“Modern Theatre activity in India as anywhere else in the world. Can be understood only by probing carefully into the work of a number of outstanding individuals, Directors, Performers, Designers, Playwrights”. Our modern work is significant as a creative endeavor deeply concerned with the human condition. It is the words of Nemichandra Jain. Thus, the outstanding and perfectly suitable for Natesan Muthuswamy’s Modern Theatre works. He has the modern quality of Artistic endeavor.
Natesan Muthuswamy was a multi – faceted personality in Indian Theatre. He was a Poet. Short Story Writer, Playwright, Director, Voice Trainer, Actor Trainer who dominating in the theatre scene for the sixty years. He has written two collections of plays. 30 numbers of Short stories and a collection of essays on Theru-k-koothu.
Born in Purisai, a village in Tamil Nadu, Muthuswamy moved to Madras in the late 1950s to work as a clerk. It was here that the often corrupting forces of urban life compelled him to reflect on the relatively innocent and genuine nature of village life and customs. Later he began to write Short stories on this theme. In the lates 1960s, he abandoned prose to write for the stage, relying heavily on allegery. The plays that began to take shape were driven not by a linear narrative, but by a unique conversational logic that revealed the playwright’s pen chant for creating poetic and highly dramatic “Pictures” on stage.
Natesan Muthuswamy’s Theatre:
Natesan Muthuswamy is a founder and recipient Playwright for Kootu-P-Pattarai. Natesan Muthuswamy is recognized as a leading pioneer in experimental Tamil Theatre. In 1969, his production entitled time after time was hailed as the first modern play in Tamil Stage history. Since then, dozens of more plays have followed.
He went eight years of intense study of Theru-k-koothu, the traditional folk street theatre of Tamil Nadu, which left an indelible mark on Muthuswamy’s concepts of Theatre, Playwriting and Theatrical training. These concepts led to the development of his new theatre group Koothu-P-Pattarai. His achievement was to simultaneously revive traditional folk theatre and create a new idiom for the contemporary stage based on movement and sound as the main vehicles of story telling.
His plays depicted the destruction of personal identity by popular consumer culture through a method that infused folk theatre conventions, with a fresh and contemporary significance. The folk theatrical devices of the narrator. The musk, aerobic and puppetry thus took on multiple meanings as intrinsic parts of theme and dramatic structure. The influence of his native village Purisai theatre was throughout many of his plays, revealing his steed fast resistance to the city’s narrow terms of acceptance and the intellectual impoverishment of modern India and many of her historical choices.
Natesan Muthuswamy established the Koothu-P-Pattarai is the only fulltime professionalized folk theatre of Tamil Nadu. Koothu-P-Pattarai has built a new idiom for the contemporary stage known as “total” or “body” theatre. Other sources of inspiration include sculpted temple panels and visual folk arts under the direction of N. Muthuswamy, body theatre incorporates elements of dance, folk theatre, puppetry and martial arts so that space, movement and choreography become more important to the action than literary content or dialogue. With actors mastering Kalari, a martial arts form resembling dance, as well as other styles of movement, this extremely physical kind of stage presentation in essentially theatre told through movement and music. “Consciousness is not confined to the brain. The face, legs, arms and the entire body each have a consciousness of their own so that expression can come through one or all of them “cast members accordingly undergo vigorous training in the expressive possibilities of body, voice and sound.
Natesan Muthuswamy has presented his plays in major cities of India and also outside the country. He was honoured with the Sangeet Natak Academi Award in 1999 – 2000. He has written and directed many plays. His major plays are “Time AfterTime”, “Naarkalikkaran”, “Suvaroottigal”, “England”, “Natruniappan”, “Thenaliraman” , “Chandravati” and “Paduklam” (2002), “Prahalada Charithram” (2003) and “Appavum Pillayum”.
Abandoning the language plot, as individual human predicaments are not his main concern. Muthuswamy paints broad images of social and political transformation. Seeing the world as more than just a simple catalogue of discrete historical events, this Playwright focuses not on the loss of Punjai and its ancient village level, innocence but on the urgent need for its recovery and affirmation.
Some of the striking features of Na. Muthuswamy’s Dramas are intently political in its import of significance. Na. Muthuswamy is a leftist from his childhood. He influenced by Marxist Philosophy. But he never uses his ideology in his plays. He cannot write the politics very openly. He always uses the politics as a background of the play. We cannot get the meaning directly. He always uses some of his plays general words for the characters. He invariably picks up for dramatization actions. That are the public and societal rather than purely personal and psychological Muthuswamy’s plays derives its strength. Mainly from its socio – political relevance. In this paper I have taken five of his plays are relevant to politics. They are:
1. Narkalikaran
2. Suvarottigal
3. England
4. Natrunaiappan
5. Thenaliraman
We can further categorize the play according to their distinct trends in the literary plays written during the past twenty years and group the plays accordingly for the sake of analysis. Narkalikaran and Suvarottigal and England belong to the Drama as an analysis of cultural politics. The plays like Natrunaiappan and Thenaliraman is an adaptation of folk themes and elements of folk theatre in modern socio – political scene. Here I have to awake Madhan voze words.
Theatre has hardly cared to look beyond the façade of the problems and consequently overlooked the politics implied in them. A situation turns into a problem and the problem becomes more and more complex and complicate due to politics played by the vested interests. In a way no one could claim to be free of politics. If the theatre is to be more and more meaningful, it would have to read the politics implied in any given situation.
Natesan Muthuswamy says his views about the politics. “I never had seen the political plays of Kerala and West Bengal. I don’t have any political identity. But that political play never stands continuously. This type of political plays makes tired to us. Now the political plays give sudden communication and great satisfaction. But those things never continuous in the modern time. As a truthful Artist never need a political ideology and problem matice identity in theatre continuous work is important and Artist should need the sincerity in work. If he succeeds Artist can get the higher achievement. If in a very good social context different Art forms and various visions are the healthy co – exist. He is a truthful artist. He never was stocked in politics. He never belongs to any political party of Tamil Nadu. He is a common man. He never claims anything from the political party. He doesn’t have any political ideology.
Finally I want to end up the words of Art Director, painter, Artist P. Krishnamoorthy. “Nobody has ever written Tamil Dramas like Muthuswamy. He uses new techniques in his plays and because of his rural roots; a relished nativity can be seen in his writing. One cannot find this powerful rawness anywhere else. He has a talent for building on and elaborating small incidents and can create drama out of Marbles being played of the sticking of wall posters. With full scope for song and movement he is full-fledged writer who is totally involved with the troupe he has started. Acclaim and recognition should have come earlier. His movement has only now slowly picked up. This is because of other commercial forces. One cannot write the history of Tamil Theatre and literature without dealing with Muthuswamy’s contribution.
