It was a journey down the memory lane for ‘Nadoja’ Dr. Subhadramma Mansur, veteran professional theatre personality and well-known vocalist and also to the senior connoisseurs of art at the symposium on ‘The life and works of Ms. Mansur’ organised by the department of Kannada and Culture here on Sunday evening.
Ms. Mansur, who turned 75 and started her journey six decades ago as a child artiste, became a house-hold name after her role of ‘Droupadi’ in ‘Rakta Ratri’.
“I have worked in many a drama group of yester-years and even now I perform. I thank all those, including my gurus, including late Chandrashekar Gawai (her music teacher) for their support and blessings, without which I would not have been what I am today in the field of theatre”, Ms. Mansur said, getting emotional.
Her eyes were brimming with tears when speakers, Y. Raghavendra Rao, writer, ‘Nadoja’ Belagal Veeranna, exponent of shadow leather puppetry, ‘Nadoja’ Dr. V.T. Kale, artist, praised her versatile personality and performance on the stage even though she faced challenges in her personal life.
“Ms. Mansur is a ‘kala tapasvini’. Despite her family problems, she held the audience spell-bound through her mellifluous singing and delivery of dialogues. She lived the role, whichever she donned, be it ‘Draupadi, Gandhari or Kunti’ in the popular ‘Rakta Ratri’ and ‘Kurukshetra’ on the stage, right from the day she entered the field till now”, Raghavendra Rao recalled.
Octogenarian Belagal Veeranna, her contemporary, was of the view that an artiste would emerge successful mainly because of their struggles and problems in life and stated that Ms. Mansur was one among many.
Dr. Nagarathna, professional stage artiste, Ramesh Gowda Patil, artiste, were among others to recall how Ms. Mansur was their friend, philosopher and guide in moulding them to become artistes with perfection.
K.V. Jagadish, amateur theatre personality, Siddaram Kalmath, writer, spoke in detail about her life and works.
B. Nagaraj, Assistant Director Kannada and Culture, welcomed.
