Trawling through Tamil theatre

In the early 1960s an original play entitled 'Matha Maatram' (meaning Religious Conversion) written by late A N Kanthasamy, a veteran writer in Tamil was staged in Colombo. It caused a stir among the conservative and conventional theatre audiences of that time.

The content of the play was somewhat disturbing and challenging the sensibilities of those who liked the highly melodramatic and sentimental Tamil films of that era. There was no Lankan Tamil Cinema then.

The playwright A N K was a dynamic figure in local Tamil Writing. He wrote short stories, poems, essays and philosophical and psychological essays. One of his books is called 'Manak Kunn' (The Eye of the Mind') He had also translated into Tamil, Emile Zola's 'Nana'.

His writings can be found in a website called 'Pathuvukal' managed by his relative V N Giritharan, himself an Architecture past student of the Morotuwa University. An interested few like the Colombo University Students invited him to write this play and staged it at the Lumbini Theatre in Colombo. The writer was a Marxist and a Rationalist.

Seeing how the plays in English and Sinhala have progressed well lot of people wondered why the local Tamil theatre was at a standstill.

The play was produced by Kavaloor Rasadurai (now living in Sydney).Cinemagoers would remember that the notable Sinhala film maker and academic Dharmaena Pathiraja's Tamil film 'Ponmani' was based on a story and script by Rasadurai.

Among the players in the film was the late Sillayoor Selvarajan, a poet and a multifaceted person in local scene. He also acted with his wife Kamalini in a documentary in Tamil called 'Kamam' by the famous the late filmmaker and writer in English- Tissa Abeysekera. Selvarajan and his family acted in a Sinhala film called 'Aadarae Kathawa'. Selvarajan also figured in a Steven Spielberg's film shot in Lanka. Another player was the late M S Rutnam of the Advertising Department of Lake House.

He was a versatile actor and broadcaster who could play his role convincingly. His grandchildren are now actively involved in theatre and the cinema. One of them acted in 'Ini Avan', a Tamil film directed by Asoka Hand agama. A N Kanthasamy's play 'Matha Maatram' can be considered a bold attempt and a redeeming feature in the context of the time.

Like Bernard Shaw's plays ANK's play is also a play of ideas. The theme was controversial decades ago and even now- religious conversion. If Shaw has debunked the conventional views of love and war in his 'Arms and the Man', Kanthasamy has debunked the conventional idea of religion from an atheist point of view. According to ANK, the atheist and the pious man say the same thing: What is known as religion and God are non-existent in reality and that all this madness and wonders and superstitious beliefs reduce man to an irrational non-entity. The hypocrisy of blind religious ardour is ridiculed by the playwright.

Although my views on religion and understanding of it are different I liked the play for its stimulating ideas.

I felt what the playwright wanted to say was that a convert to a particular religion was always more devout than one born in the same religion. It is only deep study of other religious beliefs that will disclose the many failings in one's own beliefs. Apart from this ANK wittily describes the shallowness and frivolity of adolescent romantic love and lovers' attitude to wards love, marriage and parental objections.

Whether one agrees or not one has to admit that A N Kanthasamy's attempt was an intellectual exercise.

ANK's script had language that was racy, raw and appropriate chiseled dialogue. Never allowing the tempo of the play to be mere ribaldry and yet at the same time playing with the audience in combining amusing situations and unexpected plot sequences, he succeeded in communicating what he wanted to say in an unpretentious way. It was this quality of non-involvement that made one feels that the playwright was a craftsman of fine nature.

Pathmanathan acted as Joseph, the catholic who changes his religion for the sake of his love and remain a convinced Saivaite with the result that his marriage does not take place. Anandi Suriyaprakash, who was with the BBC Tamil Osai, played the role of the Hindu heroine who changes her religion to Catholicism and ultimately becomes convinced that religion forsaking her love for Joseph. She eventually becomes a nun. Conversion changed her from a mock, obedient Hindu girl to an ardent believer in Catholicism. I felt that Anandi played her role rather slovenly and garrishly.

M S Rutnam played the role of both the Saiva Sanniyasi and a catholic priest with remarkable ease. Radhi Subramaniam and Ganeshapilai as the girl's parents brought life to colloquial Yaalpaanam speech and characters. Pararajasingam as the boarding master was also drawing attention by his mannerisms.

The others playing the minor roles required a little more training to appear on stage. Thirunavukarasu played the role of the servant effortlessly. Sillayoor Selvarajan played his role very well as an unruffled, casual and down to earth doctor. He was the spokesman of the playwright's view son religion, love, marriage and the dowry system

I must also record that even if I had enjoyed the play as a play there was no balance of treatment in its presentation. Nor was it a truly analytical disapproval of religion in an intellectual plane. Much was left to be enforced through the movement of the play and its ironic situations.

However in the early stages of the presence of Tamil theatre in Colombo, it was a good try.

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