Remembering Komal Swaminathan, whose plays focused on social issues
The Hindu
Tracing Komal Swaminathan’s journey as his troupe Stage Friends completes 50 years
Komal Swaminathan was one of contemporary Tamil stage’s most powerful playwrights. Born in 1935 in Karaikudi, he finished his graduation in Madurai and came to Madras in the mid-1950s driven by a passion for theatre. While in college, he was a Congress activist who had made a name for himself with his fiery stage speeches.
It was a time when Tamil theatre was undergoing a metamorphosis of sorts, marked by the advent of amateur theatre. The genres of the plays being staged too started undergoing a change, with more social themes being presented, as compared to the earlier eras.
Against this backdrop, theatre legend S.V. Sahasranamam started the Seva Stage Nataka Kalvi Nilayam, a drama school in 1957 to teach aspirants various aspects of stagecraft. Komal Swaminathan joined the institution, which had 26 students on its rolls. Classes were handled by several well-known personalities in the field of Tamil literature and theatre such as Prof Khi.Va. Jagannathan, S.D. Subramania Yogi and Avvai Shanmugam, besides Sahasranamam himself.