Theatre Tango

I have a problem - It is really me that is the problem

2011-06-19T10:21:00.002+05:30

I woke up, a bit like Rip van Winkle and decided that I must blend in with the elite to catch a play. I decided that it has to be a super hit play because everyone just loved the play. I went there with expectations reaching the sky ready eat whatever that was served. But....

It was an hour play, more of a monologue, with props worth Rs 450 max. It used intelligent theatre skills, gimmicks etc. It was against repression of free speech, and how they shut us up. And it was funny in the beginning and saddened out in the end. It was like when someone is all excited and asks you to come to see something wonderful and you go there to say, this is it! Such an anticlimax. However, I was in the minority of minorities. Everyone seemed to love it. That's when I realized that I was not blessed. I did not get it!

It has happened to me before. I went for a play and slept through it. It was the exchange of letters between two giants of the previous century India. They spoke, I snored! And it was a good sleep. Everyone loved it! I did not get it.

So there I am the problem with no solution!

Swami and His Friends - Not a fun group!

2010-12-05T09:54:00.002+05:30

Last night, I woke up from hibernation to watch Swami and His Friends by the Madras Players doing its round in Bangalore as part of the Hindu Theatre Fest. It is amazing what publicity and 'build-up' can do to a play. People come walking to a production thinking that it is great and each play then has an opportunity to be greater! I walked in along with this group with all my expectations already met. RK Narayan, Madras Players and the lovable Swami...Tell me what can go wrong?

As it turned out quite a lot! One cannot fault the performance yesterday. It was good over all. There was one shoddy performance (a small role). Hence it did not matter. There was this thing about shouting vs throwing the voice which Swami forgot in a few scenes. He shouted his way is a few places. Not a big deal!

What could not be ignored was the writing and characterization. Swami as I remembered him is this endearing, innocent boy. What I got was a dork! Rajam was this show-off boy, and I got a smart rich kid! The time it took in between stories was too long and the Ganjira was irritating beyond a point. Layering and texture that was possible through story telling, set design and music was reduced to one single layer. There is always a time during performance when you know whether the audience is with you or not. Even with the hugely partisan (and what seemed like friends and family college type) audience, around 55 - 60 min in the play, the audience was getting edgy. To me that is always a measure of the tightness of the script and the story telling. Think about it, not one incident of Swami's young life remains in my mind after one night's sleep. That is not being fair to Malgudi, Swami or Mr. Narayan!

I hope the young director and script writer do take a look at the production and find ways of getting the innocence back in Swami.

Meena by Perch - Rocked

2010-08-01T06:52:00.002+05:30

A hibernating bear like me is woken up once in a while after seeing an awesome show that you want to come out of the cave and make a point. One such experience was the performance by Perch in Rangashankara last night. Their performance was called Ms. Meena.

Forget the story. They could have done anything and I would have done the equivalent sound of sucking up the running rasam on a plantain leaf in a Kalayana pandhi with the cook maama coming in with the next round of carbo attack! The best thing about this was the even nature of the performance. There were no bad performers and the good performers covering up for them! For someone who thinks he is an occasional theatre geek, this was a lesson on total theatre. Be it the creative use of the body, highly enjoyable and creative use of everyday things as props, simple tunes to convey a point, highly effective montages to communicate everyday scenes....one word..Awesome!

Now coming to the plot, it is a tragedy sugar coated as a comedy. If you think about it, the behavior of the people in the story is absolutely despicable. How they dump friendship, relationship for instant gratification! How low will they stoop for money and fame...All this told as a doctor who is offering a toffee to a child as he is sliding a huge injection in!

Bottom line: Ms Meena is a show that you need to watch to laugh and enjoy and reflect on the way back. Don't miss it!!!

Sky Crosser

2010-02-28T21:21:00.003+05:30

A tinge of sadness, a small lump in the throat and a general feeling of melancholy....Guess that is the formula for a successful love story.

Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya fits the bill perfectly. A movie for the die hard romantics who still keep the flag of hope flying. There is of course the story, the acting, but what made the movie for me was the music. I thought ARR had a ball doing this movie...he seems to have enjoyed it and in the process made sure we did.

All the players were near perfect. Simbu was watchable...I never thought I would ever say that. The only thing he should try is to see if he can get out of his characteristic dialog delivery. It felt like I was watching Airtel Jodi Number 1.

My heart went out to Trisha...Oh My! What a performance! Somehow I felt the lines that she spoke were all written by a man. I can never ever imagine a woman mouthing some amazing lines like that :-P. But to me she was the stand out performer. So subtle, so good! And she was just a treat to the eye and soothed the heart!

The reason I think the movie scores was because the climax was at the interval! One would imagine a walk into the sunset after that, especially since they were in Kerala. One often what happens after the climax. Guess one answer is VTV!

As we were leaving the hall, one person was commenting that the end was practical. Don't know whether the practical end is always the right end. Sometimes you do want a movie to be just that and give in to the romantics! I don't know whether this will be a all time great movie, but definitely one love story to talk about for this generation of movie goers!

I am just one in the crowd

2010-02-13T22:32:00.002+05:30

Well I am back! After all the dithering of should I write or not, here I am. 'nuff 'bout me.

