Tuesday, July 22, 2008

About chayamukhi
















The drama, 'Chayamughi' disseminates a very sharp message, and it is a clarion call to the renovation of the clichéd Kerala drama stage. It tries to portray the mere truth that 'it easy to love than to be loved, for only lucky persons are loved and admired'. Chayamughi discusses the issues of the present society, apart from the fact that the play is set in the background of the epic, Mahabharatha. In other words, the play Chayamughi is a mirror placed towards the present Kerala society. The theme of the drama: Chayamughi is a looking glass gifted to Bhima by his lover Hidumbi during the time of their stay at woods, which will show the face of his/her lover instead of showing the face of the person who is looking. A magical mirror and a mythical one, Chayamughi plays the part of the cynosure of the drama from the start to end and thus the title 'Chayamughi' is apt to the drama. When Bheema looks at the mirror, he sees the image of Panchali, while the mirror shows the image of Arjuna when Panchali looks. But ironically, the mirror does not give any image to Keechaka, the villain of the play, who is a poet and the Commandant of the force of the country, Virata. But after the slaying of Keechaka, Bheema holds the mirror in front of Keechaka's face and the image of Panchali is displayed. The story is lead forward by three burglars of the present tense, and the play starts when they caught glance of the Pandavas and Panchali who accidentally happened to come across the burglars in the woods spinning out of the roll of time from the past. Thus, the drama, Chayamughi is an attempt in vain to escape from the flow of time.
The stage setting and dramatisation of Chayamukhi gives a spectacular and magical atmosphere to the spectators. Obvious to say, Malayalam drama never witnessed such a fantastic, tempting and colorful setting up of the staging and presentation. Apart from the direction of Mr. Prashanth Narayanan, a young and promising director of the Malayalam stage, and the performance highly notable actors like Mohanlal, who played the part of Bheema, and Mukesh, who played the role of Keechaka, the music of the drama too is alluring. The young actress, Aparna, who played the role of Panchali too performed up to the mark even while performing along with the doyens of Malayalam cinema. The actors who played the parts of the three thieves of the present time too did it well. The drama had got rid of the usage of timeworn artificial and dramatic dialogues, intonations and punches; instead, the characters speak in a musical tone with the influence of the style of folklore.

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