தினசெய்தி –
20 8 2023
பக்கம் எண் : 4
அருந்தமிழும் அன்றாட வழக்கும் – 175
பொதுமக்களிடம் ஷேக்ஸ்பியரை அறிமுகம் செய்த பெருமகனார் –
பம்மல் சம்பந்த முதலியார் !
– முனைவர் ஔவை அருள்
தில்லிப் பல்கலைக்கழகத்தில் யான் 28 ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்பு வழங்கிய
முனைவர் பட்ட ஆய்வின் இருபத்தைந்தாம் பகுதி வருமாறு:
The continued interest in Shakespeare in the vernacular was largely due to the love for the Bard and is characters that the doyen of Tamil plays Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar, had.
Though the language and geography were different, it was Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar who brought Shakespeare out of classrooms, libraries and the study of pedantic Professors and introduced him on the popular stage to be enjoyed by the common people.
Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar was a pioneer and was instrumental in spreading the knowledge about Shakespeare through theatrical and film versions.
His interest in Shakespeare developed right from his school days, when he used to listen to passages from Shakespeare being recited.
He started as a writer for the stage and within a span of 25 years, developed his own literary style and shot into prominence.
He utilized the Sanskrit and Tamil institutions of puppetry and traditional theatre forms and diversified them through troupes in creative ways.
He worked on his plays from page to stage and from stage to page,
reappropriating them to produce spectacular shows, turning them into personal credit and tried to disseminate as much as possible, his level of understanding of Shakespeare into public knowledge.
In the process, Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar was already a massive presence on the literary scene, recreated Shakespeare’s plays on the Tamil stage.
He improvised the presentation and venues then available and, in the process, transformed both Shakespeare and himself.
He was a prolific writer and wrote as many as 94 plays, out of which two are in English, one in Telugu, and the rest in Tamil.
On the first of July 1891, Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar founded the great Suguna Vilas Sabha with seven of his friends as sponsors.
The aim of the Sabha was to strive for the development of drama in Dravidian languages.
As one of the members of the Sabha, he was a caustic critic of the condition of drama in those days and criticized the drawbacks of the stage vehemently.
In those days only legendary tales were staged and the plays were flooded with songs.
He felt that a large number of songs were found in unwanted situations, and the inadequate way in which the actors played their parts was an eyesore to the audience.
Given this, Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar had an uphill task.
As most of the stage plays were not up to the mark, Pammal Sambandam’s associates after several deliberations requested him to write a play without the absurdities found in the plays of time.
Pushpavalli, which was staged on the 1st of March 1893, was his maiden attempt and its popularity encouraged him to write more.
He wrote many plays and perfomed on stage more than 500 times donning many roles.
Lilavathi Sulochana was his first play to be printed in 1895.
It is the story of two sisters, one good and the other bad, with many twists and finally a happy ending.
This play attracted a large audience and was a great success.
There were various ways in which Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar played the pioneering role in the world of Tamil drama.
It is also interesting to note the way that the bard and Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar looked at their audience.
Shakespeare was always greatly aware of his own Elizabethan audience that had a mixed bag of aristocrats, wits, gallants, cut-purses, sailors and soldiers on leave, schoolboys and apprentices.
This audience had to be given what it wanted.
And being a mixed bag, there was a need to include a variety of things – action and blood for the unlettered, fine phrases and wit for the gallant, thoughts and debate and learning for the more scholarly, subtle humour for the refined, boisterous clowning for the unrefined, love-interest for the ladies, song and dance for everybody.
Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar had the same concept in mind.
Like Shakespeare, he knew the pulse of the audience and who he wrote his plays for and knew that he had to reckon with the taste, temperament and above all, the cultural outlook of the Tamil audience for whom he wrote.
The five translations of Shakespeare’s plays in Tamil by Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar are better called adaptations than translations and with good reason.
He has given Tamil names for the corresponding English names carrying a certain echo.
The English names of characters were made native using similar sounding names
(Hamlet – Amaladityan,
Macbeth -Magapathy
Cymbeline – Simhalanathan).
Many other translators prior to, and after him, also followed this principle in their respective ways.
Allusions to European and classical legends have been replaced by allusions to Tamil literature, history/legend etc.
He also omitted or substituted scenes from the original that might have been culturally unacceptable in Tamilnadu.
Hence the terminology “adaptation of Shakespeare” will be more suited for his work around Shakespeare.
– முனைவர் ஔவை அருள்
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