Coming back to the movie of the week...My Name is Khan.

Sometimes you just want to make a statement. You want to do that by living a very normal day. Get up. Go stand in a line, buy a First Class ticket, take the family, watch the movie, eat the puff, popcorn and chips. Come back home. By doing that, you are doing an 'Up yours!' to all those that want to change the way I live by inflicting their petty morals on me. I am happy to say, I did just that. So all you so called guardians of my country, guess what, I lived today as I had intended it to be and you could not mess it up for me.

Now coming back to the movie, this is classic Karan Johar stuff. Full of emotions...lot of coincidences, 'We shall overcome' at strategic places. Either you love it or you laugh about it. I have no snide comments at people who laugh about it. It is your choice and you are entitled to it. I was one of those who liked the movie. A little meandering, slightly disjointed, it ain't no Forrest Gump, but it was good nevertheless. Sharukh and Kajol were excellent. This movie belonged to the director as much as it did to his favorite actor(s). Thankfully no Kiron Kher and Zarina Wahab did an admirable job as the mom. Surprisingly, I did not feel the pangs and tears that I should have felt. Normally I do have tears at the drop of a hat. From that perspective, I don't know whether the story reaches out as much as it should have.

One often wonders whether these feel good stories actually do happen. They probably haven't, may be they should!

Movies Movies and More Movies

2009-10-04T20:08:00.003+05:30

After a long time, I have been in movies. Not the camera print from under the jute bag variety but the real stuff. My thoughts... (as always I think that they matter!)

Unnai Pol Oruvan - I think a camera print would have been better than seeing it with the latest digital projector that Sampige theatre uses. But considering it is only 50 bucks for a balcony, lets not complain.

This was sooo much better than that 10 role nonsense! I have to thank Kamal for going back to being a no gimmick actor. And he ROCKED! There were some trademark Kamalisms in the movie! But he was simply in awesome form just by not wanting to dominate the screen presence. Of course, much has been said about Mohanlal and how great it was. I for one, having seen Mohanlal before, thought he was not good. He was one dimensional. Every response that he was giving was predictable. The interpretation of this role by him and the director could have been better. The others were good in their parts. After a long time, I was able to associate myself with the happenings on screen in a tamil thiraipadam! And yes I have seen A Wednesday. Unnaipol Oruvan is right up there along with it. Oh by the way, Shruthi Hasan score was nice too. Way to go babe!

Wake up Sid: When you go have a Benne Masala Dosa at CTR, you know what you are getting. In fact that is why you go there. When the waiter brings it in front of you, you look at it. For the smallest fraction of a second admire it and then dig in. Every bite you take is exactly what you had ordered for. You know it and it meets the expectation in every bite and crunch. And of course, the logical conclusion to that story is you order for one more...if you are dieting it is Benne Plain else Benne Masala!

The feeling without the reorder is what you get when you are watching Wake Up Sid. You know what you are getting into. Every scene is known at the title scene. You know what Sid is going to do and with what. There are NO SURPRISES in Wake up Sid. But still it is like the yummy BMD at CTR. And Ranbir makes it that way for you. This movie works because of Ranbir. No Ranbir, it would have been Snooze Sid! The role of all the other actors is to make Ranbir look better. And they do a great job. I loved Konkona, Anupam Kher and Supriya Pathak. It is so good to see someone other than Kiron Kher in the mom roles! I loved the lady who plays Lakshmi and Sid's friend. I hope Rahul Khanna does not play the boss who gets dumped all the time. I am sure he is a great actor and hopefully he gets a better role. The movie is made better because of Shankar-Ehsan-Loy They rock! I really loved the background score. It was so rich and made the movie a better experience.

Inglorious Basterds: When you read up the web on this movie, one finds a perverse sense of pleasure in noting that the international media is as jingoistic as the local ones. You read reports on how this is really not a war movie and how things are 'inaccurate'...duh! what did you expect! Personally, I felt that this movie rocked!!! It was just so creative. I believe that the Indian version had scenes scapeled out because of the violence! There was still enough gore, but you set your insensitivity index to a high and this movie does not affect you. And you have to commend the characterization of Hans Landa! Christoph Waltz rocked! It was one of the best performances you can get to see. And you know it is genuine acting and not the spliced up stuff that you see on the Indian screens. With that technique even a mannequin can get a best actor award. But Christoph was the real thing. Brad Pitt was really cool as the American from the Smokies. But end of the day this was the director's movie. Every scene was crafted nicely and no scene was too long! Like the great directors, Tarantino builds the suspense by letting you know what to expect! And then he adds some twists as toppings! This is no WW II movie but is a work of fiction! And a damn good yarn at that!

UP: When you sit back at the end of UP, there is a tinge of disappointment. Why cant our movie makers in India think of stories like this. Why cant we make kids movies that adults can actually be a part of than just be patronizing and watch a kiddy movie? Why?

Because a movie like UP was sooo good! It tackled so many topics sooo well. It tackled love at first sight, growing old, not having kids, a kid with divorced parents, and being just a good human being! You cannot help but admire at the way they have made this movie. The kids loved it and I loved it to the point I forgot to 'explain' to them the scenes. They did not need any as I overheard their discussion later. That was 6 thumbs up for this movie!

