Play review : Thicker Than Blood

Play : Thicker than blood.
Playwright : Delon Weerasinghe.
Troupe : Theatre Nisha, Chennai.
Director : V.Balakrishnan.
Awards won : Gratiaen Prize for best script in 2005.
Characters :
Suresh : An army major, crippled in the war, a war hero.
Old Man : An unnamed character who saves Suresh's life during the war.
Harsha : Suresh's elder brother.
Maithrey : Harsha's wife.
Dinesh : Harsha and Maithrey's son.
Kithsiri Bappa : An shrewd, old, manipulative politician; also the doyen of their family.
Vijay : Suresh's subordinate in the army.
Terrorist : An LTTE operative.

Story :
Suresh, who loses a leg in battle is acclaimed as a war hero and honorably discharged from the army. Disillusioned and frustrated, he spends almost all his time brooding at home, continually being haunted by memories of an old man who saves his life during the war, dying in the process. Harsha, his elder brother and a successful businessman, is just starting his foray into politics, under the aegis of Kithsiri Bappa. He devotes too much of his time to politics and as a result his relationship with his family and business partners begins to suffer. Kithsiri suggests that they rope in Suresh to help them with their campaign as he's a war hero. Suresh, though mistrustful of Kithsiri, agrees. His popularity increases gradually and at his acme, he agrees to be fielded as a candidate from Colombo, replacing Harsha who is less charismatic.
The play offers new insights into the concept of who is a terrorist and who is a hero. It explores the personal integrity, idealism and patriotism of a soldier and also what war means to a soldier, a civilian and a politician.

Review :
This is a script I've read long ago and one that I really liked. Also on learning that the director is a NSD graduate, I went to watch the play with great expectations. Unfortuantely, I was let down in all departments. The acting, direction and lighting were quite amateurish. As far as the actors went, no one really seemed to get into the role and as a result the impression one got was only that of a set of people who had memorized their lines well and not missed a single cue. The modulation wasn't all right in a lot of places too. And no one seemed to adhere to that most basic rule of theatre : THAT YOU GO LOUD FROM YOUR GUT, NOT FROM YOUR THROAT. All the actors ended up either shouting or calling out when loudness was demanded, not a single one went loud from their stomach. Individually, I would say that Suresh did an OK job, though the brooding persona (which you feel when you read the script) was missing. Another point to note was his reaction when Dinesh pushes him down, which looked really contrived. Maithreyi and the old man were decent too. Harsha was bad, his voice sounded pleading all the time, even when he's trying to assert authority over his family. Certainly not the impression you get from the script. Dinesh and Kithsiri were flat at most times. Direction and utilisation of the stage was poor too. Most of the time, the actors who were conversing were positioned awkwardly. And the lighting, which was a very important aspect of the play, given the simplicity of the stage settings was pretty amateurish too. They seemed to brighten up and dim down quite unnecessarily. And especially during scene changes, I don't think it's a good idea to keep lights on. The backstage people can use pencil torches. I mean, last semester in our play, we managed an entire living room to courtroom scene change successfully only using pencil torches.
Overall a pretty disappointing performance I would say, clearly affirming that an NSD tag does not necessarily mean a great play.

Play Review : Othello - a play in black and white

Play : Othello- a play in black and white
Playwright : William Shakespeare
Troupe : Can and Abel Theatres, New Delhi.
Characters and Cast:
Othello - A moor in the service of the Venetian State. Moor also read as "outsider" : played by Adil.
Desdemona - Daughter of a Venetian Senator and Othello's lady love : played by Kristen
Brabantio - A Venetian senator and Desdemona's father : played by Nikhil
Roderigo - A wealthy Venetian gentleman lusting after Desdemona : also played by Nikhil
Iago - Othello's subordinate in the army. One of Shakespeare's most manipulative and evil characters : played by Barry.
Cassio - Othello's good friend and Lieutenant in his army : played by Dileep.

