The Saraswathi Nataka Manram is an all-women's' group that presents all-night stories in Isai Natakam or Drama style to rural audiences in the northern parts of Tamil Nadu. The group was founded in 2004 and its coming into being has a long history. The Isai Natakam genre in North Tamil Nadu always has employed a small number of professional actresses, who were, however, outnumbered by their male colleagues. Until 1995, when the Kattaikkuttu Sangam, and in particular P. Rajagopal and Hanne M. de Bruin, identified a number of professional Drama actresses, the fact that women were part of the rural stage was virtually unknown outside their regular performance area. Rajagopal has trained a group of twelve Drama actresses in Kattaikkuttu, therewith shattering the idea that this traditional theatre could or should only be performed by men. During the last four years the same group of women has worked with Voicing Silence (M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai), where they have received additional artistic training. They have produced a number of gender-sensitive plays in the Isai Natakam style. This is for the first time in the last fifty years or so that the northern districts of Tamil Nadu sport again an all-women's company. The curators of the Festival request your special attention for this special, until recently marginalized group of performers.
2 hours The play is set towards the end of the Pandavas' twelve years of banishment and the beginning of the thirteenth year during which they have to live in concealment. Duryodhana issues the order that only roasted grains—and no fresh grains which can be sowed—should be given to beggars, tramps and other nomads, because they may turn out to be the Pandavas trying to survive. His soldiers and spies cannot confirm whether the Pandavas are dead or alive. Therefore Duryodhana decides to carry out the kariyam ceremony, a funeral ritual observed by non-Brahmin communities, usually on the sixteenth day after a person's death. Once this rite has been carried out, it will prevent the Pandavas, now officially declared 'dead', to return to regular society. Krishna comes to know of this plan. He visits the Pandavas and instructs Draupadi that she should disguise herself as a Kuratti, a lady of the Kurava tribe (basket-makers and fortune-tellers). She should take Sahadeva (in other versions Krishna himself) on her hip disguised as a child and go to Hastinapura where she should tell fortune to the Kaurava women. Draupadi protests, but finally agrees.
When she arrives at the Kaurava court she meets the Kaurava women, among them Gandhari, the mother of the Kauravas and wife of the blind Dhrtarashtra, and Peruntiruval, Duryodhana's wife. The women request the Kuratti to tell fortune. She invites her 'family deity' and enters into a trance to do so. During the séance the Kuratti provides details of Peruntiruval's past and recounts the prior events that have led to the Pandavas banishment to the forest, including Draupadi's disrobing and her violent vow—facts with which the Kuratti-in-disguise, as the principal victim, is intimately familiar with. She predicts that all the Kaurava women will be robbed of the auspicious signs of their marriage, because their husbands will die in the impending war. The Kuratti's forecast of doom outrages the Kaurava women who refuse to pay up the fresh grains demanded by her. Peruntiruval complains to her husband Duryodhana, who decides to question the Kuratti himself. Hearing her grim predictions, Duryodhana grows suspicious that she may be Draupadi and puts her in jail. Krishna hears Draupadi's prayers and orders Arjuna to go to Hastinapura in the disguise of a Kuravan, a male member of the Kurava tribe, to demand her release. The Kuravan arrives proclaiming his love for his independent wife, boasting of his own prowess and provoking Duryodhana to fight. Duryodhana loses the fight and is forced to release the Kuratti and pay up the grains. When Draupadi and Arjuna return to the forest the grains turn out to be roasted. But Krishna promises them that he will make the roasted seeds grow as if they were fresh seeds.
Musicians Harmonium - Somanathapuram A. Mani Actresses Buffoon - M. Shanmukavalli
Shri Saraswathi Nataka Manram
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