Monday, May 12, 2014

Viswavikhyathamaya Mookku @ Gramoslsavam kaniyankunnu, Aluva.

mookku at aluva  (36)As part of Gramolsavam (village Fest)  organised by AIYF and SYC, Lokadharmi performed the play Viswavikhyathamaya Mookku (the world Renoned nose) at kaniyankunnu, Aluva on 9th of May. Till the late eighties there were a lot of cultural activities and performances in villages all around Kerala.   The social and political organisations backed out from culture and theatre activities by the nineties when the new market ideology started ruling the social fabric of Kerala.  It is so happy to see that the local AIYF took initiative to have a 10 day  festival that included cultural activities, various kinds of performances,  sports events for the local people, and lectures and discussions on important social issues. it is with immense happiness that Lokadharmi performed our play Viswavikhyathamaya Mookku in that fest, amidst lack of proper facilities to stage a play. But the shows in such rustic rural atmosphere always pay the much needed impetus to theatre and as usual we found that the village audience is simply superb as usual

Viswavikyathamaya Mookku

A foolish, illiterate young man, works as a cook in a hotel. His only ambition is to make sure he has enough snuff to inhale. Something very strange happens to him on his 24th birthday. His nose starts to grow! Day by day, it continues to grow in length until finally it reaches his navel. People from everywhere arrive to gaze upon the extra-ordinary nose! The crowds become a nuisance for the house owner, and he is forced to fire the cook from the job. The cook sits in his hut for days without money food or to buy a pinch of snuff. The crowds keep queuing near his hut, but no one helps the pathetic young man. Finally, he gets furious and asks his mother to shut the door; so the crowd bribes his mother... Money started flowing to the mother and son. Soon they became very rich.

mookku at aluva  (32)As the long nosed man becomes famous, politicians hatch conspiracies to capture him. The ruling party wins his loyalty by giving him a title and a gold medal. The president supports and honours him. Soon, the opposition party begins agitating; violence and riots follow; they say the nose is actually a pseudo nose made of rubber! The man was arrested by the police, and his nose examined by expert doctors. The nose is proven real and this causes him to be nominated as a Member of Parliament by the president! But the opposition parties counter this by forming a United Front, and continue their struggle. Basheer’s point is that the incessant controversy generated by the nose is selfishly used by competing parties for self-driven interests. Ultimately, the general populace is shown as more foolish than the poor, former cook ever was.

The play uses masks and gibberish, supplemented with hilarious, grotesque and fast movements in the performance language. This production is without scenery, costumes, music and facial expression (as actors will all be masked); the production is challenging for the actors as a test of their ability to communicate and sustain the interest of the spectators without such tools. Devoid of scenery, costumes, music, facial expression and the use of language, this production is challenging the actor to create, communicate and sustain the interest of the audience- an experiment in itself.

mookku at aluva  (14)The play is written by Chandradasan, based on the story by Vaikom Muhammed Basheer, and directed by Chandradasan and Terry Converse. (USA)

This was the 5th show of this play.

The artists performing  are Selvaraj, Jolly Antony, Johny Thottunkal, Anish Paul, Sujith Kollam, Shaiju T Hamza, Adithye KN, Tony Chacko Stanly, Bhanuvajanen, Sanoj Somarajan,Sreenandini J Prasad, Unnimaya Edanilath, Pradeep Sreenivasan, Shanif Marakkar, Madan Kolavil, and Sreedeep

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