Mangalore: Centenary Celebrations of `Chandrahasa' Konkani Drama Begin
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)
Mangalore, Feb 10: Centenary celebrations of the first ever published Konkani play, `Chandrahas', began at World Konkani Centre at Shakti Nagar here on Friday, February 10.
Dilip Borkar, president, Goa Konkani Akademi, inaugurated the two-day national seminar on Konkani Theatre by garlanding the portrait of the late Bolanthur Krishna Prabhu, who is the playwright, and had published this drama in the year 1912.
Pundalik Narayan Naik, convener, Konkani Advisory Board, Sahitya Akademi, and president, Centenary Celebrations Committee, presided over the function. Chinna Kasargod (Srinivas Rao), president, Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy, was the chief guest.
“Konkani tiatr (Goan musical drama) has already celebrated a hundred years of its existence in Goa. But the modern Konkani drama does not have a history of over 35 years in Goa. It is heartening to know that the first ever published Konkani drama was from Mangalore. We have a `Itihas Purush (historical figure)' in Bolanthur Krishna Prabhu,” said Dilip Borkar, upon inaugurating the two-day event.
“Konkani-speaking theatre artistes have made immense contributions to other languages. But unfortunately, their contribution to Konkani has been negligible. We must salute the efforts of the late Krishna Prabhu. It is difficult to imagine the struggle he would have gone through, to stage his dramas a hundred years ago. Because of his efforts, Konkani theatre has got a recorded history. When recognizing the efforts of this great man, we must not lose sight of the efforts of other playwrights. We must record their contributions as well,” opined Kasargod Chinna, in his address.
Basti Vaman Shenoy, president, World Konkani Centre, welcomed the gathering. Gurudath Bantwalkar was the master of ceremony. Various seminars on Konkani stage have been organized for February 10 and 11 wherein directors, playwrights, lyricists, choreographers from Mumbai, Karnataka, Goa and Kerala will take part.
The play, ‘Raja Chandrahasa’, will be staged at Bantwal and Mangalore on February 10 and 11 respectively. Besides Bolanthur, Krishna Prabhu's monograph in Konkani and Kannada will be released, and Vishwa Konkani Nataka Akademi will be inaugurated on the occasion.
The Konkani drama, `Raja Chandrahasa' was first staged in Bantwal Temple school on February 12, 1912. The well-known Konkani writer, poet, music director, the late Bolanthur Krishna Prabhu, had written, directed and choreographed the drama. It was the first Konkani drama published in 1914 in his own Victoria Printing Press, Bantwal, a copy of which is kept in British Library in London. Its Konkani songs had become very popular on those days and used to be recited by old and younger generations alike from Kochi to Mangalore and Karwar in the last century. Late Prabhu had written eight more Konkani dramas and three Kannada dramas, allof which were also published by him subsequently and staged not only in Bantwal and Mangalore, but also in other places.
Well-known theatre artiste, Walter D'Souza, renowned director, Shridhar Kamat Bambolkar, Dr C N Shenoy from Mumbai, Purnanda Chari, former president, Konkani Bhasha Mandal, Goa and many others are taking part in this two-day event.