A different interpretation to ‘Lankalakshmi'

Story from the Hindu daily, August 02, 2010 by the The Staff Reporter

KOCHI: C. N. Sreekantan Nair's ‘Lankalakshmi' is a challenge for any director, for its text featuring poetic language and imagery. That is the challenge Chandradasan is attempting to tackle now.

His production of ‘Lankalakshmi' will be staged in the city in the second week of September. “For a beginning, we are trying to bring in a new culture with this play, as it would be staged on five consecutive days and entry will be only for those with tickets,” says Mr. Chandradasan.

Only the casting part has been completed, as the director is still working on the stage design.

“I want to break the conventional acting style. My attempt will be to find a link between the performance as required by the text and the expressions that the actor develops on his own. That is why now we are concentrating on actors getting into their characters,” he says.

The play, as it is always with Chandradasan's works, would have contemporary elements.

“I am trying to highlight the elements that are in the text itself. During many re-reads that I did, two aspects stuck me. One is the subaltern reading of Ramayanam, in which a black, ugly child grows up to become the Emperor and conquer the whole universe.

Second is while the demon dynasty under Ravanan becomes powerful as never before, some insiders express concern about ensuring purity of their race. Race and pride of the downtrodden will be the political ideology of the play,” he says.

The play will attempt more experiments.

Chandradasan is pondering on possibilities of analysing various versions of Ramayanam.

Experiments will also be made in music, being composed by Bijibal, where sounds from Nature will be used to generate a visual feeling.

Courtesy. The Hindu daily, august 02, 2010 ; Photo Giressh Menon.