The Tamil play Kallabhiraamam spotlights India’s forgotten soldiers and exposes society’s hypocrisy

In PMG Mayurapriya’s Kallabhiraamam (production: Vaishali Prasanth; story, dialogues, and direction: P. Muthukumaran), Akila (Anu Suresh) is engaged successful probe connected unsung heroes of the state movement. Major Jaswanth (Saiprasad Sriram), a household friend, advises her to absorption alternatively connected unsung heroes of the army, for they are the ones who hazard their lives truthful that the remainder of the state whitethorn unrecorded successful peace. Akila is determined to wed lone idiosyncratic who shares her passionateness for honouring those who person sacrificed for the nation. Her mother, who professes her patriotism by singing ‘Saare jahan se accha’ connected days of nationalist importance, refuses to judge the thought of her girl marrying a soldier, whose beingness is fraught with uncertainty.

The play exposes the hypocrisy of those speedy to praise the service portion ensuring that their ain children are comfortably settled abroad. The play informed the assemblage astir heroes connected and disconnected the battlefield. One specified was Ravindra Kaushik, an undercover cause successful Pakistan, who joined the subject accounts section determination and relayed captious quality to India, until his individuality was blown. He was imprisoned and aboriginal died. His sacrifice reminding  you of Churchill’s words: “So overmuch owed by truthful galore to truthful few’.

Turning the spotlight connected forgotten heroes was laudable, and the playwright had done ample research. But, it felt similar Akila and Jaswanth conscionable rattled facts, making it consciousness much similar a lecture connected history, lacking affectional depth. It was not theatre, and the play failed to evoke a reflective mood.

The rubric Kallabhiraamam is from a verse, which says that a heroic chromatic installed for a warrior fallen successful battle, is the astir beauteous memorial successful the world. The play, staged astatine the yearly Kodai Nataka Vizha, concludes with plans to erect a statue for Singaram, a villager who fell to force bullets.