Maiden Yakshagana Show in City by All-Women Troupe Debuting Life of Narendra Modi Enthralls His Fans
Mangaluru: Shastri Mathu Balaga and Gayathri Yakshagana Mandali, Theerthahalli, presented Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s life on stage through a Yakshagana play. The imaginary ‘Katha Prasanga’ on the life of Modi was staged at T V Ramana Pai Hall, Mangaluru on Sunday 5 January 2020 at 6.30 pm. The Yakshagana Prasanga was creatively titled as, ‘Narendra Vijaya., even though, conventionally, Yakshagana Prasangas are based on mythological stories.
Now, the success and achievement of Modi was included in the Prasanga of Yakshagana. Katha Prasanga of ‘Narendra Vijaya’ is written by Jyothi Shastri from Theerthahalli. The play began from the childhood days covers lifestyle, political background and other major events in the life of Modi. This Yakshagana took a ‘Political’ turn from the ‘Mythological’path in the coastal city. The 11-member women troupe was led by Jyothi Shastri, who is also the author of the original book ‘Narendra Vijaya’. The Yakshagana Prasanga was written by M K Ramesh acharya.
The life of Modi through ‘Narendra Vijaya’ was a new entry to the list of issues that Yakshagana has broached upon, and the play was so interesting it simply mesmerized the audience, and received loud applaud. It should be noted that Jyothi Shastri is a die-hard fan of Modi, who played the lead role of Modi in the play, while artiste Varada Aithal played the character of Amit Shah. Since Mangaluru has a strong base of BJP and RSS with large number of Modi fans, this maiden show was a big treat to all these hard-core fans of Modi.
The two-and-half hour play narrated the major events in Modi’s life, such as his tenure as CN of Gujarath, Demonetization, Triple Talaq, Balakot Strike, Kedarnath Shiva Temple visit, Chandrayan 2 and other, with a mix of mythological characters such as Shiva, Devendra, Narada performing on stage. The artistes, who were part of Mummela (actors who speak and dance are called the mummela) were Jyothi Shastri, Varada Aithal, Mayuri Upadhyaya, Nirmala Golikoppa, Savitha Bhat, Sharvani Bhat, Nalini Rao, Disha Joise, Mallika Raghavendra Bhat and others. Those who were part of Himmela (background music) are Nagesh Kulal Nagarakodige, N G Hegde, Krishnamurthy and M R R Nayak Siddapura.
This free show was organized by Panchayat Mangaluru under the leadership of Naresh Shenoy, a great fan of Modi. Speaking to Team Mangalorean, Naresh Shenoy said, “This is a fictional Katha Prasanga, mainly focusing on the life of Narendra Modi. Therefore we fully extended our support to the artistes/troupe who have written the play and also that we are all die-hard fans of Modi. We are happy to note over 500 Modi fans witnessed this show, and went home happy” . It is learnt that the upcoming shows will be held in Kasaragod and Bengaluru.
