JumBore Circus

Took the family and went to see the Jumbo circus. The key question I ask myself is why? I thought I would take my kids to see something I enjoyed as a child.

We were late for the circus (as usual!) and then I did this cinematic run to the Rs 150 ticket counter only to be told that it was sold out. I jumped (yes, I can), skipped (again, yes I can) and ran (again...alright! I jogged!) and displaced enough people from the Rs 80 Q. I got the tickets! Yes! Or so I thought.

We entered the tent (asthma delite!). There were these unbelievably dusty chairs and fine dust particles floating all around. We waded in and found seats. And then I endured the next 90 minutes. It is not that the performers were sincere. I just realized I had grown up and the kids (at least the ones I still claim to have under my sphere of influence) were not interested. The jokes from the clowns were stale, the tricks were okay. The animals pretty much walked in and walked out. The elephant attempted to play some cricket. Other than the motorbike rounds in the cage there was little to give us excitement! The best fun I had was with the kids and their antics.

There were literally thousands that enjoyed the circus. I guess I have just out grown it and moved on. The problem was that the tricks had not changed. The circus had not come to the 21st century. They were safely ensconced in the 1960s.May be if they do something more fun and more contemporary I will like it.

Magic Times in Chennai

Ya! Ya! We have heard it before. Too many concerts, Too little artists! Music season has become commercial! There is not enough young people watching! Way too many Sabhas! And the list of whines can go on. This blog is not one more to that list.

The time I spent in Chennai is that of celebration. I think the music season is unique to this city and has survived nay sayers for so long. Looking at the crowds (albeit the graying generation), I think there are enough people to have this going on for sometime. One needs to be there to experience the magic created by amazingly talented artists interacting on a daily basis with the crowds. I think this is where it is great to have the population we have in India. Because, there are people everywhere! In the concert, in the sabha cafeteria, in the music exhibition, on the roads, in the buses, in the surrounding restaurants after the concert and even in the Sabha restrooms! Every activity gets supported with its diligent followers.

I attended four concerts and had great company to hear some wonderful music. The bane of going alone to a concert is that you don't have anyone to look at to confirm that they are as ignorant as you are in identifying the ragas. It may get lonely at the top, but you don't want to get caught lonely at the bottom. Always find someone to share the misery.

I heard Kadri on the Saxophone, and three vocal concerts of Aruna Sairam, Sanjay Subramaniam and Sudha Raghunathan. Each was different.

The day we heard Kadri, he was awesome. This was in Bharat Kalachar which has converted its school stage into an auditorium. I saw this after 21 years and it was exactly as it was 21 years ago but with the seats etc. In this concert, while Kadri on the saxophone was the show piece, it would would unfair not to comment on Kanyakumari as well. In my opinion both deserve equal mention. It was a great experience listening to them enjoy their music and in the process transmitting the enjoyment to ignoramus like me. There was so much zest in their music and the playing. I was thankful that this was one of the concerts that I went to.

The next concert in they day was that of Aruna Sairam. Through a well wisher I managed to beat the lines and get the tickets. This lady is the super-star of the music scene right now...NUMERO UNO...no competition if the number of people waiting for a canceled tickets is any measure. The concert lived up to its billing. When I told a few people (clearly the erudite kind) that I was going to this concert they gave me the look (if you have received it you will know it!). Their opinion was that she is too popular and may not be the quality singer that I should go after. Here I was questioning myself...am I a good fan? Do I know how to be a connoisseur of Carnatic Music. After standing in the Q for 30 minutes to get into grab a reserved seat, listening to 2:50 hrs of amazing music and looking around at the merriment around listening to Carnatic Music, the visible joy when she sang a Vittoba song or her Ashtaraga RTP or the Thillana or the audience response when she playfully asked whether she can take leave, connoisseur be damned! I am happy I am a lesser mortal who was completely taken for a glorious ride. I never knew Carnatic music can be toe-tapping, head shaking and hand clapping experience. Her concert was the best!

May be on par was the Sanjay concert. Began at 6:15 and went on till 9:30. It was just bliss. Not on the style of Aruna, but just the same in terms of joy. A Kodak Moment if you may was when Sanjay did an amazing Alapana and the audience gave a resounding applause. Then there was this man who could not control his excitement and asked almost pleadingly, "What Raga was that?". Sanjay, with a wonderful smile, replied Bageyshree. To me that summed up what makes this a great season. The liberty of the audience to interact with a performer during the performance is incredible. And Sanjay sang tamil songs on Shiva, probably composed by the Tamil Moovar. The main thing was again the ability of Sanjay to transmit his excitement and joy of singing to the audience. Everyone including the Ghatam Mama enjoyed this. Paisa Vasool!

