Swadeshi Aiyer - Tamil Drama By Y G Mahendra: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR SWADESHI AIYER - TAMIL...

The South Indian Cultural Association (SICA) is organising a 2-day Tamil Drama Festival on 21st & 22nd April, at Ravindra Bharathi. Two comedy plays - Madhava Kesava and Swadeshi Iyer - directed by Y G Mahendra will be staged.

Today, the second and last day, Swadeshi Iyer will be presented by United Amateur Artists. An amalgam of science fiction and history woven around a brahmin family, Swadeshi Aiyar adopts the concept of Time Machine (a popular novel by H G Wells) to effectively transport the audience to Mylapore of 1945.

United Amateur Artistes, the oldest among Tamil theater groups active today, was founded in 1952 by the doyen of Tamil theater, late Y G Parthasarathy, along with his writer-director-actor friend Pattu, and is currently looked after by YGP's son Y G Mahendra. UAA has to its credit more than 5,500 performances so far, and is the most widely travelled group internationally to stage its plays, having been to Malaysia, Singapore, USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Denmark, Paris, Bangkok and London.

Y G Mahendra has acted in about 250 Tamil films since his debut in 1970, his latest movie being Kandaswamy that released this year. He has directed many TV serials and plays. He was awarded the prestigious Kalaimamani by the Govt. of Tamil Nadu in 1983, and the Andhra Pradesh Govt Nandi Award in 1992.

Entry is free for members. For others, there are donor passes of Rs. 100, Rs. 50 & Rs. 25 per head. Please contact R Chakrapani at 2742-5374/98491-24675 or V Ramachandran at 92461-61420 for further details.