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 A Malayalam drama in five acts |
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An
old literary masterpiece in Malayalam comes alive through a beautifully
illustrated collector’s edition, 104 years after its first publication,
duly introduced by two outstanding literary figures of the present day.
With it comes a wake up call to Malayalees all over the world to savour
something of the simple lives and loves of the people of Kerala four generations
ago, through the medium of satire by a pioneer in the field. The author Munshi Rama Kurup became Professor Malayalam in Maharaja’s College, Trivandrum, the only college in Kerala, 129 years ago and occupied the chair for 25 years before he bade goodbye to the world and the hundreds of his students who looked up to him in admiration for his scholarship and unconventional teaching methods, one instance of which is brought out here. |
There
had been an on going row between him and the British principal when the
Munshi decided that in order to teach Kathakali, he should bring the entire
troupe complete with elaborate make-up and colourful costumes and the
musicians to the lecture hall. The effect was true to life, but the ensemble,
essentially meant for the open air, shook up the entire place and almost
drove the principal out of his mind. The Munshi’s explanation was
simple: it was just a practical lesson, only the subject was Nalacharitram
Kathakali. |
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In
Chakki-Chankaram, Kurup’s satire, the title itself is a parody of
the many famous Sanskrit dramas, where the names of the hero and heroine
are linked together in the title as in Malati-Madhavan and Malavika-Agnimitram.
Chakki is a domestic maid and Chankaram is a cook in another household.
The satire concerns the plethora of several dramas of similar vein that
mushroomed for a short while towards the latter part of the nineteenth
century. Most of them were unimaginative reproductions in Malayalam of
original works in Sanskrit or English. The Munshi thought it was time
someone put an end to the proliferation of such second-rate literature
and wrote Chakki-Chankaram – strangely his only work – two
years before he died. His literary effort, however, had the desired effect. |
| Professor Guptan Nair, the doyen of Malayalam literature sums this up in his introduction to this edition: |
‘It
is surprising that over a hundred years ago Munshi Rama Kurup wrote a
drama in Malayalam, anticipating by many years the theatre of the absurd.
It is this revolutionary spirit that we applaud today.’ |
| Padmashree Professor O.N.V. Kurup, eminent literary personality observes: |
‘Kurup’s
Chakki-Chankaram acted as a Rama bana (Rama’s all-destructive arrow)
to the many translations of Sanskrit drama and their assault on Malayalam
literature’ |
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