Summary :
Originally a play in 5 acts, it can be summarised most shortly as follows. Othello, a moor and Desdemona fall in love with each other and get married, inspite of her father's disapproval. Roderigo wants Desdemona and pays Iago to spy on them and somehow make this possible. Iago, though intially loyal to Othello, begins to hate him after he promotes Cassio and not him as lieutenant. He wants to get Cassio killed too so that he can replace him. Deciding to kill 2 birds with one stone, he tells Othello that Cassio is having an affair with his wife and when asked for evidence, shows that Cassio has Desdemona's handkerchief, a present given by Othello, which in fact, Iago had planted on Cassio. Enraged, Othello resolves to kill Desdemona and Iago convinces him that Cassio needs to be killed too. He and Roderigo ambush Cassio with Iago remaining unseen so that Cassio can't identify him in case he survives. Finally, on being discovered, Iago claims innocence to Cassio's injuries and kills Roderigo instead, something he feels necessary because Roderigo is becoming increasingly suspicious of Iago's greed and final motives. Othello then kills Desdemona, her pleas of innocence falling on deaf ears. Finally Iago's game is discovered and Othello upon learning his folly is so overcome by guilt that he kills himself and lays on top of his wife's body. Cassio is then placed in charge of Iago. The play ends there, it is assumed that Iago is taken away to be tortured or killed.

Story of the play :
It wasn't the complete 5 act play, but was shortened to about 90 minutes while retaining the key scenes and the essence of the original. It utilised the concept of "a play within a play". A troupe begins rehearsing for Othello and decides to do it with a Kathakali base, the director( Royston Abel who plays himself in the play and who is Mallu, surprise surprise !!) remaining adamant about it, his cast's apprehensions notwithstanding. To help them train, they sign on a Kathakali teacher, Adil, who is Assamese and who can barely speak English. When it's time to assign the cast, Royston decides to give Othello's part to Adil and Iago's part to Barry, the oldest member of the troupe. His cast is furious because not only did they take it for granted as to who would be assigned what part, but also because Adil can barely speak English and would need extensive coaching to be able to even speak a few sentences together. Nikhil, who has a super-inflated ego is the most furious of the lot as he assumed he would play Othello. Dileep and Kristen, who are in a relationship, seem ok with the idea. The irony here is that Cassio and Desdemona, who are accused of having an affair, are already having one. Into their lives comes Adil, who ends up seducing Kristen during one of their after-rehearsal English coaching sessions. Adil, who is initially the quietest and most committed of the lot soon begins to throw a lot of tantrums and demands that Kristen break up with Dileep. This goes on for sometime, with Adil getting more and more into his role. As the jealous and suspicious Othello, he shows flashes of brilliance but they are cleanly overshadowed by his obsession with Kristen and desire for her. It reaches its crescendo when during a rehearsal, he actually almost strangles Kristen out of anger. This leads to a lot of ill-feeling and resentment towards Adil. The troupe is convinced that the play cannot go on the floor but ultimately they manage to pull it off with only one change. Adil is so much in love with Kristen that he cannot bring himself to kill her on the night of the play.
Review :
I thought the performance of the cast of "The Shadow Box" was brilliant. Well, these guys were simply MIND-BLOWING !! If i knew any better superlatives, I would have used them too. I felt the story was awesome, a modern day Othello that everyone could relate to that still retains The Bard's touch because of the "Othello being staged within Othello". The irony that Cassio and Desdemona, who are accused of having an affair, are already having one was delicious too. And as for the cast, Barry, Nikhil and Adil were beyond brilliant. The transformation of Adil from the quiet, simple and hardworking Kathakali teacher to the mistrustful, temperamental actor was especially noteworthy. Dileep was good too though he didn't have a very demanding role. I felt the main letdown of the play was Kristen. Pretty and curvaceous, she didn't do a very good job. There wasn't much voice modulation, her American drawl seemed totally out of place and she wasn't showing emotions like confusion, fear and despair properly, just to name a few. She seemed like one of those Hollywood "teen movie" actresses. Ok.. she wasn't that bad but the main point was that her co-actors were so good that the contrast was much too stark. From the acting and story point of view, I think this will remain the best play I've seen for quite some time to come but the script( the original lines that is) was a little too tedious and convoluted for my liking . And now matter what purists say, I think I'm speaking for the largest section of the audience present there who aren't exactly well versed in Shakespearean English.