The lone bright spot in India seems to be the Amar Chitra Katha DVD release. They are no Pixar movies but nice in their own way.

Thank Murugan for that!

2009-08-29T21:26:00.002+05:30

Last week Kandasamy let us down, this week Murugan picked it up! And thank the six faced one for that!

Walked in to the theaters with no expectations! And was taken in by the intelligent script and great execution. Here was one group of people who never pushed a gag too far. Even the epic MMKR had a bad last 10 minutes! But this was one was good fun. The script was the hero, the music was super and the direction was near perfect. They were doing a farce and they made no pretense about it.

From the beginning scenes with Gun Powder who likes Bullit Idlis, to Rice Plate Reddy (an over the top Naser, just perfect!), to the Pandari Bai look alike Anni, to Mango Dolly, to Rowdy MBA and of course Quick Gun! The movie was a treat to watch and I thank the stars that I watched it in English. Each of the sequence has nuggets (from the mind it, to the Gita quotes, to Rascal etc). My favorite in the movie, simply because no one had given it publicity was the "I will beat his back and put Calicum"...too good! Just rocked!!

For the love of God!

2009-08-23T21:20:00.002+05:30

Kanda - Dont see me! At least in that way.

Oh! My God!!! What a waste of money. Of time. Instead of making that movie if they had pumped the money into the economy, it would have revived again. I am talking about Kandasamy. And what an absolutely awful movie it was!

There was the hype and initial reviews (on hindsight, must have been paid reviews) on the movie that has taken so long to come out. And after all this, you see the movie and wonder why? It is as though the director did not want to use the editor's scalpel anywhere! The direction was non-existent, the acting pedestrian (Vikram was giving 'looks', Shriya was walking, bathing, hip-shaking, Vadivelu was an after thought for kamedi sentiment, Prabhu was irrelevant, Krishna was not necessary), editing was bad, music was pedestrian. Can you believe that the team that made this movie actually thought they have a winner on their hands! This was a bad movie and should be consigned to dust. There was nothing new in this movie at all!!!

What really hurts me is that we should be pushing for higher standards and after pushing we get this??? In the name of being cool, they produce this piece of crap! In my opinion, we have long ways to go before we see good Tamil Cinema if this the state of the art!

Future Perfect, A new voyage!

2009-06-07T19:51:00.002+05:30

After a long gap, a movie that I wanted to say something about....actually 2 movies in a gap of 4 days.

Rarely do you enter a movie hall wanting the movie to be good and coming out feeling "Boy was it good!!" That was the feeling after watching Star Trek. What a movie! The story was neat, the script was terrific. It was an inclusive script that had all the star trek newbies engrossed. Enough for the vetrans (at least those who think they are) engrossed. It was all about how the first Enterprise team came together in a new future created by Nero, an old villain. So you really dont know whether that was the way they came together, but at least from this point on, it is the only way!!! Having the old Spock in the movie was a neat touch. The final voice over by Spock was a neat touch...I want more of this Trek...Hope it lives long and prospers!!!

One line on Angles and Demons....Much Much Much better than Da Vinci Code the movie.

Now I am dreading the Hindi Movie Release Overload...we are going to be held hostage again...sigh!!!

Dil e 6

2009-02-22T19:54:00.002+05:30

For brief flashes, I felt like I was watching the old serial of the single channel DD days Nukkad. There was that kind of synthetic, real feel to the movie. It seemed that all of today's headlines were captured in a small microcosm and played out in the background of Delhi-6. The surprising thing was that I did not feel that Abhishek was the hero during the whole movie. He had a role to play but so did a whole bunch of others. And they did a great job. Every actor played the part to the T.

Songs were used well and in passing. Scenes did not seem to be made for the songs. I actually liked that. Though I did want to see a few songs in full :-(

The whole movie over all was interesting, but somehow and somewhere the Nukkad feel did not go away. While the intentions were noble, there was something synthetic about it!

Music Season 2008 - Micro Session

2008-12-24T22:45:00.002+05:30

I was visiting Chennai for a conference and tried to squeeze a concert in this time. Managed to see one Aruna Sairam Concert in Parthsarathi Swami Sabha. And what a concert it was!

Aruna is one of my favorite performers. And she did not disappoint this time. With the aid of the web, a complete novice like me could identify songs by surfing the web. So the concert was more pleasurable.

It was 3 hours of high energy performance. The highlights of the concert were the enjoyable Thani session where the Ganjira player decided to do Kunnakol instead. Made a huge difference and prevented the maamas and maamis going toward the cafeteria for some mammu!

Towards the end of the concert, Aruna rendered her favorite Maadu Meikkum Kaana and like in a rock concert she encouraged the crowd to sing along! And guess what the crowd did! I did not expect that from the staid Mama(i)s!

Sensational end to a spectacular evening.

Rock on!

Rub All-Tear Egos!

2008-12-13T11:42:00.001+05:30

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi! Or so we are told ever so often with a photo or representation of a suitable Rab.

