BY JYOTHSNA HEGDE

Nrupatunga Kannada Koota members rejoiced the evening of May 15th, 2010 affianced by kannada plays presented by acclaimed theatre and television artistes, Professor. Laxmi Chandrashekar and her troupe from Kriyative Theatre, who flew in from Bengaluru, Karnataka. 

The program started with an invocation, national anthem, welcome speech by the NKK President, Pradeep Vittalmurthy. Accompanied by her fellow artists Sundar Raj, Ramakrishna Kannarpadi and Gajanana Naik, Laxmi Chandrashekar entertained the audience for nearly two and half hours with humorous plays Ratnana Parpancha and Heegaadre Hege. The laugh riot Ratnana Parpancha was a tribute to GP Rajaratnam, who has authored over 150 books ranging from short stories to Kannada literature. While the first half of the drama captured significant moments of Rajaratnam’s life, the second half was based on one of his plays Kambali Seve. 

Based on short stories of T. Sunandamma, the first female humor writer in Kannada, Heegaadre Hege, traced the life of an elderly couple, Sarsamma and Mylarayya enacted to perfection by Laxmi Chandrashekhar and Sundar. Backed with catchy music, excellent setting, co-ordination and direction the plays had the crowd in splits. 

Members of the executive committee presented a plaque to the artistes. The program concluded with a vote of thanks, followed by dinner. With over 250 attendees, the plays engrossed the audience with its humor and had folks talking about it even after the curtains were down.