Mysore/Mysuru: The University of Mysore’s Gubbiveeranna Rangapeetha, in association with University Fine Arts College, Manasagangothri and Prasaranga, has organised a special lecture titled ‘Rangadhwani’ featuring the life and achievements of renowned theatre personality Mohammad Peer, at the University Fine Arts College, Manasagangothri, here, at 11 am tomorrow.

Theatre personality and Sharada Vidya Mandira faculty N. Dhananjaya will deliver a lecture on the artiste, Mohammad Peer Saheb. Prasaranga Director Prof. M. G. Manjunath will deliver the key note address and University Fine Arts College Principal Dr. C. A. Sridhar will preside. Actor and Rangapeetha ‘s visiting faculty    Mandya Ramesh will be the guest of honour. 

For more details, call-0821-2419586,9110404422.

About the artiste: Mohamed Peer was from the classical mould and he came on the scene for a short but brilliant time, when the shades of night were falling on the dramatic world of Karnataka. As a determined youth, he bore amid snow and ice, a banner, excelsior of the salient aspects of the Kannada theatre art. Within a short span of a decade from 1925, he made his mark as an actor of outstanding ability, especially in portraying serious and dignified classical roles. Though a Muslim, he spoke the very pure Kannada language, the blank verse and even the classical, with an ease and effect.  

After playing minor roles in Srikanta Vilasa Kamatak Natak Sabha of Nata Bhayankara M. N. Gangadhararao, and also in Lalita Kala Mandali of N. Subbanna, Mohamed Peer started his own troupe in 1930. By then, he had already earned a reputation for playing the role of “Vijaya” in the play ‘Krishna Leela.’ 

Mohamed Peer created new world for his spectators and always collected the toll of their tears. Peer did not stage mythological plays, nor did he have spectacular sceneries or settings; his plays did not lay any emphasis on the stage music and yet, he toured the entire length and breadth of Karnataka creating a new taste for prose plays. 

His only assets were the plays themselves and a talented troupe of artists including H. L. N. Simha, H. Ramachandra Shastri and M. V. Rajamma. As Dara Shikoh in Shahajahan, he intensified the effect of the tragedy with an ineffaceable smile of dignity as a reply to all the meanness of the imperious Aurangazeb. As Sundara in Samsara Nauka, he depicted a helpless victim of parental wrath, social inequality and of the eating poverty, in a manner that it became perhaps the most effective of social plays on the professional stage of Mysore. With his brilliant performances Peer created a respect for the Mysore stage in other parts of Karnataka.

Peer died in the prime of his youth and success, in 1937. His death marked also the end of a great tradition of classical drama and left the field free for the humorous light plays.