This narrative is carved out of the novel ‘Viswaroopam’ by Era.Murukan and adapted for stage. KazhukukaL (Eagles) occurs during the period 1899 – 1927. The story is narrated through 6 letters penned by the protagonist. These letters never get posted to reach the addressees.
It is 1904. Mahalingam, an incarcerated youth in Madras prison is writing an epistle to His Excellency, the Governor of Madras pleading he is innocent and his death sentence should be commuted. He has been framed on charges of raping and murdering a village girl from Andhra, during their chance encounter while both were on a pilgrimage to the Siva temple on the mount of Thirukazhukundram. It is here the two eagles, believed to be sages of ancient times under a divine curse, visit daily to partake the offerings to God, to claim redemption. (Kazhukundram is a corrupt form of the original name Thiru Kazhuku Kundram meaning the Sacred Mount of Eagles).
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Maha is issue-less. As his mother-in-law suggests, he sets on a pilgrimage to Thirukazhukundram to take a holy dip in the temple tank, have a darshan of the divine eagles and pray in Siva temple to be blessed with a son. Lalitha with her irregular periods turns ‘impure’ and so ineligible to make the pilgrimage along with her husband. Maha sets alone traveling.
En route to Kazhukundram, while resting for the night in the vicinity of a village tank, he sets his eyes on a buxom Andhra girl Kalyani and starts lusting after her. Kalyani is an innocent village belle and has come there as the reluctant bride in a small marriage party. Maha succeeds in getting the girl climb up the hill in his company towards the last leg of the pilgrimage while others who came with her, mostly elders, lag behind.
The eagles fail to come for darshan and as all others return to the foot of the hillock, Maha takes Kalyani to a forlorn place around a crevice on the mount and tries to outrage her modesty. Suddenly, he observes the two divine eagles descend towards him to peck at and tear his flesh. As he withdraws from Kalyani alarmed, she jumps from the mount to her death. Maha runs to the foot of the hill as the eagles chase him.
A Malayali Brahmin Devanathan meets him at the foot of the hill and mentions he is waiting for Maha to come descending and take custody of the urn containing Devanathan’s mother’s ashes. He mumbles something about his being sucked into the vortex of time and the urn has to be immersed in the holy Ganga at Varanasi as per the last wishes of the departed soul. Having said this, Devanathan recedes like a specter while the police arrive and take Mahalingam into custody.
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He reaches Mauritius after an arduous journey by steamer and promises to Lalitha in his heart that he will lead a clean life and return soon. He meets a batch of indentured new labour reporting to him and is wonderstruck to find Kalyani as one of them. She is a Tamilian now and is still young and vivacious even after the passage of all these years. She, of course is a Kalyani look-alike and Maha while being aware that she cannot be Kalyani is driven again by lust and enters into a relationship with her. Meanwhile he also gets married to an African woman Sara, owning a small sugarcane crushing unit. With flush funds at his disposal, he becomes a full time money lender and a chit fund operator for the indentured labour force. He becomes wayward again, all along trying to act faithful to the African wife and feeling guilty for not fulfilling his vow for pilgrimage to Kazhukundram and get united with Lalitha.
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Maha is released from London Pentonville prison after a few years as there is no conclusive evidence to prove he is the murderer and also due to the efforts of the wife of the deceased, an Indian born lady. Maha opens up to her and she advises him to seek redemption from God and Maha immediately thinks of his unfulfilled vow of pilgrimage to Kazhukundram.
He returns to his Embankment settlement upon his release, only to find all his savings assiduously built through seeking alms had been taken away by his English friend.
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Maha in a semi hallucinating stage makes it to Thirukazhukundram and knocks at the doors of an old house which he remembers vaguely as his in-laws’. An old woman emerges out to offer him overnight-kept cold rice (pazhayathu). He hallucinates it is Lalitha and grasps her hand mentioning he will take her home to Madras after they have a holy dip in the temple tank and darshan. The lady lets out a shout and the neighbors come running.
Maha hallucinates he is interacting with all the three women he came across in his life, Kalyani, Sara and Lalitha trying to find out the purpose of his existence. Kalyani smiles charmingly at him and with lust proving the better of him, Maha staggers to get up and embrace Kalyani. All of a sudden, a pair of eagles descends on him and he collapses clutching a wooden pillar.
The play closes with a beat constable reading aloud his report to his higher-up, next morning, to the elders of the locality.
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The linear narrative proceeds as a pack of six contiguous letters in the process of being written by Maha at various points of time –
Why the title ‘KazhukukaL’ (The eagles): The eagle metaphor occurs polimorphically throughout the narrative denoting an urge to redeem, a sub-conscious alert to seek course correction or an opportunity to pursue for attaining salvage. Maha sincerely wishes to be good and to bring out a qualitative change in his life and that of those around him but his lust orients him towards the other extreme. The Kazhuku, all along, never comes. When it arrives, there is nothing to be redeemed for.
Crew:
Main actors – 8
Sub ordinate – 12
For creating atmosphere – as many as the director desires.
(Intellectual Propery – All rights with the author Era.Murukan)