Extras :
Avinash and Adi entered before me this time, and got us seats right at the back. I badly wanted to be up front to get a better look at Kristen but 'twas not to be. Nevertheless, I had a field day othewise.. :).

Play review : The Shadow Box

Play : The Shadow Box
Playwright : Michael Cristofer
Awards won : Lots, the most notable being the Pulitzer prize for Best Drama in 1977.
Characters : Family 1( a typical working class family) - Joe, Maggie and their son Stephen
Family 2 - Brian(a writer, history enthusiast and philosopher among other things), Mark(his gay partner), Beverly(Brian's ex-wife, who's a whore now).
Family 3 - Felicity( a blind, old wheelchair bound woman) and Agnes( her dutiful daughter).
The "interviewer" - an offstage character who interviews the onstage characters.
Performing Group : The Madras Players, Chennai.

Summary : The setting is in 3 cottages of a hospital's grounds where each of the 3 families live. Joe, Brian and Felicity are dying and are being allowed to spend their last days there. We're offered 3 different perspectives of death, one from each family. While Maggie is unable to come to terms with it and refuses to step into the cottage or tell their son Stephen about the situation in the unrealistic hope that it will cause Joe's impending death to go away, Brian is characteristically blunt, forthright and even nonchalant about it. And Felicity is quite feisty(maybe even horny), inspite of her age, blindness and cripple. She lives on in the hope that her younger daughter Claire(who she loved more than Agnes) who has long deserted them and eloped, will come look her up soon and then she can die in peace. And in this process, she makes Agnes' life worse than a living hell.
The "interviewer" pops in and out of scenes, interviewing the characters and offering us deep insights into their lives through his questions. It basically gives us an idea of what kind of people they are, why they do the things they do and how they view death.

Review : Being staged by the Madras Players, I didn't expect anything less than a brilliant performance. The auditorium, Music Academy, one of Chennai's oldest, largest and best seemed perfect for the occasion. The stage setting was quite complex since the 3 families and the interviews had to be shown simultaneously. Just that the arrangement was complex, nothing great about the props and furniture( which was raided from the neighboring Savera Hotel's lobby). Direction( Mithran Devanesen) was brilliant I thought, simply because the whole thing, though quite complex, seemed pretty easy to understand when I saw the play. And he really got the best out of his actors, which was a LOT !! Brian and Felicity, played by their seniormost members, were simply brilliant and easily the best stage actors I've seen till date. Beverly and Maggie gave awesome performances, with Maggie's monologue on why she can't accept Joe's death still standing out in my mind. Stephen- played by a kid who's a first timer, was pretty decent. Joe, Mark and Agnes were good too.. as in their emotions and body language looked in place with the diffferent scenes but I thought their voice modulation could have been better. Joe - not too effective in the emotional scenes was great otherwise and Agnes' voice got too monotonous after a while. As for Mark, his voice was sing-song right from the beginning and he would do well not to display his ethnicity so prominently by means of his accent( which happens to be MALLU, much to my dislike). And last but by no means the least was the "interviewer's" voice, which i cannot find any words to describe. It was a calm, soothing, almost hypnotic voice that was so clear and resonant in its quality that it didn't even seem earthly at times. The play dragged on a bit in the second half when I got quite bored. But the ending more than made up for it, I thought. So overall, an excellent play to watch and a good learning experience.

