Report: Shodhan Prasad
Pics: Deepak Palladka/Ismail
Dubai, Mar 7: Nama Tuluveru in association with Rhythym Events staged Kaup Ranga Taranga's much appreciated "Dhumbu Pira" Tulu comedy drama's two successful shows in Dubai and Abu Dhabi on Friday March 4 and Saturday March 5 respectively with packed audience who enjoyed every bit of the drama that blended delightul comedy with a social message to the society.
Dubai show
Shodhan Prasad, the founder member of Nama Tuluveru opened the show with a greeting and invited the conveners, Syed Ajmal and Deepak S P on to the stage and introduced them. Later, Syed Ajmal welcomed the audience and guests and briefed on Nama Tuluveru's social charity activities all through these 6 years of existence promoting art and Tulu language in this part of the world, which was highly applauded by the whole audience.
Shodhan then invited the chief guests for the traditional lighting of the lamp. The chief guest of the evening was Fr Franklin D'Souza of the diocese of Shivamogga who hails from Moodbidri and has come all the way from his hometown as a staunch supporter of 'Ranga Taranga' group. A brief introduction was provided showcasing his achievements and love towards Tulu language through his 16 years of service in priesthood preaching peace and harmony in 27 countries. Another main guest was Mohandas Poojary, business development manager of Land Trades, the main sponsor of the event who is well known in real estate industry of Karnataka. Umesh Kuckian of Sai Vision Group who created and crafted the stage of the drama beautifully, Aryabhata awardee and Pravasa Bharati awardee Praveen Shetty of Fortune Group of Hotels who provided hospitality to all the artistes, Harish Bangera of Dubai Source and also leader of Ranga Taranga Group Leeladhar Shetty Kaup joined hands in lighting the lamp ceremony.
After lighting the lamp, Fr Franklin was greeted with flower bouquet by Syed Ajmal and on behalf of all the guests, Fr Franklin spoke a few words praising Nama Tuluveru's contribution to the society and extended his support to such causes. He also praised the Ranga Taranga troupe, Shodhan Prasad and blessed Nama Tuluveru for its charity works. Later Shodhan invited Sulochana Ramanna, mother of one of the sponsors, Gunasheel Shetty of Ace Cranes, and announced her 75 birthday celebration the previous day and requested her to felicitate Leeladhar Shetty with bouquet and shawl.
Felicitation
Every year Nama Tuluveru felicitates identifies one member of the group arriving from India who has worked for the social cause and last year it honoured 'Samaja Ratna Leeladhar Shetty'. This year it identified the director of 'Dhumbu Pira' drama, Shiv Prakash Poonja who has served Tulu drama industry for over 25 years and who was also honoured in India with "Abhinaya Shoore" and "Rangadha Ravi Varme" for his contribution to the art field. Shiv Prakash Poonja was invited on to the stage and honoured with felicitation certificate which was read by Latha Hegde, while he was honoured by Sayed Ajmal and Deepak S P, Praveen Shetty, Harish Bangera, Purushotam Salian and Umesh Kuckian. Acknowledging the felicitation, Shiv Prakash spoke a few words and thanked the organisation for honouring him.
Later the main sponsor of the programme, Mohandas Poojary, BDM of Land Trades, Mangaluru was felicitated by Deepak S P and Syed Ajmal, Praveen Shetty, Harish Bangera and Noel D Almeida. He also spoke a few words and promised all support to Nama Tuluveru every year.
All other sponsors, namely Praveen Shetty, Umesh Kuckian, Mohd Zaki, Prashant Acharya, Herman Lewis, Syed Ajmal, Joel Crasta, Sabesan Shanker and Harish Bangera were felicitated with shawls and mementos. All the support sponsors and media representatives were praised and honoured with shawls by Ajmal and Deepak for their contribution.
All the members of Nama Tuluveru including Prabhakar Suvarna, Noel D'Almeida, Purushottam Salian, Yogita Salian, Rajani Amin, Latha Hegde, Anil Cardoza, Anand Bailoor, Hari Maloor, Alwyn Pinto, Dinesh Sanil, Sameer Bolar, Ajay Nayak, Suhail Ali, Yadav Kotian, Shodhan Prasad and others jointly worked for the success of the show.