I went in to the movie with very little expectations. When I came out I thanked the Rab above that he had given me very little expectations! The story is out now. Man marries woman she did not like (No it is not Mouna Ragam!). Man tries to get her what she wants (Again, it is not Mouna Ragam). He becomes someone else, another self who is hep and happening (No it is not Anniyan!). He captures his wife's heart as Rab shows her who she actually should love (by the 15th reel of the movie!). I would have liked it if Rab had done that at least a couple of reels earlier.

The highlights of the movie is clearly the opening sequence and Sharukh as Surinder, the common man! He was very good and I wish he really does movies where can indeed act more. Anushka Sharma, me liked. She seemed like a good dancer and some fresh air. I did not like Vinay Pathak's role/character. There was really no one else in the movie. One of the limited expectations I had was that this was a movie with lot of dance. But they kept the dances as simple as possible so that it is accessible to the common man! Good for me! Bad for my kids!

This movie lies on a very fragile story whose fragility would not have been exposed if they had kept it 30 min short. But since that would be against the laws of simple movie making, we have the same point being driven in again and again and again...what the hell...and again!

When will Rab make good movies?

Flights of Fantasy with Aruna Sairam as the pilot

2008-11-16T22:35:00.002+05:30

There are some days when you know the luck is on your side. Today was definitely one of them for me. How often can you go to a ticketless concert without a pass and enter Chowdiah hall and find a seat right in the middle, 9 rows from the stage? The answer is once and for me it was today.

Heard Aruna Sairam and like the other 1000 odd folks who were overflowing and filled the stage as well was mesmerised. Aruna Sairam has the potential to create a rock concert with all the ages (from the late 70's to the early 10's) participating with equal gusto. It was a spectacular concert. And the best thing this time was that I did not have to ask the maama or maami sitting next to me as to what raga was being sung. I just used my mobile and google instead. Guess they never thought of that when they made Google. With information at my finger tips, I actually understood the raagas being sung as they were sung!

She sang about 15 songs for a full 3 hours. The main piece was the RTP in Madhyamavathi with the Pallavi beckoning all the 8 Lakshmis. Each Lakshmi had her own Raga to welcome her, of course! The concert had everything...the Abhangs, the thillanas, the oothukaadu songs. Aruna had all of us eating out of her hands! Always a pleasure to be a part of such an event even if our role is to just listen and walk away.

PS: As in a Oothukaadu song that I heard Aruna Sairam render, there is a small note from the Adiyaarkku Adiyaarku Adiyaar! I felt that the usual smoothness was just a little lacking. Flights of Fantasy series by Ganjam was referred by her as Flight of Fancy about 3 times! And in one of the viruttams calling Thiruthani Muruga, she Thiruthini Muruga...slight jarring from an ever perfect performer.

Closet Matters

2008-11-16T22:22:00.002+05:30

Since we are on a roll this weekend, I did the second movie of the weekend...Dostana. Hearing the hype engines work their magic, one would have imagined this is the next best thing to sliced bread.

By now we all know how mainstream Bollywood has decided to include them as part of mainsteam cinema in this movie. So I left my mind in the car and went in to enjoy the movie.

My verdict So-So! There were some funny moments but overall it was not a 'wow what a movie!' experience. Abhishek is best with his timing, Kiron Kher is over the top, and poor Boman is reduced to a sterotype. This movie is just being funny for the sake of being funny. And so you enjoy some moments. But everything was very surface...no depth. I guess they did not plan it that way. It as a laugh and leave comedy...so I laughed in the theatre and left!

Elephant song

2008-11-15T17:37:00.002+05:30

When one is on a cruise boat, you are expected to sit down and enjoy what you see. Some of what you see you may like and some you may not, but sit you must. If you like the trip, you can come back again. If not, the cruise boat does not give a damn and so wont you. That was what I thought when I watched Vaaranam Aayiram. Gautam Menon, one of the few directors, to whose cinematic language I can relate best these days has presented a photo album, or coffee table book that you can flip through. The only catch being you cannot turn the pages, only he can and at his speed. Hence I write these as observations and reflections as I really am not supposed to interpret anything.

You really go through the adult life of a young man whose father provided the right kind of support or direction at the right time. A good father can be the pillar that can make a child to a fine young adult. Coming to what we saw in the journey, there were three love stories. A lot of ups and some deep downs. And how the father is there for the son in the downs. In some sense, I would have liked to see more multidimensional aspects of the relationships. I enjoyed that in Cheran's Thavamaai Thavamirundu. My interest was held during most parts of the movie. I thought the end could have been done better because I felt that it would never end! The other aspects of the movie were standard Gautam Menon fare. There were some rough edges where it felt that the whole family is enacting its love story for us. The coolness quotient for me though was the fact that Surya lives through the same college period as I did. While I clearly did not have the romantic tracks and hence the music tracks he had, I could at least sing along (thamilla sonna othhu oootharathu!!)

In terms of performances, Surya was excellent and Krishnan was awesome! So glad to see Simran back! Sameera is sweet but she has an one dimensional smile...What a smile...sigh!. Ramya or Divya Spandana was cute. All the others were in the shadows. Music is excellent, Harris Jayraj at his best. Camera work was nice with lot of shots reiterating the 1st person narrative!

