Presenting Modi’s Life as ‘Katha’

Even in this age of short-and-sweet SMSes, WhatsApp and Facebook, who doesn’t love a good story told well?

The BJP is using that simple logic to pep up its election campaign in Thiruvananthapuram.

The ‘lotus’ party has now turned to kathaprasangam to woo voters with the life story of its PM candidate Narendra Modi.

In two stages, Bharathathinte Modi, written and presented by Kuriathi Somasekharan, is set to see many more performances with the election heat building up.

“It’s about one hour long and took me two weeks to write,’’ says Somasekharan, who was inspired by his troupe members to approach BJP leaders with the idea.

Bharathathinte Modi tells the story of Modi’s youth, his dreams and what he has done for Gujarat. Since the idea is to coax voters to vote for O Rajagopal in Thiruvananthapuram, the story also touches upon the former Union Minister’s achievements, Somasekharan, 45, who lives at Venpakal, Neyyatinkara, says.

The latest presentation of Bharathathinte Modi was staged at Karthika Thirunal Theatre in the city on Saturday evening.

In the capital, BJP’s Rajagopal is pitted against sitting MP Shashi Tharoor and the CPI candidate Bennet Abraham.

At 45, Somasekharan can be called an old hand at Kathaprasangam, having staged his first story 16 years ago.

Though a party member, he had not gone ‘political’ with his stories until now. His first story was Sree Krishnaleela. His other works are also of a similar tone, drawing their themes extensively from Indian mythology. Sankaradhyanam, Snehabiksha and Angulimalan — a Buddhist story — are among his popular works.

For Modi’s story, he studied the Gujarat Chief Minister’s growth as a politician and emergence as a leader.

“He is a commoner, and one of six siblings, who wants to do something for his country. I will be staging the performance throughout Thiruvananthapuram constituency,’’ Somasekharan says.

Responses