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Showing posts with label Drama Company. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Drama Company. Show all posts

June 10, 2009

2nd Main, Gandhinagar





It costs Rs 40 to watch a performance by the Sri KBR Drama Company of Davanagere that’s currently performing at the Rangamandira in Gandhinagar. Within 10 minutes the theatre is more than half full. It’s a decent crowd. The average age is just above 35 and all male. Most of them look like Government employees on their way back home or small traders in Benglur for business.
The drama itself is a collection of comedy performances that you see during award functions on any South Indian channel, interspersed with songs where the hero and heroine do some half-hearted dancing around the two microphones on the stage. A loose thread connects them to form a story and you will not miss much if you walk in half-way or step out before the performance is over. It’s more a group standup comedy act than a drama. Completing the performance is a digital drum set/synthesiser just below the stage drumming up the laughter. Adding to the effect is the man seated next to him controlling the lights.
The quality of the jokes is only slightly better than what you would see on the average TV award show. They were full of double-meanings, about sex and female body parts, and extracted whistles and claps from the audience. When they were not, there were a few good jokes about the current state of Kannada films. Luckily, the Bombay-Karnataka accent has a charm that can make even the dirtiest jokes sound nice.
The hero looked and dressed like Suresh Heblikar from Aalemane. He seemed to have much more in him and maybe, a solo stand up comedy show by him would be big hit with the masses.



 See the full Drama Series here.

April 28, 2009

2nd Cross Gandhinagar







 Gubbi Veeranna Rangamandira. Part 2.
The stage is also the home for the members of the travelling drama companies that perform at the Rangamandira. If you peep behind the side curtains, you can see the living rooms and kitchen next to the open make-up area for men that comprises of three mirrors, powders to whiten faces and colours for the lips and hair.

April 24, 2009

2nd Cross Gandhinagar






The G Gubbi Veeranna Rangamandira

While the film industry complains that people are not coming to see their offering anymore, there's a place in the heart of Gandhinagar that continues to conduct its entertaining business without much complaints. They do have a lot of complaints, but then, they are not making a drama out of it.
In Karnataka. there are about 10-12 modestly sized drama companies and in Benglur, the preferred stage is the one at G Gubbi Veeranna Ranga Mandira. And these days, catering to a select band of fans, is the Sri K B R Drama Company from Davangere. The play: Kivuda Maadida Kithapathi.








Actors: Prabhakar (top) and Subramanya Shastri of Sri KBR Drama Company, Davangere.
Prabhakar and Subramanya Shastri are actors who work for the Sri KBR Drama Company. Both are originally from Malavalli in Mandya District and their home: wherever they are performing.
These days, the Government-owned Ranga Mandira is their home. The drama company is their family. Together they will be performing a series of dramas, twice a day on weekdays and thrice on Sundays, until December before they move on to the next location. And it's most likely to be somewhere in the north, in the old Bombay-Karnataka region where they draw larger crowds than in Benglur. Especially at Jathres (Mela).
In fact, while we were sitting as the actors were telling me that Putanna Kanagal's classic movie Ranganayaki is probably the best example to know about the life of people like them, a trader from Haveri who was on a business trip noticed the actors and came to tell the actors that he has seen the play they are performing, 5 times!
That isn't bad. In fact, the actors feel that the drama companies are doing a pretty good job at surviving in cut-throat world the entertainment. They feel that the the audience is fed up with the dose of violence and bad stories that the Kannada film industry dishes out and are coming to watch plays instead - even in Gandhinagar.
But then, they would also like to act in movies, and their plays made into movies. That's where you get to be really famous. However, most drama companies do not have the money to make movies. But there a few plays that are still being made into movies. Here's an advertisement for a play, made into a movie, inside the Ranga Mandira starring Anant Nag (who began his acting career doing amateur Marathi and Kannada plays in Mumbai).
To catch Prabhakar and Subramanya Shastri in action, watch Kivuda's Kithapathi at 2.45pm and 6.15pm on weekdays and 11.45am, 2.45pm and 6.15pm on Sundays.




Like Bangalore Autodrivers I can only take you to places I like to go.

Photographs: By date

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