The fourth was on Christmas day listening to Sudha Raghunathan. It was a good concert, great presentation but somehow, I felt that it did not transcend to a great concert. If you ask a person with my understanding of the nuances in Carnatic Music, I cannot give you a better answer that this. It just did not feel the same. It was like a mannequin dressed in a beautiful dress than a real person with the same dress. No life! Having said that I am sure some well respected art critic is going to say that this was the concert of the millennium!

I hope they do change a few things in the years to come...no! no! not the usual whine list.

1. Have clean restrooms. The one in Narada Gana Sabha was appalling and stinking to high heavens. S0me one sponsor them 5 gallons of "Phenaail"?

2. Can some of our esteemed artists find it in themselves to share some of the names of the Ragas they sing? Undeserving rasikas like me also need lifeboats once in a while.

3. Can they begin ticket booking on the net so that out of town folks like me have a chance to plan and come for a concert?

Many wise people will have wiser things to say on the Season 2007, but to me this is something that has to be cherished and I am thankful that I could be a rasika and listen to some divine music, albeit without a clue!

Ungrateful Man - The Second Edition

It has been a while since I got on to the blog machine, which gives me lot of focus coz hindsight is 20-20!!
We gathered around Nov 13 to do another bunch of shows of the Ungrateful Man. Very different experience from the first in some aspects and pretty much the same in some aspects. Still no voice :-( I was rasping through the play! We became much more cool...may be complacent. On the final day of the play, we actually reached the audi at 6:45 for a 7:30 show. We were victims of the Bangalore traffic (and that is as best an excuse as it gets!). Other than that the cast came together as though we were professionals. We literally walked into our roles. May be this is how real professionals work.
The limited practices we had were scary though. Everyone forgot lines or worse remembered the lines of the other person.. The run throughs and the "word throughs" were to put it mildly disasters. We really did not know how it was going to be. But I guess this is where experience helped. Everyone knew that while we sucked as individuals the team would come through. And luckily it did!

My favorite moments in the play
1. The new queen's "shoo" at the goldsmith
2. The over enthusiastic wedding guests who drove the Brahmin insane by always cutting him before he mentioned in the most cinematic manner "Ungrateful Man". This competed with the juveniles in the group shouting "Tiger-a"
3. The overenthusiastic snake that came into the stage before it was supposed to come. Luckily the brahmin who was supposed to have a conversation with the snake, hid behind his generous behind and acted as if he did not see the snake!

1st Day - 2nd Show - Must review OSO!!!!

As the title says, due to a rare alignment of stars your truly ended up watching Om Shanti Om. Before all the IT hotshots woke-up, I woke up at 5:15 am to book tickets for a theatre many did not know existed. Since, it is a first day event I thought I will 'review' the movie. But then even as I said the word review, self doubt crept in. Can I review like a national award winning buddy of mine. Who am I kidding, enough of the review bakwaas and instead I decided to focus on my reflections (sounds cool when I say it)...I shall now reflect on the movie!

First things first, I loved the end...I mean the real end when Farah Khan misses the auto. That was cute!! I think in some sense that is a reflection of the movie. A movie on movies and movie people where no one takes themselves seriously. And when they do, they stink! There is some stinking in this movie, but not much.

I loved the fact that everyone was made fun of. Even in a senti (or as they used to write it irritatingly in those days when Om kapur was all of 10 years, psenti with the 'p' silent) scene you don't know whether the characters were serious or not. I loved Akshay Kumar in the "Return of Khiladi" and Abhishek in Dhoom 5 where he is nominated for best actor because he is not there in that movie!!!

I loved the fact that they actually tried to sell the movie looking at you straight in the eye and telling us that "you believe people flying, hitting 10 villians, why not this story" and why not! I loved that Sharukh decided to fight like a true South Indian Film hero.

I loved Deepika (Thank you Prakash!). She hopefully would get to do more than just have that amazing, radiant smile in the coming movies. I am all Shanthi to see this for now, but the gal was good at making fun of herself too.

I liked Kiron Kher's Maa. She must have done this role with her eyes closed, but she was funny. Shreyas was awesome, so talented an actor! Comedy comes naturally to him. But is he getting typecast??

There is of course no OSO with out the king Khan. He is uber cool in this movie. He succeeds because even when he is goofing off he is soooo sincere. That is cool. You can watch it for Shah Rukh.

