Re: Telugu Natakalu - 2
Bapa Rao (brao@tis.com)
Thu, 7 Aug 1997 11:42:41 -0700 (PDT)
> A well known name Ballari Raghavaacharlu comes to my mind whenever I hear
> telugu naatakaalu.
I believe modern drama was introduced into Andhra by touring Marathi
drama companies. Kodavatiganti Kutumba Rao's "Chaduvu" has a lengthy
footnote giving the progression of modern Telugu drama, the famous
actors and their transition into the Madras movie industry.
Raghava was the public prosecutor in Bellary, and a very well-read
man with interests in both Indian and Telugu drama.
On a recent trip to India I picked up a slim volume, "bhaarata dEsa patanaaniki
padakonDu kaaraNaalu" attributed to ballari raaghava. The story is that
Andhra University, as a part of their invited lectures series (under
the stewardship of C.R. Reddy) in the '30s or so, invited Raghava to
explore the theme of the "eleven causes
for the degeneration of India" on which girIsam mentions having expounded
in Puna or nagpur or somewhere. rAghava takes girIsam seriously as a
social philosopher and explores what those causes might be. He manages
a list of 10, but confesses his inability to get to the 11th. The person
compiling the modern reprint (forgot his name unfortunately, somebody
quite well-known in his own right) details a saga of dedicated people
fighting AU bureaucracy to rescue the manuscript of the speech from their
basement. One strange thing is that the speech is said to have lasted
8 hours (!) but the book itself can be read in about an hour. No clue
is provided to explain the inconsistency.
Bapa Rao