This movie is a love story made by a director for a father and for an actor he adores. The actor really nails this one! I wish the father was just a tad crisper and not without the flab! Coming to the question, will I get on the ride again...I doubt it but would definitely look at excerpts if someone were to show it to me!

The Frame and the Painting - Beautiful Picture

2008-10-11T23:00:00.002+05:30

Here are two guys who went to the same school who kept in touch and as their professional careers matured, thought they can take the best of their worlds and create something nice or nicer. I am referring to Anil Srinivasan and Sikkil Gurucharan after I listened to their concert (can you believe it was free!!!) called Madhirakshi today.

Easily one of the best musical experiences that I have been to in a long time.

The thing that gets to you is the voice of Gurucharan that was enhanced by the Piano of Anil and the Ganjira of Purushottam. Suttum Vizhicudar thaan, then an ashtapadi followed by Ksheerasagara....It went on. One amazing song after an another. They covered Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi with ease. Language, obviously, did not matter. Music Did!

There was a piece where they allowed the Ganjira to have a solo play. It was the piece written by Kalki about a lady waiting for Muruga. She goes on to say that after she has seen her love, how she finds happiness in solitude. This was the portion of the song that they played. It did strike me odd that the thani piece was tagged to this song! A friend with whom I was discussing this suggested that may be the Kanjira was being played alone to reflect the solitude! I thought that it was an interesting take to the whole positioning of the thani piece in the concert.

After the vote of thanks they did an encore piece, Omana Thinkal. The audience was transfixed as if the lullaby was for them.

Amazing experience! Worth doing it again. Sikkil is part of my December must hear list!

PS: The Frame is what Anil referred to his Piano and the Painting is what he referred to Gurucharan's voice

Drum Beats!

2008-09-28T11:21:00.002+05:30

I am writing this after 16 shows of Magic Drum, including a 3 show Sunday! There were those in the team that actually did all the 16 shows! Can you believe that? I managed to do 9 I think!

Here is an anwer to the question I had earlier...yes there is a GOD! Oh Yeah! What was a disaster of a rehearsal metamorphosised and grew into an amazing show. As the days went the performance levels went up and up. Towards the end we actually were confident that we could pull it off.

There were several crowd favorite moments. But there were some total cast favorite moments which the whole cast was rooting for. My favorites were a few. One was the barber in Good Luck Gopal. It was one scene that always had me in splits. The other one that I loved were the Old Lady in the white crow. It was a guy doing the role of a Grand Ma and it was just too funny! I loved the Gujju accented postman in a village in Karnataka in the Last Laddoo! We had a blast with some wardrobe malfunctions where for a brief moment (pun uninteded) we saw what no audience ever wanted to see :-).

I think the coolest part is that an organization was able to generate funds for their noble cause and it was not inspite of us putting a bad show! People did walk away happy that they saw something worth their time and we were happy that the money that they paid went to something worth our time!

The Fear of God

2008-09-13T11:53:00.002+05:30

After an absolutely nightmarish rehearsal yesterday, possibly the worst that I have had so far EVER in doing plays, I believe in GOD.

Seriously, this play has been one of the toughest. I started doing this play only to find out that I may not be able to do it. I had an important (?) wedding to attend right in the middle of the play dates. So I pulled out. Then as luck would have it they postponed the play performance dates. And yours truly was back in. And even then I had only a teeny role as I was doing back-up to another dude. His work got the better of him and he dropped out. There I was right in the thick of it without even realizing it. At about the same time, my work caught up with me with travels ever so often. If it was not work then there is always Bangalore traffic. What would have taken a crow 35 mins to travel, takes me 2 hours. Being in Bangalore traffic is akin to constipation. You want to go, but it is just not going!! I can literally let loose on the road for the last 30 sec of my travel to rehearsal.

After all this we found ourselves doing rehearsal yesterday with the knowledge sinking in that next week is the performance. We are doing it in partnership with Dream a Dream. There are 2 more days and our performance is no where near where it should be. I have begun my prayers...

Rock On - A Ballad?

2008-08-30T21:44:00.002+05:30

You know the end of the movie in the beginning. So there is no edge of the seat suspense.
You know all the turns and twists...there were some interesting twists. But nothing out of the ordinary. So no shocks there
You have heard the music, nothing new there.
In some sense you do know the people! I guess that is what makes this work.

The movie was really unhurried in its pace. It kind of took its time to move towards the end. The end was naive but you really could not have had any other end. The strength of the movie was really the performance of all the actors and how they appeared believable! While I lack the depth to comment on the technicalities etc or argue with the story teller on how well he could have made it, I judge my liking of a movie by whether I had a good feeling when I left the theatre. The answer is I did!

Once in a while you do need these kind of movies. Something to take you back to those days, put up your feet and smile!!

What defines decent?

2008-08-16T22:36:00.002+05:30

I was watching this program on Vijay TV. One of the many reality dance shows. The judges got carried away and asked the daughter of one of the participants to dance.