Of course, I did not like the fact that they suddenly went serious for a few minutes. The best part was when you thought that the movie was lost because Farah wanted to 'tell a story' it rescued itself. If I were thinking of the screenplay again, I would rethink some of the transitions in the second half. But don't worry Farah I am one of those who was completely entertained by this production from you guys...Good fun, keep it up.

And as a friend pointed out, When you entered the movie theatre and started seeing the movie, you knew the movie...you knew the end before they actually did it. You knew it all...spooky no? Naah!!! Just good old Hindi picture yaar!!! We are born with it!

Solitude of the Emperors - My reflections

I read "Solitude of the Emperors" by David Dravidar. There were two reasons why I bought the book. One was the India Today review which suggested that this book was a must read. Second was that I had read the authors first book, The House of Blue Mangos. In the Blue Mangoes book, I loved the first portion just for his description. I personally thought that he had lost his way towards the end. The gripping opening is not followed by a good second half.

So I started reading Solitude with a lot of expectations. The comments that I am going to type below may be affected by the fact that I did not read the book at one go like many. I did what I could, and here is what I felt.

The things that I greatly appreciated was the author's control when he describes a place. The opening sequence was so good and so gripping. The author described small town K..so well with its sweet stall and sleek hospitals. Someone I know was commenting on the rise of hospitals in the Nagercoil area and I thought that the author had a done a great job describing the scene. Some episodes like the demeaning behavior of the higher caste brahmins were so natural. Seeing Indian words like kolam without italics told me that Indian English had arrived and we need not apologize to others that this was a word from the vernacular.

My disappointments were again with the end. It was like a poor Sivakasi pattasu. A lot of noise, flame in the beginning and a total busss in the end (see no italics!!). From the start as the story progressed, I felt the author went into a discourse mode. He does this through the book that is being read by the main protagonist. Nice book within book, but only gyan. The end came on to me in a very tame manner. So fast that I did not realize that the story had ended! May be the author decided that after all this was an incident in Meham, a small village and it did not merit more. Somehow where the author wanted me to connect, I missed it. Completely! Totally! Hence I feel after I read the book that I missed a ride that the others enjoyed but I am left panting having missed the train that has just left the station. May be the subtleties were lost on me (being bang on middle of the normal distribution).

As I reflect, I feel that this is a good book that people should read. But if you are expecting an emotional cauldorn or intellectual superstuff that you woudl be thinking for 2 days after you read the book (e.g. Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki...MUST READ), this book is not it. But I will recommend it for the first part...again.

Dear Mr. Dravidar, thank you for Solitude, but please, please build in more drama...you do it so well that it is a shame we don't get to see the full picture. And don't be in a hurry to finish the book. That is the feeling I got with Solitude.

And, What A Yudh!

Yesterday I watched for the first time in my life, a play in Manipuri! The play was called Andha Yudh and it was performed by Chorus Repertory Theatre, Imphal.
Since this is the first time I was seeing a performance by Chorus Repertory Theater and their style of performance, you could say that I was blown away.
The play is about the last day of Mahabharata and the madness of Ashwattama. As the epic goes, Ashwattama completely loses it and avenges the death of his father by slaughtering all the sons and daughters of the Pandavas. The narrative describes the pain that Dhritarashtra and Gandhari go through on hearing the death of Duryodhana, their one hope of victory. The death and destruction that continues after the great war where brothers fought brothers and families were torn apart are presented in a poetic manner.
The opening of the play with the cross lighting and the eerie looking chorus walking through really gripped my attention. I was not prepared for this. From then on the build up was great. There was very little quiet on the stage. Action, dance, music. What was amazing was that I could understand the emotion even though I had no clue what they were saying!
May be because of that, I was observing body language etc like a hawk. There was some rough edges in some of the choreography. There was a feeling that the lady who played Gandhari, while very good, was getting repetitive in her movements. The role of Vidura was unclear. The use of modern props (like sun glasses etc, the use of stretcher, nurses to symbolize the futility of war) were neat touches. Overall, one walked away with the feeling that the play wanted to convey on the futility of war. Be it an eon ago or be it in the neighborhood in the country next door. Peace! Peace! Peace!

Theatre 4 Theatre - The Reading @ Opus

Went to hear the reading of Jean Paul Savage and the Reichenbach Fall at the Opus tonight. This is part of BLT's Theatre for Theatre. Good attempt. Not necessarily supper theatre, but in a genre where you can listen to a play while you munch and chew.
The only catch in this evening's performance was no one told the traffic outside to shut-up! Every time there was a green light, the honks would start. And you could not hear the actors. Even in the noise, we did manage to catch a few jokes, good ones at that.
I think it is a good attempt by BLT to do this and the team that put it together. However, the next time let us get some mikes please.

