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Photography
Project
Performers
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| When mythological and social dramas
made their appearance in the early decades of the twentieth
century, the female roles were mostly played by men. In
folk theatre too, men played important female characters.
Given below are the photographs of some male actors dressed
as women. Women have also played the male roles, specially
in folk theatre and some of those photographs are also
given below. |
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| K.S. Ananthanarayanan was a professional
theatre artiste in the Tamil theatre in the twenties and
thirties. He had a drama troupe of his own called the
Arya Gana Sabha in Madurai. The photographs above were
taken in Karnatic Studio, Madras, 1931/ 32. |
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K. S. Anantanarayanan,
a professional artiste. |
Portrait of K. S. Anantanarayanan.
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| K.
Mahadev and Narayan Naidu and Ramachandra Rao were actors
in the theatre company of the legendary theatre personality
in Kannada theatre, Gubbi Veeranna. These photographs
were collected from the albums of Gubbi Veeranna's daughter,
Malathamma. |
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On the left,
Ramachandra Rao as Kamala. On the right, Narayan Naidu as
Mrinalini.
Still from play 'Raja Bhakti', 1929.
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K.
Mahadev dressed as a woman in a play.
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Narayan
Naidu dressed as a woman.
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Date:
22/03/2002 Place: Erode
Photographer: L. Thangaraj
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| In
folk theatre, men still play female roles. In the Kongu
region of Tamilnadu, there are certain folk plays which
are performed, of the legendary heroes of the region.
Ponnar-Sankar is one such play. In the photograph
above, two men are playing the roles of women in the play.
On the left is Gopal and on the right is Raju in a crucial
scene. This photograph was taken a few months ago in a
demonstration performance. |
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| There
are many women who do both male and female roles in folk
theatre. Given below are a few photographs of K. R. Ambika
who has been doing male roles from the age of eleven and
who continues to enact male roles even now at the age
of 65. These photographs were taken during a recent demonstration
performance given by her in a village in Karur district.
The last photograph is of her father who was famous for
playing female roles. |
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K. R. Ambika on right as Harishchandra
in 'Harishchandra' play. Place: Melalakshmanampatti Date:
28/09/2002
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K. R. Ambika on right as Madurai Veeran
in 'Madurai Veeran' play. Place: Melalakshmanampatti
Date: 28/09/2002
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K. R. Ambika on right as Vedan (hunter)
in
'Valli Thirumanam' play. On her right is her
daughter K. R. Indira.
Place: Melalakshmanampatti
Date: 28/09/2002
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K. R. Ambika on right as Vedan (hunter)
in
'Valli Thirumanam' play.
Place: Melalakshmanampatti Date: 28/09/2002 |
Thadikombu A Ponniah, Vijaya Studio,
Dindigul.
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