Extras : Thanks to Avinash and Adi, I had to enter the audi seconds before the play started inspite of waiting outside for almost half an hour. Started off by cursing them but ended up thanking them instead.. :). I got to see Chennai's finest resplendent in their sartorial splendor and a few firangs too. So thanks guys !!

Chaat your way up the popularity ladder !!!

Every guy wants to be popular in college. And in every college the idea of popularity is restricted to wanting to hear girls say, " Oh, you don't know so and so ? He's like this, or he's like that !". And well.. not everyone looks like Brad Pitt, plays the guitar like Slash or plays sports like Tendulkar, Zidane or Federer, but nevertheless none of these guys are going to refrain from trying to become the toast of the girls' hostel corridors are they ?

Now we get to the crux of the situation, how do you get really popular ? Well, the simplest way is to be the undisputed best in a field of your choosing. But that's not something that's easily attainable either. So most people just choose the easiest way out. They start CHAATING !! For the uninitiated, chaat is what occurs when someone drones on and on about something.. ( it could concern anything under the sun or even beyond it), with the unchanging factor being that the more they go on about it, the less you want to hear.. ( For exact definiton, see the 2003 edition of THE PIERIAN SPRING). And there are various categories of chaat, but lets not get digress too much here. Then again, this means that everyone automatically falls into one or the other category. And if they don't, they just create their own category. Trust me, at least in my college, the situation has become so bad that when a guy walks by, conversations like the following one take place..

A : You know him don't you ?
B : No, who is he ?
A : He's chaat..

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the easiest kind of popularity to attain in college..

P.S. : Point to note - I'm NEITHER well known NOR popular !!

Keep it simple..

As I've got older and my taste in books has changed, I've noticed a common misconception among people that it's stories by the celebrated intellectuals that one stands to learn the most from. I'm not trying to deride anyone for adhering to these beliefs, simply because I've thought the same way for a long time too. Then I read this story in Tinkle Digest, a comic that all of us have read at one time, but which we've long abandoned, I'm sure. I don't remember the name of the story but it went something like this :

A fiery young man browsing through a village market is angry about the fact that the inhabitants of his part of the country hold Sufi mystics in such high esteem and he goes about, raving and ranting, to anyone willing to lend a ear that the whole lot of them are frauds whose preaching is governed more by ulterior motives (undoubtedly materialistic) than a desire to actually help the common man find happiness.

He then comes across this old man in rags, with a long, white flowing beard that reaches his waist. He launches a tirade against the Sufi mystics and the man patiently listens to it, nodding his head at appropriate intervals. Used to people reacting violently to what he has to say( be it approval or condemnation), he finds it very surprising that the old man doesn't reply. Instead, he politely requests the younger man to follow him.

They stop in front of a hawker and the old man removes a gemstone ring from inside his rags. He wants to sell it to the hawker and says, "I'm looking to sell this ring, how much money will you give me for it" ? The hawker examines the stone, laughs in his face and says "I have enough such cheap trinkets to sell, I don't normally buy them, but since you look extremely poor to me, I'll trade you a set of glass bangles for it. This is definitely the best offer you can get for it." The older man smiles as if this was the answer he expected and then politely declines the offer.

They then walk into a fancy store to meet its owner, a swarthy middle aged man who offers him slightly more for it. Once again he gives the same smile and politely declines the offer. They then move on to a posh jewelery shop with whose proprietor the same exercise is repeated with the same result.

The young man's surprise increases with every examiner of the ring they meet, but rather than try and find out what the old man is trying to accomplish by all of this, he tells him to stop wasting his time. To which the old man just requests 5 more minutes of his time.

