagu ninnade
muLugadirali baduku..

Ninna premada pariya..OndiruLu kanasinali…sirigereya neerinali...Shaanuboghara MagaLu...and a lot more.

Familiar songs? Yes. Lovely songs in fact.

And remember the poet??? Or rather what happened to him???
That’s exactly what was depicted in the play “Mysooru Mallige” by the theatre group “Kalagangotri”.

We forget these great contributors to literature over time. The poet still doesn’t care about
his finances until old age creeps up on him and his wife is taken ill. His sons and daughters neglect him and he even vents his frustrations through some of his poems. The whole State embraces his poetry as their own, but fails to support him when he needed it the most.

The play starts off with baLegaara Chennaiah visiting the house of the poet after a few generations have passed. He meets their grand-daughter and her little daughter [the kid enacting this part is very good], who are blissfully unaware of the poet’s life. The baLegaara then narrates the whole story starting from the first time the poet sees Sita, his wife-to-be and then their life. Their initial happy days, their day-to-day “mis”adventures, their growing struggle to make ends meet, their helplessness to support their daughter and parting with their sons.

The first 1 hr is filled with comedy, romance and the way they have shown the poet’s deep concentration on nothing except poetry is humorous. The last 30 min is very depressing, I must say. Esp, the poet’s talk with his son and the later discussion with his wife is heart-wrenching! You can easily draw an analogy to the current state of the so-called-modernism where people neglect their parents, when they need it the most. Do we really need this kind of modernism? The poet aptly tells his son who doesn’t like to be called the poet’s-son. “What have I given you? Just education right?” In a later stage, the poet asks his wife how she would like to criticize his poetry. She says “Initially you wrote happily, then with frustration, then with anger. But never once you wrote contentedly”. The play ends with the baLegaara telling the kid to spread the fragrance of mysore mallige through generations.

The actors have all done a wonderful job. The baLegaara steals the show with his antics and witty dialogues. One thing to note is the remarkable use of the poet’s songs in various situations throughout the play. It is very apt and flows seamlessly. The singers were also very good.

A very nice play with a very good message. I watched it at RangaShankara on Saturday. Not sure about when and where the next performance will be.

By the way, if you still wondering who the poet is..it is K.S.Narsimhaswamy.