He Was Othello – Mark Antony too.

He played the lead roles of Othello and Mark Antony in the Shakespearean tragic play 'Othello' and the historic play ‘Julius Caesar'. He was also equally famed for portraying various other lead roles in many other plays by Shakespeare.

I had the great fortune of watching the performances of this great Shakespearean actor at the Sri Venkeswara Kalyana Mandapam auditorium at T. Nagar, Madras, on festive occasions like Ugadi (the Telugu new year), Sankranthi (the harvest season) and Dasara (a nine-day festival marking the victory of good over evil). I had watched his shows at the Andhra Social and Cultural Club, Vijaya Raghava Chary Road, T. Nagar also.

This versatile actor was none but Rallabandi Kameswara Rao. He entered the stage in the make-up of Othello and delivered the principal character’s dialogues in a sonorous voice. He was Mark Antony too. His mono action in this character was wonderful. He rolled a bedsheet on the stage, lifted it into his arms and made us believe that it was the corpse of Julius Caesar.

When he cried out in suppressed rage, his eyes rolling in anger and lips trembling, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. " One is mesmerised by the times of the Roman Empire and the pulpit at the market square. His histrionic talent while delivering the speech, which ultimately turns public opinion against Brutus, was appealing. When he articulated, 'Yet Brutus is an honourable man,' while citing examples of his villainous nature, we cheered in thunderous applause.

We shed tears, forgetting that Rallabandi was just acting the role of King Lear when he delivered the dialogues, keeping away his youngest daughter, Cordelia, who loves him truly but falls prey to the machinations of his two other older daughters, Goneril and Regan. 

He lived in the role of Hamlet, where the character procrastinates his plan to assassinate his paternal uncle for marrying his mother after killing his father, the king of Denmark.

He had his own style in delivering Hamlet’s opening lines of the famous soliloquy 'To be, or not to be. That is the question, i.e., whether to go on living suffering the humiliations or die and end all sufferings.

He was also noted for his role as Sherlock Holmes, created by the great crime writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

 He portrayed the roles of King Lear in the play with the same title, Copulet, Juliet’s father, who disapproves of his daughter’s love for Romeo, and many more character roles in the great dramatist’s plays.

The principal flaw of many Indian actors who portray Shakespearean roles is that most of them inadvertently slip into the accents of their native languages while delivering Shakespearean dialogues. But Rallabandi was an exception who maintained the English accent of the British actors throughout his performances.

His acting talents were not confined to the Shakespearean stage alone. He was equally popular on the Telugu screen too. He played the character roles like zamindar, doctor, lawyer, judge, etc. He shared the stage and the screen along with stalwarts like Mukkamala, Mikkilineni, etc. He was with the tinsel world for about two decades, from the 1960s to the 1980s.

The noted director, V. Madhusudhana Rao, aptly used the Shakespearean talents of Rallabandi in his movie ‘Manchi Kutumbam' by offering him the role of Paris, a noble man who seeks the hand of Juliet in the bard’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet'. Paris is assassinated by Romeo in the climax scene of the tragic play. This scene was inserted in a song, ‘preminchuta pillala vanthu, deevinchuta peddala vanthu', to highlight the sublimity of love.

His notable movies during the 1980s were Eenaadu (1982), Puli - Bebbuli (1983), Aadapuli (1984), Mugguru Kodukulu (1988) and Ayyappa Swamy Mahatmyam (1989). Though his dialogues were very few in the movies, he played key roles which were essential for the main story.

But he did not make much money through acting like some actors of yesteryears. Yet a chance meeting with the hero Krishna changed his fortunes to some extent. While Rallabandi was resting on the sands of

Marina Beach, he saw Krishna wandering along the seashore. He recognised him and beckoned him. When Rallabandi asked Krishna about his acting career, Krishna replied that after ‘Kanne Manasulu', his first movie, and 'Thene Manasulu', his second one, he had a long break. He said that he was dejected and even toyed with the idea of returning to his native place.

"Krishna," Rallabandi said encouragingly, “you’re young and dynamic. My sixth sense says that the sky is the limit for you. You will have a brilliant career in the film world. Try your luck. Don’t be disheartened."

As Krishna rose gradually up as a hero, producer and owner of a studio, he remembered Rallabandi’s blessing and offered him suitable character roles in his movies. Krishna’s magnanimity was well known, and he needed no second saying.

Rallabandi used to frequent the residence of renowned Telugu and Sanskrit scholar Yamijala Padmanabha Swamy at Vivekananda Street, T. Nagar, Madras, and discuss with him the poetic beauty of Shakespeare. Once I had met Rallabandi at his residence and requested him to get his inimitable roles in Shakespearean plays recorded on video cassettes for future generations. But I was nonplussed when he said, "Who will shoulder that responsibility?" Anyway, the suggested project had not taken flight.

Rallabandi hailed from Pamarru village, Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, and settled in Madras city. But he maintained active cultural links with his native village and the nearby town of Machilipatnam.

I am an ardent admirer of Shakespeare for his portrayal of various facets of human nature, and Rallabandi simply lived in the varied characters of the great playwright as a monoactor.

The Madras Shakespearean Society honoured him with a suitable reward.

But I am sad that Rallabandi is less remembered today for his Shakespearean roles. 

I would be very grateful if anybody could send me this great actor’s photo in a Shakespearean role to my WhatsApp ID 9948099156.