This was an enthusiastic 7 year old who danced her heart out for Mukabala song from Kadalan. The kid danced with a lot of gusto. But then in the middle she went into a lot of gyrating suggestive movements. Agreed it was just a dance. But is it okay for a 7 year old to go into a lot of these poses. I felt that I will be uncomfortable to see my kid do the same. Of course, no one in show really minded all these movements and this was a family show.

But there was this little niggle...Are these the new boundaries for decency? Has the age of innocence dropped from the teens to the single digit ages? Or am I being prude?

Screw the Conductor - Cut the Barber

2008-08-02T21:51:00.002+05:30

How to talk about a movie that you did not like,
Write in bad verse and rhyme like with hike!

Kuselan was a remake they said of a mallu classic in recent time,
P Vasu laid his hands on a story and made it like a worthless dime.

Instead of friendship with a barber, they focused on the super star
Even the 'real' scenes looked fake, not worth a retake!

Crass Comedy of Vaigai Puyal, and close up shots of Nayantara's navel
Titillate the audience with a lot of show and not much tell!

Needless computer graphics to boot,
A waterfall in a dry cliff was a hoot
they have dolphins jumping out in this mythical bay
Making night from an obvious day.

I am thankful I spent on only Rs 70,
Instead of the usual 250
The remaining 180 on something better,
May be dosa with a real buddy and a lot of butter!!!

Kung Fu - I want that - Panda!

2008-07-13T15:21:00.003+05:30

It is not often that you can catch me cursing and hurrying people up on a Sunday Morning. Had breakfast with the parents and the kids at Janata Hotel. 30 minutes to go! I come home and find out that we are not ready yet. Debate on whether I should shower or not. Figured out that a deodorant will cause the illusion. Hence decide to move on. Since no one gets up in Bangalore on a Sunday morning except to go for breakfast at CTR, Janata Hotel, Veena stores or MTR, we made it to the theater in good time. I actually parked on Cunningham road!!! I looked at my watch, 2 more minutes to Kung Fu. This is the movie that my four year old and I had conspired together to go. I let her do all the convincing and she did make papa proud! Can you believe it that she and her sis were up at 7 AM and the first thing she said was Kung Fu Panda!

Anywayz, here we were, to watch a cartoon movie (I guess we should call these animation movies, coz they are soooo not cartoons anymore!). The tale is rather simple, that of a Panda believing inspite of its weight and craving for food, if it believes in itself it can achieve its dreams. Without a doubt the visuals were amazing and believable. I was actually telling my 6 year old that the villian was a tiger (0r a snow leopard as pointed out by a friend of mine) !!! I was quite shocked when I said that but realized that I was sucked in as well. The next 90 minutes was a riot. It was just hilarious!! I honestly did not feel I was in a kid flick. The picture completely engulfed me. Here I was empathazing with the Panda and actually saying you go Po! The best thing that these animation pictures do is that they most probably tape the lines before they animate. Consequently the expressions are spot on. I hope the Desis do something like this.

Kung Fu Panda Rockz...Must see!!

Equs Maximus - Jaane Tu, a tale of two

2008-07-12T22:51:00.004+05:30

Watched Jaane Tu today. Saw it without the pressure of being a reviewer or a critic. The best thing about the movie was that it did not take itself too seriously. Never! You do leave the theater with a spring in your step, even if you can't dance sala!

Almost everyone in the movie has a done a terrific job. The best thing about the movie is that it is a director's movie and not someone's launch vehicle. It just happens to be that. Not only was every role wisely chosen, but the cameos clinched it for me. Be it Naseer and Ratna Shah, Kitu Gidwani and Rajat Kapoor, Jayant Kriplani and Anuradha Patel (she is still SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO gorgeous!), Paresh Rawal or the Khan brothers. Carefully chosen and well executed. Much has been talked about in the papers on Imran and Genelia. They along with their believable friends do a cracker of a job. So I will not talk about them.

The director did a neat job to execute a simple story. I guess the story is as old as it gets but it is the story telling. Any successful movie or play is always about the story telling. Most of us are craving for something smart and something that we can associate with. This movie did that for me. It had to communicate all things about youth and it did it so well. It really did also remind me of those care-free days and that is probably where I was sold. I loved the directors love affair with the horse. It was there in the dreams and in critical episodes, there will always be a horse running around! He has used that element so well. He has a smart script, great music and controlled the pace of the story very well. The icing on the cake was the last shot. An Intelligent Homage!! May you always be treaded well, Mr Tyrewalla. May you have many more movies in your kitty! God Speed!

Fumes!!!

2008-06-22T22:09:00.002+05:30

Yes I am back...Still fuming! I was watching this Kaapi with Anu where Crazy Mohan (I really hope he was joking) was saying that Kamal will get Oscar for Bussavatharam! I just lost it. I did what any sane person would do...muted the tv! I was wondering for what Kamal would be getting the Oscar...for the best comedy (may be). May be the Democratic party will invite him to do his imitation of George Bush, just to ensure that the Republicans lose!

And then there was this mail forwarded by a well wisher (after reading the mail, I was really wondering on the well part) on some other fan's ravings on Kamal and Buss! Apparently this movie is based on Chaos Theory and Butterfly Effect. And they had try to make a science theory by attaching a wiki link! The only chaos in that movie was the story line! And the butterfly was really a bad special effect!

