Power might corrupt, but it is powerlessness that corrupts even more. It corrupts us into not fighting the excesses of the powerful to whatever our mite, and that is the manure for the malaise plaguing society. No new message - so old, in fact, that none of us takes it seriously any more. And that's what's won this play, with its protagonist's rage overpowering his powerlessness, so many awards.
Rasaranjani, the Telugu theater group, is presenting a play called 'Pratispandana' every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday until the 1st of August. Written by M P Rao, the story of the award-winning play is something like this - a 14-year-old schoolgirl is kidnapped, raped, beaten up and thrown in the bushes for dead by a minister's son and his friend blinded by lust. But the girl somehow reaches home and narrates her tale to her father, a gunman for a private bank.
The father approaches the police, and the culprits are brought to the book. The court convicts them and sentences them to 7 years in prison. But when they are on their way to the prison, the father of the girl, in a fit of rage, shoots them both dead with his service rifle.
He is caught and is taken into custody. A lawyer called Ganti Srimannarayana Vara Prasad takes pity on him, and argues his case in the court. The lawyer convinces the judge that both the daughter and her father have gone through enormous pain beyond measure. The rapists would have come out of the jail serving their term, but the girl has to suffer the memory and the shame in her heart all her life. The judge gets convinced by the argument and annuls the prosecution's case, recommending instead that the father be sent to a psychiatrist.
This play seeks to convey the message that such heinous crimes should not go unreported and that anyone witnessing a crime happening should try to stop it on the spot, and that he should otherwise be imprisoned as per the law. And the bold theme and its social relevance have won for it 5 Nandi theater awards in May 2001 - for best production, best direction, best actor, best script and best supporting actress.
Please contact B P Prasad Rao at 475-3724 for further details.