I hope we can actually get to see the play soon as well...with out the traffic and on stage

Reading of Jean Paul Savage and the Reichenbach Fall

Bangalore Little Theatre does what it calls the Go Fourth! It is a gathering of interested folks under a roof to do something or anything about theatre. We watch movies, read scripts, chat...whatever. Today we met for the first time after the Ungrateful Man to read Jean Paul Savage and the Reichenbach Fall by Doug Huff. The killer part of the whole session was that Doug was there at the reading. And there was actually a very good turnout of people for the reading. There were around 20 - 30 people. That is a lot.

The play is set in 2 acts, deals about Jean Paul Savage middle aged, cigar loving, Philosopher, Cigar Loving , Private Detective. The play begins with a murder and ends with a couple (?) with some murders in the middle. All the work of the Male Menopause Killer! What is the real killer is the humor. The play is so funny! As someone pointed out, as you are reading the play you can actually imagine each of the characters. I had Humphrey Bogart playing Jean Paul Savage! That will tell you something about the genre. Not one line was wasted and the audience was in splits at the jokes coming in. There are stereotypes that are made fun of. And it is wonderful how everything gets tied up together. And the jokes flowed as the Krishna Raja Sagar in full flow.

BLT is planning to do a reading of this in Opus on Oct 9th. Be there!!

50 years of Bangalore Little Theatre

Amazing that an amateur theatre group has managed to survive for 50 years in Bangalore when the average age for a group is normally 8 years! If all goes well it will, in 2009-2010. I am new to this one, but yesterday I had an unique opportunity to meet the first few members of the group as we get down to plan for the golden jubilee. They recounted tales of how it all started. Looking at the group and reflecting on what we do today in BLT, I was surprised at the similarities between the ages. The passion to do theatre was foremost.

BLT has survived several Tsunamis. It has been given up to be dead with no money in the Bank. But people still managed to do pull it out. The torch has been passed from one generation to another. Needless to say it has flickered many times, but the flames never went out. It has lit several other torches that are burning bright. Many groups came out of BLT for whatever reason.

But even today BLT remains. There is something to that. It is amazing to see people even now talk passionately about what they did.

Lets hope that as the golden hour approaches all of us (the people who left and the people who remain), can contribute something to celebrate a unique organization that has managed to survive through sheer passion of many committed individuals.

And now for something completely BORING!!! - A Rant

I went in with a lot of expectations for EVAM's show in Bangalore today. They called it "And now for something completely different", the funniest comedy show ever. You cannot believe how bad it was. I met a few faces I knew. And I know they have a funny bone, miles better than I do. And it was a universal verdict, BORING! I needed to get this out of my system otherwise, I cannot sleep. This blog is supposed to be my gentler side...yeah right! Did I tell you I hated it! And others detested it as well. There was a whole group that walked out to go to Lalitha's parathas during the interval. It was that bad.

From what little I know, comedy is not about wanting to be funny, but actually being funny. I felt that EVAM had taken the audience for granted. There were many people who wanted to laugh desperately, but it just did not happen. Of course, I met a couple of people who said that they had a good time. I felt pity...Their lives must really suck! Did I tell you that I hated the play!

The disappointment is doubled because, I am amazed at the guts of these guys Sunil, Karthik to do Evam as a business. It is terrific that they took the risk and dared to dream. I think they have built a brand rather assiduously and have a dedicated bunch of followers in Bangalore. Their is hype and their shows are sell outs. (Aside: I know what it is to desperately try and have a 1/2 filled show!). But I feel that they are taking the crowd for granted. If the bad word spreads (I am sure it will after the show I saw), then people will want to see more quality. Not just guffaws. Todays performance was a disappointment because the team tried too hard with their accent and squeaky voices (GOD some body as Karthik to talk normally). The timing was not there. There was a couple of new things. Something on Thalaivar - Da Boss, which I liked. There was this concept of using dancers to double as stage hands. There were some silly jokes that I smiled. May be I am being too harsh here. May be it was a bad show, but then again may be not! All I got to see was this one show and I did not like it. We know that by now, don't we!!!

Grateful Men

Even before it all began, the first show I mean, we had a blast. It was a very different play that I was a part of. Lot of people in the cast, and lot of people to watch too! That made it a lot of fun. And The Hindu was kind to us as well.

