Kelu - N. Sasidharan and E. P. Rajagopalan

Kelu - N. Sasidharan and E. P. Rajagopalan

 History sometimes steps out from the frames. ‘Kelu’ is a best example for this. It is one of the few plays in Malayalam that pictures the life of a historical figure. The play is about Vidwan. P. Kelu Nair (1901—1929) who was a nationalist leader. Besides that, he was also a popular dramatist in Malabar. The play tries to capture the fire and fury of the historical times in which Kelu Nair lived. When the play opens, we see a group of people congregating to organise some programmes. Then we understand that it is the executive Committe of Vidwan. P. Kelu Nair Memorial Trust. They plan to arrange a play on the occasion of India’s 50th anniversary of independence. The meeting is presided over by K. Madhavan. It is he who comes up with the idea of the play. AT this time a member suggests that they could make a new production of Kelu Nair’s play ‘Padukapattabhishekam’. At this time, K. Madhavan suggests that it is not Kelu Nair’s play that they are to present to the world. He feels it necessary to bring to light the personal life of such a great person as Kelu Nair. He says that new generation really don’t have that much knowledge about who Kelu Nair was. People only know that there was a person named Vidwan. P. They don’t have any more ideas about that freedom fighter’s life. K. Madhavan asks: “How many know about the depth and spread of his life?” So it is necessary that people should have knowledge about the sufferings of Kelu Nair. At this time someone says that there is a biography written by Balakrishnan Master about Kelu Nair. Then K. Madhavan says that biography is not real life. So he 3 feels that a play about Kelu Nair will be the most proper form. He wants it to be written and enacted on the stage. Thus they decide to produce a play about the inner turmoils of a person who devoted his life to his country. Kelu Nair used drama as a tool for national awakening and wrote many plays. Some of them include; ‘Lankadahanam’, ‘Pakkanar Charitham’ etc. P. Kunhiraman Nair, the famous Malayalam poet appears as a character in the play. The conversations between Kelu Nair and P. Kunhiraman Nair reveal the different attitudes towards art. The mirror scene in the play brings together reality, representations, vision and constructed images. P. Kunhiraman Nair says that an artist should not be judged by his personal life. Kelu Nair agrees to the observation of P. Kunhiraman Nair. Kelu Nair says that art is not words alone. It conjoins words and actions. They were people who devoted their lives for the country and people. As far as they are concerned, there is no personal life which is not public. Then Kelu Nair says: “Each one needs to have his own mirror to see his face.” Then they try to number their achievements to distinguish between their personal and public lives. They feel that their dear ones failed to see that their personal was their social and political. They feel sad about the fact and so they desperately keep the mirror away. They say that the mirror fails to reflect who they really are. The P. Kunhiraman Nair says that since they are artists, they do not need a mirror to understand themselves. The other person completely agrees to it. According to Kelu Nair, art is just a mirror held to life. The mirror reflected the different attires that they used to wear during the course of their life. But it fails to explain who they are in sum total. They find the completion of their reflection through the mirror they have created through their craft, art. Art only gives them the idea of completion and all the other ideas are but remnants of some broken pieces. These broken pieces get joined when they look at their life through the mirror called art. The theme of writing appears as one of the central themes of the play ‘Kelu’. The play begins with the discussion of writing a play and it ends with the same theme. The play quotes the struggles that a writer goes through while composing a work. We see that this discussion starts when Balakrishnan Nambiar starts to write his play. At this time, Kelu Nair appears before him as in a dream sequence and they talk. Kelu Nair is then seen giving some advice to Balakrishnan Nair in order to boost his confidence. Balakrishnan Nair says that though he knows a lot about Kelu Nair as a person, he finds it difficult to produce that life through a play. He then asks Kelu Nair the reason for his suicide. Kelu Nair says that for him, his personal was his public life. He couldn’t draw a clear mark between the two and that became his failure in life. But he doesn’t see his life as a failure because he was living it full. He says that he could never distinguish them and once he started to see 4 his life that way, he was forced to commit suicide. But he encourages Balakrishnan to do it for him. He says that he is satisfied with what he could do with his life. The role he played and the songs he sang were never for his own sake. He meant all for the country. He says: “A coronation is always for the country, not for the king.” The theme of writing prevails throughout the play. Even Kelu Nair himself asserts that he had experienced struggle while trying to write some of his plays. He had to face the criticism from his family and his wife for writing plays that displeased them. He says that irrespective of all those things, a writer should be able to stand high for his own ideals. Ultimately what matters to a writer is his own rule, the rule of writing where there is no mirror to show the exact pattern, but only art. History has opted out the names of so many famous personalities who suffered for his country. Vidwan. P. Kelu Nair was such a person whom history never paid full justice. He participated in forefront of the nationalist struggle in Malabar. The play proves that a great nationalist is one who sheds the last drop of his blood for his country. Kelu Nair’s failure was not a failure before death. He lived only through the identity of his country and his people and when it was questioned, he had no other way but to embrace death.