Chintamani - A Telugu Play: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR CHINTAMANI - A TELUGU...

Chintamani is a play written by Kalakuri Narayana Rao about the social evil of prostitution in 1920, and guess what? It's being used today to spread the message about AIDS! Chintamani was a kind of a path-breaking play. In that age, most padyanatakas were on mythology - Chintamani was the first on a social theme. It was about the way that prostitution was wrecking marraiges, and about how women were entering it just because it was their kulavriththi, their family trade, even if they did not need to or want to.

Chintamani was an example of the latter - an ardent devotee of the Lord Krishna, she is forced into prostitution by her mother Srihari. She once sees Bilvamangalam, the handsome and noble son of a rich zamindar, at a temple, and, like you may have guessed, falls for him. Bhavanishankar, a friend of Bilvamangalam and a customer of Chintamani, lures Bilvamangalam into meeting her praising her scholarliness.

Bilvamangalam is indeed impressed by her knowledge, and when she answers all of his questions examining her pandityam, he tells her that she can have whatever she wants of him. Sure enough, she asks him to train her in the kamasastra. He agrees, and falls firmly for her charms, neglecting his wife Radha and his ageing father.

How both Chintamani and Bilvamangalam change through the interference of the Lord Himself forms the rest of the play. Bhavanishankar and Subbi Setty, another of Chintamani's customers, must repent for frequenting prostitutes by propogating the evils of the world's oldest profession, to get back their lost property.

This is probably one of the longest running plays in Telugu, having staged not only in Andhra Pradesh, but also in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Delhi. Please contact B Narayana Swamy of Sri Sri Bhargav Kala Natya Mandali at 92472-26480, 2714-1764 for further detail.