Last year I had been to “Madras to Chennai” a fine play by Shraddha group. Impressed by the show I became an annual paid member. This new year 2012, there first production is a historical play – Vadavooran (வாதவூரன்). It is about Manickavachagar (மாணிக்கவாசகர்) who gave the great Tamil work Thiruvasagam (திருவாசகம்). The play starts from the point where Vadavooran who was the Chief Minister to Pandya King, sets out to buy fine Roman horses for the king. On the way while at the depleted temple at Tiruperunturai Avudiyar Koil, he realizes the Supreme Being (Lord Siva) and instantly decides to renovate and rebuild the temple. The king imprisons Vadavooran and punishes him severely for disobeying his orders. The play ends with great floods in Vaigai river and the King realizes his folly and Vadavooran becoming the enlightened Manickavachagar. Of course we all know what happened later (Thanks to Sivaji Ganesan’s Thiruvilayadal movie) – Lord Siva coming as a labourer carrying sand for a handful of a traditional snack of sweetened millet flour (புட்டு).
The play is presented in kind of Opera format. To make mortals like me understand the songs from Thiruvasagam, the organizers gave out free booklet with all the songs and meanings – thanks to them I could follow the 4 lines songs, which were not many. The songs were pre-recorded but rendered and enacted superbly. The lead actor is Swaminathan Ganesan, who has done a brilliant job of bringing the character to life. Especially the scenes where he is in inner turmoil between his royal duties and divine calling, Swaminathan brings Vadavooran before our eyes. The little girl who came as Vadavooran’s daughter performed well, kudos to her.
The sets were done nicely, I could not help comparing it to the astonishing set and special effects done decades earlier in R.S.Manohar’s plays that my father took me during my school days, Vadavooran certainly is not in that league but nevertheless it is a great effort for recent times considering the effort and costs. They showed a dragon fly (தும்பி) flying in the stage by suspending it from a rope above, the engineer in me wondered why they didn’t use one of those miniature remote helicopters and then cover it with a costume. The audience were taken for a treat when they showed a real horse on the stage – that should have been difficult managing it and controlling with the changing light effects, great show.
What impressed me most is the on time start of the play, in fact they started the brief introduction a few before 7:00PM. Thanks.
Yesterday this stand-up comedy “Make Chai Not War” show happened in Egmore Museum Theatre, Chennai. It was organized by U.S.Consulate General in Chennai in association with Evam Entertainment and Times of India. The stand-up comedy was by 3 Indian Americans – comedian Hari Kondabolu (www.harikondabolu.com), comic Rajiv Satyal (www.funnyindian.com) and Azhar Usman (http://www.azhar.com). The show was brilliant, over two hours of non-stop laughter and a bit to think over. I don’t remember the last time I laughed so much in my life on some clean comedy. A fantastic effort by U.S. Home Department to foster friendship with India and its people through some multi-religious, multi-ethnic jokes and not through handouts or military aid. There is so much for all of us to laugh about our diversity in this world than to fight for.
Rajiv who is from Ohio, a Hindu (he stresses it often for effect & to poke good fun at), born to Punjabi parents who immigrated to USA. He covered everything in his show – from Indians refilling with water the almost empty Soap bottles to how Gujaritis save money. He touched nicely on the diversity of Indians and India – saying unlike USA in India the smart people are put up in South.
Hari who is from Queens New York, born to parents from Andhra Pradesh is a performer in Comedy Central & HBO Comedy Arts Festival. He seems to have a stated dislike towards British and Colonization that he made fun of at every turn. Yesterday he appeared a little sombre but still funny enough to make you laugh.
Azhar who is from Chicago, hailing from immigrants from Bihar and a title ‘America’s funniest Muslim”. He was the super-star yesterday firing all cylinders. He started by how to spell his name – Azhar like in Buzzer with a B, it gets pronounced as Uzzer. His experience of Auto-drivers in Chennai hailing him first for Sight-seeing, then for Girls and finally for Marijuana. He closed his show with a profound thought – we are all birds in a cage, each of us can see all the 7 billion people in the world but not ourselves (for which we have to look inside us). His story of scaring a British Gentleman in a flight was hilarious.
Overall a superb, brilliant, hilarious show you shouldn’t miss if they come to your city.
I read about this Tamil Play “Madras to Chennai” being performed this week by Kathadi Ramamurthy, Shylaja Chetlur and others, directed by Bombay Chanakya. The tickets were by invitation only and it was sent by post by Shraddha to anyone who asked for it by phone. Today I went for the play in Narada Gana Sabha and enjoyed it thoroughly. The story is basically of events that happen in a typical Tamil Brahmin household in Madras for last 60 years. The female lead role “Kalyani” was played by Shylaja Chetlur, who has performed it well and with elegance. As always the industry veteran Kathadi Ramamurthy performed the role natural and with ease.
