Venuvisarjana
Many months ago, I had the good chance of watching a play in the yakshagaana style, Venuvisarjana . Performed solo by Mantapa Prabhakara Upadhyaya; organized by the Ramateertha Foundation. Mantapa Prabhakara donned the role of Radha and charmed us by walking and talking like a woman. But this play was not just about a man wearing a woman's clothes and playing her role perfectly. There was more in store for us. If it was a story about Radha and Krishna, it's a story about love, is it not? What else can it possibly be? Mind you, I didn't say love story... Venuvisarjana is a story about love, it reflected upon what love is, what Radha's love for Krishna was like and why it stands as exemplary for all times. The play captured Radha's love for Krishna, her contempt for his pranks, their playful togetherness, the torment she faces in the small everyday separations from Krishna, knowing fully that he must just then be on his way to meet her and numerous such other