Pottekatt's masterpiece staged

The East Cultural Association's (ECA) Sahitya Vedi staged a play based on the novel  ‘Oru Deshathinte Kadha’ (The story of a country), written by renowned author S K Pottekatt.

Pottekkatt, whose travelogues are considered to be masterpieces in Malayalam literature, finally wrote this autobiographical magnum opus in 1971.

The novel won the prestigious Jnanpith Award in 1980 and also the Sahitya Academy award. The story revolves around the initial 20 years of the protoganist Sridharan's life in the Malabar village called 'Athiranippadam' and depicts hundreds of characters right from the late 19th century till mid 20th century. The detail with which each character is described is astonishing.

The novel also narrates some of the important historic events which occurred during this period that had an impact on the day-to-day life of Athiranipadam. Of them, Mappila Rebellion, Independence Movement and migration of people from Travancore to Malabar has been elaborated in detail.

 Though talks by eminent literary figures, like U K Kumaran, formed part of the programme, it was the stage enactments of some of the unforgettable scenes from the novel that stole the show. The audience were taken by surprise when some of the scenes were enacted in the midst of them.

The play directed by Mahesh K Narayanan had Deepak Damodaran, Nikhil Gopalakrishnan, Prahladan, Sooraj Suredran, Arun Kumar, Sanju Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Mahesh K Narayanan and Adhish as it’s cast. The programme was followed by Edakka performance by Hari Govindan.