The Tamil Nadu Assembly election results, wherein C. Joseph Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) has emerged the party with the maximum seats, marks the culmination of a century and more of performing arts have playing an immense role in the region’s politics. And it was in Madras that this was tested for the first time.
Theatre was the forerunner of cinema. Madurai may have been its headquarters, but from the early years of the 20th century, it was necessary for drama troupes to make a mark in Madras as well. The bill of fare was essentially mythological or historic romance, with the occasional social beginning with Dambachari Natakam (1873). High Madras society looked down on theatre and its professionals but their hold over the general public was unquestioned. It was this that S. Satyamurti sought to harness when it came to the freedom struggle. It is interesting that he, a member of the highbrow theatre club Suguna Vilasa Sabha, saw the power of its more popular equivalents then in operation in the city.
