Music lovers of Madurai watched the musical drama, ‘Sri Thyagarajar,’ a tribute to Tyagabrahmam presented by T. V. Varadarajan, as a unique offering at the ongoing Tamil Theatre Festival at Lakshmi Sundaram Hall on Saturday.
It was an informative performance also as it contained unique facts about the life and works of Saint Thyagarajar. The musical drama was scripted and directed by T. V. Varadharajen. Veteran writer VSV has penned the dialogue and music is by Bombay Jayashree. The drama was staged for the 87th time and plans are on to have the 100th performance at Tiruvaiyaru, the birthplace of the music legend.
TVV, as he is popularly known, became the saint himself in the lead role and conveyed Sri Tyagarajar’s bhakti for Rama through a restrained portrayal. The life of the poet-saint was well narrated in the song Jagam pugazhum punya kathai (written by Pirai Soodan), aptly adapted for the play from the feature film Lava Kusa.
The play portrayed how Tyagarajar adopted the ‘uncha vritti’ procession and lived on ‘bhiksha.’ While discussing Tyagarajar's character, Narada and Rama hear the voice of the legend. Narada descends on earth to request the composer to mitigate the difficult lives of people in Kali Yuga through naama sankeertan.
Chenchulakshmi, the greedy wife of Thyagarajar’s elder brother, wants to convert his musical talent into money and creates tension in the hitherto happy family. The musical play also brought out the versatility of the writer and director through shrewd wordplay.
Important facets in Tyagarajar’s life — like his longing to meet the then famous Tamil singer Gopala Krishna Bharati, (who comes in person and sings the famous Sabhapathiku veru deivam… .); his refusal to sing in praise of King Serfoji, the Raja of Thanjavur; and request to Lord Rama to continue his ‘uncha vritti’ in his 80th year — were portrayed very well.
An emotional situation was witnessed when Rama, Sita, Lakshmanan and Hanuman, in disguise, come to stay with Thyagarajar.
Bombay Jayashree has aptly chosen the kritis in such a way that they aptly fit into the situations on stage. Kritis such as Jagadanandakaraka, Shantamu lekha, Manasuloni, MaJanaki, Sabhapathikku, Ramanee samanamevaro, Nithi Chaala and Ramabhakthi were sung in the background.The coordinated effort of stalwarts from different fields made the play a unique combination of iyal, isai and natakam.
S. Padmanabhan