1000 Love Letters: Something special from God's Own Country
1000 Love Letters
We were witness to 1000th staging of
Malayalam drama "Love Letter" on May 21, 2017 in the open air theatre
in the Tagore Theatre premises in Vazhuthacaud, Thiruvananthapuram.
The drama based on a short novel by Vaikom Muhammad Basheer
(Premalekhanam meaning 'Love letter') has only two characters Keshavan Nayar
and Saramma given life to by seasoned, trained theatre artists Amal Raj and
Divyalakshmi, husband and wife in real life.
The fairly big square open stage had about 1000 drama
enthusiasts sitting/standing around. V S Achuthanandan, Chairman, Administrative
Reforms Commission, Kerala inaugurated the function in the presence of
dignitaries including veteran Malayalam movie producer and actor Madhu.
It was cloudy and some of us were really worried, what
would happen, if it rained. In God's Own Country, when a crowd of the kind we
were part of silently pray, rains too will wait.
The story was a simple love story of 20th Century with
usual ingredients: Boy from an orthodox Nayar family, rich and educated. Girl,
from a Christian family with no resources to pay dowry and so on.
The story progresses on usual lines, periodical meetings
between girl and boy, attempts to exchange love letters and a happy ending when
the boy gets a job away from the village and both boy and girl decided to marry
and live a life not following the prescriptions of Religion or tradition.
The skill of the artists and strength of the script keep
the audience spell-bound all through.
Surya Krishnamurti's direction made the presentation
perfect.
Thought the experience was worth sharing.
M G Warrier
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