When Vijay first told me about the play, I honestly was not too thrilled with the story of Monkey, Tiger, Snake etc. But when we read the script for the first time, there was magic. It was simple yet nice. Funny and witty. All of us actually enjoyed reading it.

Then the rehearsals with the SPOT 2007 folks and all the other ex-SPOTTERs and future SPOTTERs made it fun. I did not realize how the 3 months had gone away. There were times when the more diligent of us were mugging the lines, the lazy bunch that was in there (yours truly was part of it) winging it, eating 2 samosas (all right! all right! I had 3 :) ) that I have wondered how the hell will this turn out to be a play that people pay and watch. We were doing it for Dream a Dream...was it going to be Nightmare at Ranga Shankara, I feared.

Guiding us through this mayhem was Vijay (the Bheeshma Pita Maha, if you will) and Vijji (often wondered what is the deal with extra j). Vijay had to manage the real monkeys er...us, and Vijji the younger ones. Man did they pull it off! I am sure the kids who go to Vijji's Magic Puddles would be so lucky that they have her to learn from.

Anyways, show time came and went. The cast had a blast, the crew had fun and whatever happened we all laughed a lot backstage. One of my key learnings in this play was whatever you do have fun doing it in the play. The size of the part does not matter. There were so many folks fighting to play the rock, the friends, the people in Kashi. One of the best shows I had was when I was doing a 30 s role as the doctor who tries to save the princess...a blast. The other key learning was to do a play that entertains people, you need to be happy doing it. The happiness that you had on stage translated to one off stage. When the tempers were up backstage, the onstage team suffered and I guess the audience did not get a great show.

Of course, for me this play was a challenge as I had to do a critical part on a couple of days fighting through Laryngitis (for the record, I still am fighting!). So I must thank the kind doc who did not ask me to keep quiet but gave me drugs to tide things over, to my two special friends who went home and made turmeric milk with pepper and saffron (which was promptly attacked in the green room!). No thanks goes to the "Tigers" who beat the living daylights out of me :). And I will be a ungrateful dog, if I don' t say that the play was what it was because of the amazing kids. Kudos guys and gals.

And who knows, there may be more shows of the UGM and we can have more fun...I would be grateful.

Flame of the Forest - Not So Bright!

I saw the Flame of the Forest performed by Just Us Repertory at Ranga Shankara today. It is based on a Tamil Novel by Kalki called Sivakamiyin Sabatham. After sitting through a very good performance by the team, I left unsatisfied. I was wondering why. After reflection and intense discussions with my parents (fellow fans of Kalki's works), here is my take.

The factors that were an integral part of Kalki's story, the characterization, the purpose of the characters and the purpose of the story itself was absent in the play. I was able to understand the play because I was aware of the story. But if this were presented to someone who has no idea of the story, I wonder whether they would have been able to appreciate it. While the playwright tried to make the events very contemporary through citing war being incited by religion, or the futility of war, I could not really empathize with any of the characters. It was as though I was looking at a nice album on someone else coffee table. The greatness of reading Kalki's story is the ability to feel that you are part of the action. Here you were sitting back and watching it unfold. Neither did I feel the futility what Mahendra Pallava felt, nor sorry for Sivakami. Talking about Sivakami, where was Sivakamiyin Sabatham (or the oath of Sivakami)?

There are several ways of telling a story and every person should have the liberty to choose how they tell it. In this version of telling the events, you have Paranjothi (or Siruthondar) as the Sutradhar. Balakrishnan playing this part as well as Pulikesi and Shatrugna's son was absolutely superb. He was so convincing in each of the roles he played. The gent who played Mahendra Pallavan was good, but one felt that he was holding back as Vajrabahu. The ensemble was excellent. Sivakami, the young and old. were well rendered. Sivakami, the younger one, played by Mythili Prakash was very expressive and I am sure an accomplished dancer. One tinge, that I felt was she made sure that every instant she was on stage (even when she was not dancing), she reminded everyone that she is a dancer! She could "chill out" a bit. The director chose to play the part of the older Sivakami. She played to her strength of singing and did not not come out as a dancer!

When I was leaving the auditorium when all was said and done, I missed Naganandhi (the amazing chalu villain monk), I missed Maamallan, I missed Sivakami and her Sabatham. But that was compensated by the fact, that I enjoyed Parnjothi and Mahendra Pallavan. I liked the poetry and music and a new way of doing an Indian play. But still there was that what if....