Vijayawada: Writers must have grip on current issues, says Mrutyunjaya Rao

Vijayawada: "Drama is for society. There is no doubt. But in my view, it should go deep into the roots of the issue. The problem should be discussed and the writer must not keep the audience in confusion. Before starting script writing, I used to observe the present theatre, but I was not convinced the way in which the subject was dealt.

I attended so many plays and found that the drama was missing some ingredients. Then my friends suggested that I should start writing. Like that I was forced to write the dramas," said Pinnamaneni Mrutyunjaya Rao, script writer and actor.

'The Hans India' had an interaction with Mrutyunjaya Rao to know his views about the present plays and scripts.

There is a saying that the surroundings and people play a vital role in building the character of a person. This saying reflects in Mrutyunjaya Rao's own life. He was properly guided by talented teachers throughout his education.

Mrutyunjaya Rao was born in Katrapadu village of Guntur district to Pinnamaneni Narayana and Venkataratnamma in 1962. Right from childhood, Raos learned mythological stories and literary fiction stories from his parents.

Mrutyunjaya Rao was very much influenced by the cultural and folk events showcased during 'Adrosthavaalu' in his village. He said that the school teachers also used to give importance to extracurricular activities like teaching classics 'Kala Poornodayam', 'Arabian Nights' and 'Mock Parliament'. These activities helped Mrutyunjaya Rao to become a responsible person.

During his studies at CVN Dhan's Ravi Tutorials, he became a voracious reader. While he was studying in BA (English literature) at Hindu College, Guntur, Rao was very much motivated by his language lecturers to cultivate to read the books in depth of the subject.

"I was fascinated to Telugu literature only after reading the book 'Vadlaginjalu' written by Sripada Subrahmanya Sastry. Since then I have been reading all the books in both Telugu and English," he said.

"I started my theatre career in 1990 and we staged a play 'Mugimpucheppandi' written by Narasimha Rao. Due to my professional constraints, I could not continue the theatre activity further. But I used to attend and discuss the plays and playlets with my friends Gandham Nagaraj, Karanam Suresh, Gopi Naidu and others. But I wrote some stories which were published in Swathi weekly," he added.

Translation works like Khalil Gibran's 'Sand and Foam' and some more works were also undertaken by Rao.

"Ten years back, my three plays namely 'Ratilo Tema', 'Anaganaga' and 'Antarnetram' were staged by Karanam Suresh. But the audience could not digest the subjects. After 10 years again the plays Ratilo Tema and Anaganaga were staged by R Vasudeva Rao.

These two plays bagged many awards and also appreciation from artistes and critics," said Mrutyunjaya Rao.

Recently Mrutyunjaya Rao received an award for the play 'Karna patanam' and now his two playlets namely 'Atadu Adavini Jayinchadu' and 'Paruvu – Pratistha' were under preproduction stage.

Rao is having good knowledge in mythology and also contemporary literature both Indian and Western. After retirement, he settled in Pedakakani (Guntur district) and passing time with literary discussions and theatre developmental activities. Rao expressed gratitude to his wife Tulasi for her cooperation.

According to Rao, drama is the bunch of all art forums like literature, music, acting, dance and also other technical aspects and the reason why drama has been defined as 'Kaveshu Natakam Ramyam' by Kalisadu. Rao opined that most of the drama scripts are failing to adopt the correlation between 'dharma' and 'justice'.

He said that writers should have knowledge about the literature and contemporary issues to give qualitative script. While concluding Pinnamaneni Mrutyunjaya Rao expressed his ambition that Telugu drama will get a place in International Theatre Festival shortly.