This time they cross the street and walk into a jewelery store that looks a lot less prosperous than the previous one. He asks the proprietor the same question who then examines the ring carefully and gasps in astonishment, says "Sir, this is definitely the most expensive ring I have come across. I would say it's from Arabia. I do not know its exact value but I know this much : I don't think the sum of all my life savings and those of the shop-owner across the street will be enough to compensate you for this". The old man thanks him and walks out of the store, turns to the young man, who is now staring at him, agape and gives a wider smile. He then says, "You probably think the others tried to trick me, but it is not so. Whatever they said was out of ignorance. Just as people who do not know the true value of something have misconceptions about it, so have you, my young friend.". The old man turned out to be none other than the most widely respected Sufi mystic of that time and his ring was a gift from the an Arabian king, who was highly impressed with his wisdom.

I think there's a lesson to be learned from this story. How many examples of the young man do we come across everyday, be it in real life or through the media ? How many people do we see proffering their views on topics completely unrelated to them, of which they don't have the slightest idea ? Right from the next door maami's views on which branch of engineering offers the best career prospects to the hundreds of page 3 people talking about every damn thing under the sun.

Or as erstwhile WWE Superstar "The Rock" might put it, albeit a little too crudely : "Know your role and shut your mouth !!".

The Ubiquitous Northies

It's a never-ending battle. Us Thambis feel that Northies are the bane of society(Northie guys, that is!!) and they, vice-versa(only, Thambi girls are included too!!). This mutual feeling is exemplified when we see groups of each other, eating in the mess, sutta marofying in the coffee shop or wherever else. But the truth is, that we can't do without each other. Ours is a symbiotic relationship that manifests itself in many ways, with their part of the bargain being that they provide us with an unparalleled source of entertainment, without realizing it most of the time. I had heard that things at IITM weren't too different from NITT with regard to northies, but didn't really believe it until Saarang '06. This is what happened to me the minute I stepped into Saarang :-
It was a little late in the morning, first day of Saarang. After losing my way quite a few times on the straight road leading from the main gate to the area of action, I finally walked up to the hospi desk. There were 3-4 guys seated there, one right across the desk and the remaining in the background. They looked like Northies, but I wasn't sure, so I ventured in English.

Me : Hi, can I have a copy each of all the dailies ?
Guy across the desk : (Blank Stare)
Me : (Thought : Shit, don't tell me they're already out of copies..)I know it's a little late. I should have come here earlier, but have you run out of copies already ?
Him : (Blank stare)
Me : (Thought : OK, Maybe he doesn't know what "dailies" mean..) You distribute these lits contests everyday right, to be submitted by some specified time, with prizes for the fastest and best submissions? Do you have any copies of them?
Him : ( Blanker stare) What ?
Me : (Thought : The guy can speak!! The guy can speak!!) You know, these printed sheets of paper containing quizzes, crosswords, word games, brain teasers etc ? Usually many sheets are kept here and people can take them without going to as much trouble as I currently am !!!!
Him : (Slight expression change) What ?
A guy in the background : Abey saaley behench****, woh right side pey paper rakhey huay hain.. Wohi maang raha hai.
Me : (Thought : Sigh.. so this is what something as sacred as lits has been reduced to...)Haan, haan !! Paper !!!
Him : Oh sorry.. (Takes out the dailies and gives them to me.)

Sigh.. dear old northies, what would life be without them ??

Me and train journeys - Part 2... Yet another romance that could have been..

Sigh... If any of you know me well, u will definitely know that I'm not the kind of guy who's a great hit with the opposite sex. And don't ask me why.. I'm at a stage where I've almost given up hope of finding "The One", after a major mishap in school and a not-so-major one in college. That too, all at the tender age of 19 !!!! As my good friend Vinod once told me, " Don't worry, Hemant. One day, The Thespians' Society of NITT will stage a play in Bangalore. The chicks there will totally love you on stage and will be all over you once the play's over. On that day, my friend, your search will end. "

But meanwhile, there's this little voice in the back of my head, a voice that remains persistent and doggedly determined despite being drowned out almost every time it tries to make itself heard. It tells me never to give up, to try hard, no matter how many times i fail, to keep the faith. On one rare occasion, on an impulse, I decided to listen to this voice instead of the other one that tells me remain my quiet, unassertive self who normally merges with the background.