To undo the bad effects of this movie I have decided to watch 10 where Kamal has done only one role!!!

Dashed Avataars

2008-06-13T23:01:00.003+05:30

I woke up early in the morning two days ago to ensure that I could book tickets for Dasavatharam. Left early from work, beat the traffic, picked up the family and ran to ensure that I could see Dasavatharm in full. I did see it in full and in this case as far as I am concerned it was a case of a glass half empty.

As we often justify something we make locally...Amazing quality for a tamil movie, great action for an Indian movie, did you see the 20 roles that actor did, Isn't he amazing! But if you really do think about it, these are justifications for our own limitations or incompetence. Any actor is supposed to act and play the roles. Be it one role, 10 roles in one movie or 200 roles in the same movie. Expecting an actor to act is an entitlement. In that case, was the acting adequate in this movie. Yes to nearly all the Indian characters played by Kamal. The grand-ma was really Avvai Shanmukhi after 20 years. The tall guy clearly fit the minority quota. Avtaar singh was there for the sake of satisfying the north indian quota. Two performances that stood out were that of the Son of the soil, and Naidu, the RAW agent. Was as close to Kamal as I always want to see him...someone who trusts his acting skills the most and uses make-up to just make-it up a little. The Americans (2) and Japanese were more of the fancy elements. If we were to consider Kamal to be someone who grew up in Paramakudi till yesterday and spoke like an American today, I accept that this movie is a significant achievement. But that was not the case here.

When Ulaga Nayagan takes over, you expect global standards. Here you see make-up that was similar to what the Jim Carrey had in Mask, after he wore the mask! The president character, the CIA character, the Japanese character stuck out like sore thumbs. Will appeal to the jingoist to proudly beat his chest and say "Namma aalu nalla pannirukkan".

Tell me something! Why do all people who learn fighting in India in the movies have to move their head the same damn way before they make a strike...you know the way they release the stress in their head and put sodukku in their hands. In this case it was funny to see the Japanese Kamal and the American Kamal do it. And I thought the Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor dialogs were extremely primitive in style. We need some classy lines please like the discussions that happened in the train and in the river bed and on the Tsumami shores on God, Science, Environment.

Just because we have Computer Graphics people sitting on bench in India they should not have run riot on the screen. And while these are amazing graphics for a tamil movie, it was such a let down. Why the hell do you need graphics in the Railway train, Why do you need the camera to move in all those wierd angles in the opening sequences...the main problem was that the computer graphics were never subtle. They were announcing their presence all the time!

Sujatha, the writer, used to say that the beginning and the end need to be good for a powerful story. The end of the movie is based on a recent calamity. Interesting thought! The opening was based on an absorbing century episode, which was really needless but what the hell, it was good. But it is the middle that sags. The story really tracks a vial. The US part was poorly acted and directed. I really hate it when Japanese want to talk tamil. Kudos to Gowtham in Vettayaadu where he had everyone talk in English in the US. Where Kamal the story writer does injustice to an interesting beginning and a novel end is when he bends the story (actually stretches it) to introduce other characters and satisfy his ego. Would these characters be there if it was not Dasavatharam but Panchamukam? We lose all the interesting discussions on God and science and they just go by! When the ego interferes the story goes for a six and gets my thumbs down vote.

One word on the music...the songs...Hopeless!

Thus in the same way that Nambi resolutely holds on to the Ashtaacksharam even when he faces death, and as Nakkeerar famously said to the Pachaakshara , I hold on to my opinion, this movie fails. I do write this with sadness since you really know that Kamal could have done such a good job.

Nallathor veenai seithe....

The First Leaf - A Children's Play for Adults

2008-04-26T21:17:00.002+05:30

First the good things....
It was very commendable for AHA, the Ranga Shankara Group to come to North Bangalore saving us a few miles and many hours of journey across the magic box-ridden, silicon-laden mini streets of Bangalore to go to Ranga Shankara. They did a neat little job in Seva Sadan, a neat little auditorium safely tucked in 14th cross Malleswaram.

The play that they presented today was called the First Leaf and it was billed as a play for children. It was a play on how a group of kids along with well wishers convince a stubborn man and the stubborn people in the community general to grow trees and save the environment. Was it a play for 5 and above...sure if all the 5 year old were PhDs!!! Was it a laudable attempt? You bet. I felt that the core theme of the play was may be a little bit of OHT (over head transmission as we used to say in our college days!!) for kids. I would know because I had two kids (6.5 and 4.5) with me. What held them and had them glued was the slapstick humor. That was the disappointment for me, as I slide into the whine segment.

Too much of stereotyping..the fat bad guy part especially. I know it gets the laughs, but it is too much of a stereotype. There were glitches as was accepted by the director, but it is how the group manages the truth of the moment that makes theater fun. I don't think this team was ready for that. The adults who played the kids could have done better if they had watched real kids in action. They were, I thought, playing adults playing kids. But that was okay, they got the energy part right.

I would have loved if the team had made an attempt to sing the song that was in the play on stage and not have a playback...it was kind of cheesy. Also I felt the cast was not used to the stage. It would have been wonderful if they had gotten used to the stage.

