Yakshagana Bayalata (Open-air Field Drama) “Mahishasura Mardhini” – A true physical sensation!!
First ever Yakshagana Bayalata in USA enthralls audience
Yakshagana Performance in its original form is truly a mesmerising experience. Through the night air there come the tense high-pitched drumming beats of the chande, mellower rhythm of the maddale and the tinkling brass peal of the tala accompanying the melodious singing of the story-teller the “Bagawatha”. Yakshagana is a rare and unique traditional theatre of Coastal region of Karnataka state in India and has a recorded history of more than five centuries. It is a rich artistic blend of loud music, forceful dance, extempore speech and gorgeous costumes, this art combines the features of opera as well as drama, the characteristics of moral education and mass entertainment.
Vasu Aithala and a team of Yakshagana enthusiast from Houston brought this unique mind blowing experience to Houstonians on Saturday, July 28th. Under the auspices of Shri Krishna Vrundavana and Houston Kannada Vrinda, for the first time in USA, Yakshagana Bayalata (Open-air Field Drama) was presented in the parking ground in front of Krishna Vrundavana, Sugar Land, Texas by professional artists from “Sri Yakshadeva Mithra Kalamandali, Belvai, India touring US.
The Episode (Referred to as “Prasanga”) presented was “Mahisha Mardhini” from “Sri Devi Mahatme of Sri Durga Saptashati of Markandeya Purana. The everlasting conflict between good and evil, the fight between Gods and demons, depicting the supremacy of Mother Goddess Durga.
Beautifully set up open air stage imitating the traditional look referred to as “Rangasthala”, casual seating of the young audience on the floor fully captivated with the show, Vibrant entry of Demon Mahishasura (buffalo headed demon) playing with fire from the crackle and flash of resin powder thrown into fiery torches, grand entry of Goddess Durga with 8 arms, excitement of a tiger walking on to the stage from the audience as vehicle for Goddess Durga, fierce battle between Mahishasura and Goddess Durga ending with killing of Mahisha, celebrated with magnificent fireworks made this entire performance into a spectacular show. The excitement became the true physical sensation.
More than 500 people both Kannada speaking and non-Kannada speaking including a significant number of children enjoyed the performance. Keeping up with the tradition hot snacks were distributed to the audience during the show. Depicting the street stalls, ladies prepared churmuri -chilli puffed rice.
Well known Bagavatha Patla Sathish Shetty was accompanied on Maddale by Padmanabha Upadhya and on Chende by the team leader Devananda Bhat. Prof. M.L.Samaga as Lord Vishnu, Chandrashekara Dharmasthala as Shurpashaka and Devendra, Prashant Nelyadi as Malini and Devi, Mohana Bellippady as Mahishusara and Mahesh Maniyani as Dootha were aptly supported by local artists Meena Aithala as AadiMaye, Sharath Akirekadu as Lord Brahma and Suhas Aithal as Lord Maheshwara.
In their own words:
Satish Rao of Udipi Café said “What a fantastic weekend! felt like I was back home in Hiriyadaka, Coastal town of Karnataka watching Yakshagana bayalata. One of a kind event to remember for a long time to come, it was an awesome show!!
Dinesh Pejavar said “Having it out door was a brilliant idea and brought back fond memories of the bayalata performance in Pejaver some 60+ years ago!
Tara Narasimhan said “It was like watching in the paddy fields of India as the weather too was just about the same...The fireworks in between – was added bonus to the Superb group of dancer’s musician and dramatists combined- a tiger walked on to the stage from the audience as vehicle for Mahishasuramardhini- spectacular...and Mahisha’s atrocious behavior was simply outstanding”
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
