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Jean Paul Sartre is a famous French philosopher, writer and Nobel Prize recipient. He is known for his theory of Existentialism.

"Man is condemned to be free," he says; condemned because he cannot escape the responsibility; free because he has to make a choice of a line of action he has to adopt. Only his actions define him and give him the personality because such actions are the only proof of what he has done with his liberty. The play THE DIRTY HANDS is an illustration of his philosophy. Can a person with noble ideologies remain pure in active politics without getting his hands dirty? Is a political lie within his own party men permissible? Can violence and terrorism be justified if they are meant to uphold the principles of the party? Do ends justify the means in the race to grab power? These are some of the questions that are dealt with in this play.

The hero of the play, Gopi, is a young intellectual who has by his own free choice assumed the responsibility of murdering his chief. He finds himself as though imprisoned in the office/house of his chief whose personality overpowers him. He cannot come out unless he conunits the murder. He does that and it lands him in a real prison from where he comes out after serving his term, but the outer world is not safe for him as his own party men, who want to silence him, are shadowing him. He takes refuge in the house of his girl friend and former political mentor. That is also a prison for him, as he cannot come out since people, who will shoot him the minute he steps out, surround it... The girl urges him to disown his action to gain a respite. Time is running out and is pressing him to take a decision. He deliberately and of his own volition chooses a line of action, which vindicates both him (the murderer) and his victim.

THALAI-K-KOL

Thalai-K-Kol is a theatre group established in 1988 with a view to experiment in theatre and allied art forms as well as creating a Tarnil theatre for the people of Pondicherry and Tamilnadu. It has won critical acclaim from the discerning theatrical circles in the Indian subcontinent. The group has been invited to perform at various national and intemational Theatre Festivals.

Thalai-K-Kol's theatrical production 'Karunchuzhi' was written and directed by Dr. V. ARUMUGHAM. It took every one by storm and caught the attention of all the theatre critics in the country. It has been identified as one of the best plays performed at the National Theatre Festivals in the last two decades under the auspices of Sangeet Natak Academy, Delhi.

The other production of Thalai-K-Kol, 'Oosi' (The Needle), performed at the South Zone Theatre Festivals, has also won national recognition and has been praised for its visual imagery and its use of the 'Prop's Theatre' form for the first time in India.

In the next phase of the group's experimentation, it did in-depth research and interaction with the traditional theatre forms of Pondicherry and Tamilnadu vis-a.-vis the modem. It tried to adopt westem plays in the traditional Theru-k-koothu form. As a result, Thalai-K-Kol produced Moliere's 'George Dandin' in Theru-k-koothu style and staged it at many places in Tarnilnadu and Pondicherry. The recent 'Thoongigal' (Sleepers), written and directed by Dr. V. Arumugham, was one of the entries at the India Festival of Theatre Arts held at Pondicherry in 1999. The play 'Karunchuzhi' participated in the 18th Nandhikar National Theatre Festival 2001 at Kolkatta. The play 'Thoongigal' participated in the 4th Bharat Rang Mahotsav (4th National Theatre Festival 2002) held at New Delhi, organised by the National School of Drama, New Delhi. Thalai-K-kol Theatre group organised a two-day theatre festival with a new production, 'Peyyth-ther' (The Mirage), produced with financial assistance from the Government of India, New Delhi. Peyyth-ther participated in the 5th Bharat Rang Mahotsav 2003 and the 19th Nandhikar Theatre Festival 2002.

DR. V. ARUMUGHAM

Dr.Vadivel Thambiran Arumugham was born on August 30, 1955 in a traditional Theru-K-koothu  family of Tamilnadu. He graduated in Chemistry from the Madras University and also graduated in Theatre Arts, specialising in direction, from the School of Drama, Calicut University. He obtained an M.A in Tamil from Annamalai University, and presented his Ph.D thesis on 'The Theatrical Explorations of Eunuch Festival of the Aravan Temples of Tamilnadu' at the Pondicherry University. He presently teaches at the School of Performing Arts, Pondicherry University. He has directed and acted in many plays that have participated in national and international theatre festivals.

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He participated as a performer and troupe leader of the Theru-K-koothu group in the festival of India in France (1985), Sweden (1987) and Festival de l'Imagenerie at Paris (1997). The plays 'Karunchuzhi' (1990) and 'Oosi' (1992), based on the concept of 'Prop's Theatre', were conceived by him in 1990 and they were directed under the Sangeet Natak Academy scheme. He received an award in 1995 enabling him to visit France under the Indo-French programme of Social Sciences to do research on contemporary theatre and choreography. He also got a fellowship from the British Council (1995) to visit London to study contemporary British theatre. He did one man Theru-k-koothu performances in the U.K, France, Germany and Switzerland.

The book, 'Karunchuzhi', a collection of his plays, received the best book award from the Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry Governments. The book also received a cash award from the Thirupur Tamil Sangam for the year 2000.

The Dirty Hands, a Tamil adaptation of Sartre's famous play Les Mains Sales, will be performed at the auditorium of the Alliance Francaise of Madras on College Road, Nungambakkam, on 28th March 2004.

RR

Published on 28^th March, 2004