I am sure they will take care of the obvious glitches in the shows to come. The icing on the cake for me was the awe that my kids had looking at the stage and the lights during the play. They went to see the stage after the play was over. It was enjoyable to watch the awe and excitement in their little faces when they climbed the stage and touched the tree. They were touched by the magic of theater!! And for that two thumbs up to AHA!!

Fearless!!!

2008-04-07T21:32:00.002+05:30

After a long time, I got to watch a movie where I was feeling miserable to hit the pause button. May be the fact that I watched some ordinary movies this weekend helped. But this one was special. The movie is Anjaathey...Wiser men have discussed this a lot.

There have been comments on what the Director did in excess and how he should have cut it short, yaada yaada yaada. The way I looked at it was that as a Director, Mysskin, gave us a story. Did I like it? Absolutely, resoundingly yes.

I loved the story telling, I loved the way many things were set up. There were some predictable moments, some over the top...The good part was I was going along with the director over the top as well! While on stage, it is the actor who has to respond to the truth of the moment, this movie demonstrates that Cinema is always the directors baby. He has good performances from all of the actors. It is refreshing to see a chocolate boy hero like Prasanna do a role that people would not touch with a barge pole. The only good shot of him you get to see is a photograph that comes thorugh a fax machine! He is in the dark all the time. But he makes an impact. Naren makes a good impact as well. Excellent modulation and wonderful delivery in many places. Pandiarajan was a revealation. He can act! Music was good and to the point. I can go on and on, but it is safe to say this is one of the better 3 hours that I have spent in the recent past.

Fearless...way to go!!!

Sujatha - We will miss you

2008-02-28T21:53:00.002+05:30

My college days were made immeasurably better because of the tryst with Sujatha, the writer. Semester after semester, we would read his stories and do his plays. He was one of the few writers who wrote good and contemporary Tamil drama. We had privilege of staging it every semester in college. When we gobbled his plays quicker than this writing would allow, we went to his stories and made them into plays! And what amazing hits they were with the crowd.

This man had a day job in the Garden City, designing electronic voting machines among other things and still managed to churn out a wonderful of stories and plays. After he retired he started writing screenplays and memorable scripts for movies. Full of fun in one side and full of thought in the other.

I loved the plays he wrote and the lines I had the privilege to speak.

The first was Adimaigal - The story of a dominating Periappa. I had the chance to play an advocate who read out "The last will and testament of...."

The second was Dr. Narendranin Vinodha Vazhakku - The story about a doctor who becomes a victim of the system and still does not lose his dignity. I played Dr. Narendran and who saves the politician because he suspected "massive myocardial symptoms"

The third was Kadavul Vandhirundhaar - one of my favorites - Science fiction in a middle class retired brahmin family! I played the brahmin who meets Jo, the person from future. Some absolutely fabulous lines that had the cast and crew in splits. Every rehearsal was a treat. We had a space ship land on stage! You had to have been there!

The fourth was Oonjal - one of the toughest - Inspired by Death of a Salesman - Most difficult and depressing roles as a yesteryear successful industrialist. Very demanding play, moving. To see how a man can falter

The fifth was Oru Kolai, Oru Prayanam - Two plays in one. The first was a journey on a train (Imagine we had all the effects of a train in stage). I got to be a pompous dude who yoddled for his love with a guitar...smoked my first cigarette on stage! The other play was one heck of an anticlimax which literally pissed the audience. They did a huge walk out.

The sixth was Naan Avanillai - The play that I did not act. Incredible story of a man whose mind had been manipulated. Exciting stuff for the college days. I did the sounds for that one

The seventh was Pirivom Sandhippom - We scripted Sujatha's famous novel into a play. I played a character that had two lines in the original story. But since we were writing the script, managed a quite a bit more. Played the hero's father.

The eighth was Padavikkaaga - This was the magnum opus of our college times which I partly scripted and directed. Cast and crew of over 50 people. Amazing political play...nay movie! Each line in that play and each character was so well received.

It was a privilege to have had the association with the man that I never had met. He inspired a legion of us to do theater and have fun doing it. End of the day we all connected with his scripts may be because he was an engineer too!

One line as I sign off from Kadavul Vandhirundhar would be most apt. The last line in the play when the character who transforms from a retiree to a God Man says to the audience, "Naan konja neram kadavula irundhuttu varen"....Let me be God for sometime! Is that what you have done sire?

JumBore Circus

2007-12-29T22:21:00.000+05:30

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

2007-12-26T06:22:00.000+05:30

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

2007-11-21T20:59:00.000+05:30

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!!!!

2007-11-09T20:03:00.000+05:30

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

2007-11-04T22:11:00.000+05:30

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!

2007-10-20T09:16:00.000+05:30

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

2007-10-10T23:07:00.000+05:30

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

2007-09-30T22:33:00.000+05:30

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

2007-09-27T21:46:00.000+05:30

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

2007-09-23T22:39:00.001+05:30

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

2007-09-10T22:13:00.000+05:30

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!

2007-09-09T18:51:00.000+05:30

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....