From Ragasyam Parama Ragasyam
| Photo Credit: Courtesy: UAA
What happens when a man who has been nursing a secret for many years decides to bare his soul to someone? UAA’s play Ragasyam Parama Ragasyam explored the psychology of those who harbour revealing secrets. Estate owner Manjunath (Manoharan) is on a flight, which is about to crash. There is a dark chapter in his life, and he wants to unburden himself to someone before he dies. Luckily for him, seated next to him on the plane is a Catholic priest Father Murphy (Ravi Raghavender). Manjunath confesses to the Father that he is a murderer. However, the plane does not crash, and Manjunath loses his peace of mind. To add to his worries, Father Murphy arrives at his doorstep. Manjunath’s eldest son Ramji (DSR), his daughter-in-law Prabha (Madhuvanti) and the estate manager Raja (Sureshwar) all have their own secrets too.
The play, with a serious underlying theme, had lots of humour. For instance, Mahesh (Y. Gee. Mahendra) attributes his garrulousness to being pricked with a gramophone needle, instead of an injection needle, during a vaccination. Suppini played the role of Ganesh, who cannot say appalam, but says ‘abbalam,’ instead. Suppini’s father says his son remains unscathed despite swallowing an agarbathi stand, because in his house, the agarbathi stand is always a banana. The LED visual backdrop, specially designed for the golden jubilee show by Kalai Ravi, was imaginative, capturing the grandeur of a majestic estate bungalow.

Y. Gee Mahendra in Ragasyam Parama Ragasyam
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy: UAA
Ragasyam was a delightful play. The story and dialogues were by Venkat and direction by YGM.The play was inaugurated in 1975 at Mylapore Fine Arts, and its golden jubilee show was also staged at the same venue. Playwright Venkat says that Bombay Kannan introduced him to UAA. “That was a time when amateur troupes like ours faced many challenges. Although professional stage artistes such as T.K. Shanmugam were busy doing films, they hadn’t given up the stage altogether. So, our scripts had to be good for us to make the grade. We had set a benchmark for humour, because Mouli wrote many humorous scripts for us. Venkat came with a promising script just when Mouli had left,” says ARS (A.R. Srinivasan), who directed the play in its early years and also played Father Murphy’s role.Suppini says, “ARS was very good at editing. There was a scene where YGM gets a barber to teach me music. We even rehearsed the scene, which was very funny, but ARS omitted it, because he felt the play was lengthy.”
Ragasyam marked Venkat’s stage debut. “I have heard college students discussing the play, not knowing that their fellow passenger on the bus was its playwright. When an officer visited the bank in which I worked, he spent more time talking to me than to other senior staff, simply because of Ragasyam,” he says.Mahendra, who has many precious memories to share about the play, says, “K. Balachander liked the abbalam and agarbathi stand jokes so much that he included them in his film Apoorva Ragangal. Muthuraman was keen to adapt Ragasyam to the screen. He even had a list of people he wanted to cast in the film. Unfortunately, he died shortly after he met us,” says Mahendra.Over the years, different actors have played different roles in the play. Suppini has played the same role throughout, and has probably missed only 15 shows. Mahendra has always played the role of young Mahesh, including at the recent golden jubilee show. He is now 75, but the audience gave him a roar of approval, when he walked onto the stage.The play will be staged on January 26 (7 p.m.) at YGP Auditorium, PSBB School, T. Nagar, Chennai. Tickets on bookmyshow. Published – January 21, 2025 04:39 pm IST