Shoe-Off

Image courtesy: The Hindu

We now have another shoe-thrower in the country, and the target... The hon'ble Prime Minister of India! Such an action by a fellow Youngistaani is shameful. Is this an act of anger or an act for cheap publicity??? Guys, if you want to make your view or present a suggestion, go to the media.. they'll help you (and even give you some free publicity!) When most parties are looking to empower the youth, why do something like this and make things worse for yourself?
Wanna throw stuff at the politicians, or anyone else for that matter? Try questions. Nothing beats a discussion to have things sorted out. Throwing stuff is violence. Practice Gandhigiri!


P.S: For prospective shoe-throwers: people are getting bored! Try something new, don't copy.

First experience of Theatre

My first post to my blog has been long due..! Well.. my excuse is that I never thought anything happening in my life was worth sharing with the whole wide world. Finally, I've got something to share..my first experience of Theatre.
On the 11th, 12th and 14th, I saw three plays. Each was quite comical with a socially relevant message at the end.
CHOCOLATE KRISHNA
The first proffessional play I've been to. I wasn't expecting anything, so it was pretty interesting. It's the story of a chocolate salesman (Madhu) who launches a new chocolate in the market.. and being a great devotee of Lord Krishna(LK), offers it to Him first. Well, LK is bored of His life (!) and so comes to stay with Madhu for a month, visible only to him. What happens in Madhu's life with LK on his side forms the rest of the story.
The little tricks (real magic) that LK did on stage was fun and the kids just loved it. The play of words and the puns made sure that it las a laugh riot. The acting was good since 'Crazy' Mohan and his brother 'Crazy' Balaji are pretty experienced and the supporting cast was good too.
The final message is that God is always around to help you if you mess things up, provided you believe in Him and that you need to work without expectations.
NENACHADHU ONNU
This was the first play of the 'Drama Festival' organized by the KRS Troupe at the Bhavan Auditorium. I was surprised to know that week-long 'drama fesivals' were being conducted in Coimbatore by KRS every year. I'd never heard of them until Mom had pointed it out in the MetroPlus.. I guess I was plain uninterested until then.
Simply put, Nenachadhu Onnu is about the power a writer has over the characters he creates on paper. He can make or break his characters with just a few words.. and this probably makes him superior to even the Creator.
The story is that of a family in which the only son is very chaste and unspoilable (I'm not sure if such a word exists. If it doesn't, I'll get it copyrighted..!) The father believes in living for the moment, spending everything he earns on his family. As the story unfolds, he loses his job and the family is under pressure to move out of their rented house. This forces the son (who actually wants to pursue an MBA course for himself and for his father) to take up a job in a BPO. Meanwhile, the father's best friend's son in the States (again, working in a BPO), dies because of drug overdose. Hearing this, the father gets second thoughts about having sent his son to a BPO.
The story moves on and the son actually gets spoilt (gets drunk and stuff). Then the writer tells the father that he's been dreaming (!) thinking of his friend's son and that his son is still just as chaste as he was before the job.
Excellent acting by the seasoned stage artiste 'Kaththadi' Ramamoorthy (or some name like that!) as the father. His timing in the comic scenes was just phenomenal. Nothing much to say about the other actors except "Nice!" The moral of the story: Everything has a good side and a flip side... take only the good stuff to heart. Don't worry too much!
KRISHNA LEELAI
By far, this is my favourite one. This one was actually written and enacted by an organization from Chennai. The writer-director said that it was an adaptation of an old play by the same name... Anyway, it was nicely tuned for the present day audience.
The story is basically of a part-time stage actor called Krishna who lies to his family to act in plays. He agrees to stand-in for his friend as Lord Krishna in a play in Pondicherry (he actually lives in Chennai). Meanwhile they go looking for a bride for the same friend. The girl, Meera, turns out to be partly mentally unstable and is a huge, huge devotee of Lord Krishna and will marry none but Him. She assumes Krishna the actor to be Lord Krishna. Finally both the men run away from the place. Krishna's wife smells something fishy and goes to Pondy looking for him. With help from his crew he manages to get away from there. Unfortunately he somehow goes to Meera's house to escape from a police constable in the middle of the night. Meera is alone and he says that he'll do anything for her if she saves him from the police. She fools the constable and asks Krishna to marry her. Unwillingly, Krishna gives her his brand new gold ring signifying their mariage and then flees. His wife notices the missing ring and there is a HUGE confusion. Finally Meera's father coms to return the ring and a very emotional scene later, Krishna's friend decides to marry Meera and help her heal.
Well, this is what I've been waiting to tell the whole world: The acting for Meera was just too awesome.. I was completely blown over... Unfortunately I can't remember the actor's name! She was just too, too, too good. A young, good-looking girl with excellent acting skills and a great comic timing makes a fantabulous stage actor. The lead actor (Krishna) was good too but he was over-shadowed by Meera. At the end, when the writer-director introduced the cast, Meera got the longest and the loudest applause, a standing ovation at that. This is one act I won't forget for a long, long time. Sorry, I can't think of anything else now... Adios..