I was travelling from Hyderabad to Chennai by Charminar Express. Boarded the train at about 8.00 pm in Secunderabad. Now keep in mind that this was before the days when I started to get so frustoo as to take a look at the reservation chart of any coach I travel in just to see if there are any girls of my age group. However, I wasn't so paavam as to not take a look around my coach to see if there were any good looking girls. I walked through the coach, casting seemingly perfunctory glances from side to side. No one, no one at all. I got back to my seat and woefully resigned myself to spending an evening with "The Fourth Estate" by Jeffrey Archer, at the same time cursing my luck that the only female anywhere in sight was an old lady sitting on the seat right opposite mine. The train started and then suddenly out of nowhere came this girl and gracefully sat down next to the old lady. Now I know that most guys( in situations like this, that is) tend to exaggerate to high heaven and make it sound like the plainest of Janes they met was a Carmen Electra-esque sex goddess, but I swear that this girl was the most beautiful girl I've ever set my eyes upon, be it in Chennai (!), Bangalore (!!!), Mumbai ( !!!!!!) or Trichy (??!!??%$&). She was fair, of medium height, had a good figure, these alluring brown eyes and lovely long brownish hair. She was someone I could go on looking at, given her delicate features and this beauty that just seemed to radiate from her. When I looked at her, nothing else in the world seemed to matter.

A guy like me rarely ever gets a better opportunity than this, so I decided not to let it go. I badly wanted to strike a conversation with her and I decided that I wasn't going to let my shy, introverted nature get in the way this time around. She seemed to be Marwari or Rajasthani( a fact I gathered by straining my ears to overhear bits and pieces of her conversation with her grandmother and noting the dialect of Hindi being spoken). To an untrained eye, it would have looked as if I wasn't bothered about this babe sitting right in front of me, and that I was solely interested in my book, but in reality, I was only thankful that I had this book that I could pretend to keep my eyes on while casting furtive glances at her. I wasn't as seasoned at this then as I am now, therefore she noticed me looking at her once or twice. I noticed her looking back at me, and they sure as hell weren't the "fuck off you lecher" kinda glances. This heartened me and I wanted to talk to her even more badly. If only her grandmother wasn't sticking to her like the quintessential adhesive that I'm sure could effortlessly put Fevicol out of business. My best oppurtunity came when the grandmother left to go to the toilet. It was then that I realised I hadn't thought what to start talking about. By the time I had decided and opened my mouth to speak, hardly had I got a word out when she came back. I still maintain that I haven't seen a person move with as much speed as her, when she moved from the passageway to her seat. Back she was, to preserve her darling granddaughter under her protective shroud.

If the old lady seemed to be a sweet type, I would have started a conversation that included the three of us. From there on, I could have progressed into the zones I wanted. This after all, would have been akin to getting her approval. But she was such a grouchy old lady that I was afraid she would bite my head off if I started talking. So what was I to do, except continue with my eye exercises ?

It soon got pretty late. The lights were turned off and everyone in the bay went to sleep. I'd had a pretty tiring day and was quite sleepy too. With last thoughts of how I wasn't going to waste time the next morning and hoping that she was an early riser, off I went to sleep. I got up early the next morning, only to find her grandmother's hawk-like eyes boring into me. This doe-eyed beauty was still sound asleep. I've seldom reached the levels of frustration I reached at that instant. Circumstances seemed to indicate that all was lost, but this little voice in the back of my head still refused to give up. I however was pretty skeptical of my chances from then onwards. We were pretty close to Chennai Central when she woke up. Her grandmother fired something at her. She looked startled, then hurriedly got up and began packing. No sideways glances towards me today. I let it go at that point. It was only when we got down at Chennai Central that I realized I hadn't even got to know her name. And the idea that I didn't even know the name of the girl with whose beauty I had been so completely taken in, really pained me.
Which is why I started looking up the reservation chart of my coach whenever I board a train...