A folk Ramayana on stage

Dr HS Venkatesha Murthy’s

play

Chitrapata Ramayana

is not the story of Valmiki’s Ramayana. This is more of a folk Ramayana. One of Helavanakatte Giriyamma’s poetic works contains some source lines of this. In this play, the author has adopted a style where the story is presented through showcasing pictures and folk styled songs and dances by devotees of goddess Yellamma, called Bhootaes. The current drama depicts an imaginary scenario after the coronation of Rama in Ayodhya. Here, Chandranakhi’s cunning plan leads to Ravana appearing in Seetha’s quarters. The goal of a story becomes removing darkness and showing light. In the background of atrocities that women face every day, the play motivates the audience to assess and review the perspective from which women view men, the perspective from which men need to view women, women’s freedom of expression and most importantly, the relationship between a mother and child.
The play is directed by

Manjunath L Badiger

, while the performers are Madhu Shrikar, Sandesh Jain, Harish Rudraiah, Pramila Shrikar, Dhanya Badiger, Sowmya Jain, Savita Avarsang, Pradeep, Swetha S, Renuka Prasad H S, Padmaprsada Jain, Chetan Gowda and Sandeep Bevinahalli.
The play is scheduled to take place on June 9 (7.30 pm) at Ranga Shankara, 36/2, 8th Cross, 2nd Phase, JP Nagar.