Chaitanya Art Theatres is staging a Telugu play "Vemana", which is based on the legendary yogi-poet of the same name, on 24th March, at the Ravindra Bharathi auditorium. The play is being presented by Sri Satya Sai Kalaniketan from Hyderabad.
Written by Burra Subrahmanya Sastry and directed by Gummadi Gopalakrishna, the play features several experienced stage actors - Gummadi Gopalakrishna, Salvachari, Malladi Gopalakrishna, Satyanarayana Raju, Venu, Sudhakar Babu Karunakar, P V Subba Rao, Ramakrishna Sastry, Malladi Bhaskar, Pundari, Surabhi Prabhavati and Srilakshmi.
Vemana was a 14th century Telugu poet who composed numerous poems in Telugu in Aata Veladhi metre, which consists of 4 lines. They end with the signature line "Viswadhaabhi Raama Vinura Vema", literally, "Beloved of Vishwadha, listen Vema".
Vemana's poems were collected and published by C P Brown in the 19th century. His poems are of social, moral, satirical and mystical in nature. They deal with social problems, and sometimes propose solutions, too. He has written over 100 of them, and they are together called "Vemana Satakam".
Gummadi Gopalakrishna is a theatre legend who has portrayed several characters of the stage, including Lord Krishna in "Sri Krishna Tulabaram" and Srinadha in "Srinadhudu". He is the founder-president of Sri Satya Sai Kalaniketan. He has received several awards, some of which are the prestigious Nandi Award from the Government of Andhra Pradesh. He has staged his productions in the USA, Canada and the Middle East.
Entry is free. Please contact K K Raja, founder of Chaitanya Art Theatres, at 2321-5555 / 98852-81545 for further details.