He never had that many members in his troupe and I wouldn’t be able to do the very same thing even today.”īoth of them had a lot to say on some of the most prolific Tamil theatre artistes like SG Kittappa, MK Thyagaraja Baghavathar, TR Mahalingam, the TK Shanmugham brothers, MR Radha, Madurai Kavignar Vishwanatha Das, KP Sunderambal, SV Sahasranamam and Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar. He showed some 200 people following Lord Jesus on stage. To cite an instance, I watched Sermon the Mount, his play in which Lord Jesus is followed by scores of followers. In fact, you could even call him the great grand dad of Steven Spielberg. “He had an uncanny ability when it came to handling trick shots. YG Mahendran soon joined in with some fascinating history on Nawab Raja Manickam Pillai, the legendary Tamil theatre artiste. The only problem with Therukoothu was that it wasn’t disciplined - in the sense, it would go on for hours.” So, our theatre is much more evolved than their’s. “What you see in a Broadway Musical in the US, for instance, happened in Therukoothus centuries ago. He explained that Therukoothu combined all forms of art (dialogues, dance and music). In fact, it also gives details on seating of the audience and the direction in which the stage must face,” said Srinivasan. For instance, in Silapathigaram, you can find specifications for constructing a stage. “Tamil theatre has been in existence right from ancient times and texts written then only go on to prove this fact.

Therukoothu history in tamil