"Dhumbu Pira"
Without wasting much time, the drama rolled on with beautiful live background music by Sharath Uchil and realistic lighting effects by Harish Kaup introducing the happy-go-lucky middle class family with a background of old house beautifully crafted with roll-on facility which changed into twin modern houses as the drama progressed. The play written by Shyam Kumar Chitrapura was well directed by the able Shiv Prakash Poonja who also acted in the drama as one of the two sons of the head of the family. The family including a younger daughter live happily together until a marriage creates friction and the parents are forced to be shared between the two sons. A happy joint family later stays in separate houses face to face. The seriousness of the drama gets a twist of fun with the entry of three relatives of one of the son's wife as temporary visitors. One is a deaf character enacted by Sandeep Shetty Manibettu and another a normal person, but both are past gangsters. The third one is a funny, ever-loving sister. These three characters really sparked a laughter riot all through the drama with their rib-tickling but meaningful dialogues all through the play. Throughout, the story shows how the family gets divided because of the fight between the two sons, how it pains their loving parents who sacrifice their happiness for their children's happiness and at the end, how the death of their mother brings realization of their stubbornness after mediation of their only sister who even refuses to tie 'Rakhi' on Raksha Bhandan. The story seems to be directly inspired by the Hindi movie 'Bhaghban', the Amitabh Bachhan and Hema Malini starrer.
'Dhumbu Pira' comedy drama ended on a serious note of social message to the audience who were glued to the seats till the end. The team comprised Shiv Prakash Poonja, Sujith Shetty, Sandeep Shetty, Prasanna Bailur, Merwyn Shirva, Sharth Uchil, Madhukar Palimar, Raghuraj Paniyadi, Shamith Rao Inna, Shrinivas Uchila, Yashwanth Uppur, Rajesh Alape, Harish Kaup, Suchetha Sharth and Shwetha Kaup.
At the end Deepak SP conveyed the vote of thanks.
Abu Dhabi
The whole troupe travelled to Abu Dhabi on Saturday March 5 for a second show hosted jointly by Nama Tuluveru and Abu Dhabi Tulu Koota under the leadership of Sarvotham Shetty. The show was held at Bright Riders School in Shabbia Mussafah.
Sarvotham Shetty opened the show inviting Padmashree Dr B R Shetty and his elder brother B Sachidanand Shetty as the chief guests along with Leo Rodrigues, Shekar B Shetty, Pinto, Abdulla, Ravi Rai, Manohar Thonse and other members of Abu Dhabi Karnataka Sangha including Jayaram Rai, Younis, Mohammed Uchila, Althaf, Yogish Prabhu, Chetna Yogish Prabhu, Sarvotham Shetty, Usha Sarvotham Shetty on to the stage for the inauguration of the drama. They were later honoured with shawls by Dr B R Shetty. He also invited and felicitated Nama Tuluveru representatives, Shodhan Prasad, Deepak S P and Purushotam Salian with shawls while all the guests including mediapersons were also honoured with shawls. Later 'Samaja Ratna' Kaup Leeladhar Shetty the leader of Ranga Taranga group was invited on to the stage and honoured by Dr B R Shetty and B Sachidanand Shetty. In return Leeladhar Shetty thanked all those who supported his troupe in their journey to Dubai and for the felicitations in this country.
The drama started and had the Abu Dhabi audience in splits of laughter throughout. At the end, Sarvotham Shetty felicitated all the artistes on the stage with gift hampers and concluded with the vote of thanks. A dinner was hosted at Food Lands Restaurant, Mussafah and all the artistes savoured the buffet dinner before returning to Dubai.
Ranga Tarangas entire troupe returned happily to Mangaluru on Sunday March 6 from Dubai Airport after two successful shows with a glow on their faces having received the greatest applaud from all their well wishers in UAE as a return gift, keeping a promise to come again and entertain.