I was not expecting many in the audience, but I was surprised to find the auditorium to be jam-packed. It was heartening to see those many people watching a Tamil Play and encouraging the artists. I think it is a good model by the organizers to have the costs covered by advertisements (i hope they covered) and having full audience, instead of being watched just by few paid audience (which in any day covered only portion of cost).
The play had some nice effects like 1) The split screen where aged Kathadi & Shylaja were on one side of the stage, and the couples younger version (flash-back) playing on the other side at the same time. 2) The exact same screen that begun the play, enacted back at the end and everyone performing both the scenes exactly the same way.
Good dialogs by Chanakya who has taken nice digs in the current prevailing corruption scene in the country.
Yesterday I got tickets by chance to see the first cricket match of IPL 2011 season in the stadium. The match was between CSK (my home team) and KKR team. I had taken my son for the first IPL season but then he was not old enough to understood much and so didn’t enjoy. Now he is 7 Years old, plays Cricket in the street and so was super excited to be there in the Chepauk Stadium. For me it meant being away from the comfort of home – AC, TV & Snacks. Anyways, the atmosphere was electrifying in the stadium and I was so happy that CSK won the match.
This year, Chennai Sangamam 2011 was slightly a reduced affair and happened at select parks only which didn’t include my area park. Today evening after seeing the agenda online, I decided to go Nageswara Park, Mylapore. Took my son and went around 7PM in my electric scooter.
First program was "Dasavatharam", a Dance Drama by Sri.Zakir Hussain and group. For each avataram, select scenes were taken and were done nicely. For Ramayan it was the scene were Ravanan tries to break the bow but couldn’t even lift it, whereas Lord Rama broke the bow easily. Next were performance by Murasu Kalaikkuzhu. This included Tamil Nadu Folk arts like Naagu Naiyaandi, Karagam by Kalaimaamani Tamilselvi, Jaanbaavaa Silambaatam,Thangavel Chendai (popular in Kerala and border districts), Poikkaal Kuthirai and Oyilattam (Oyil means Azhagu or Beauty).
For me it was good entertainment for 3 hours. What I enjoy in Chennai Sangamam is watching the programs in the outdoor along with hundreds of people, the crowd is what makes it fun!
Yesterday we had a visual delight in the form of a Dance Ballet at Rama Rao Kala Mantap, T.Nagar titled “Siva Swaroopa Thandava Lahari” performed by Smt.Krishnakumari Narendran troupe. Music was scored by Rajesh Vaidya. The dance drama was about Lord Siva‘s divinity & his dance in the form of his Thandavams. There were five scenes or stories portrayed in the performance. To the benefit of audience like me, a brief story of the scene was read out in Tamil by Smt.Krishnakumari before the beginning of each scene. This really helped me to understand and explain it to my pestering 6 year old son. I learned that the scenes are from songs and texts in Sanskrit and Tamil works such as ‘Tirumandiram’, ‘Tiruvaachakam’, ‘Sivanandalahari’ and ‘Sivapanchakshara Stotram’.
1. First scene was about the greatness of the Lord and emphasised the importance of the word ‘Namasivaya’
2. Siva as the teacher in the form of Dakshinamurthy. Nrithya Jagannathan (the main dancer) illustrated the reason for sitting under a banyan tree with slokas from ‘Tirumandiram’ and ‘Tiruvachagam’
3. Adisankara’s ‘Sivanandalahari’ was done with the story of devas and asuras churning the ocean to get nectar
4. Ravana’s ‘Garvabhangam’ was excellent. The male dancer performed the role of Ravana very well, especially the scenes where he is in pain. I didn’t know this story in Ramayana so it was very interesting. The story goes like this “Following his conquest of Lanka, Ravana went to Mt. Kailash and was stopped by Nandi when he wanted to see Lord Siva. Ravana abused Nandi saying he is looking like a Monkey, Nandi curses him back saying his kingdom will be destroyed by an Army of Monkeys. Then Ravana attempts to lift the mountain, Lord Siva annoyed by Ravana’s arrogance, presses his little Toe on Mt.Kailash, pinning him painfully under it. To get out Ravana made a Veena with his nerves as strings, one of his head as the base for the Veena and composed songs praising Siva called Siva Tandava Stotra. He was then relieved and blessed by Lord Siva”
5. The fifth and final scene told us the story of Adiseshan taking the form of Saint Pathanjali. The story goes like this “Adiseshan sees Lord Vishnu disturbed one day. On enquiry Lord Vishnu narrates the story of how he and Lord Siva played out a drama in Tarakavanam. The Yogis, scholars and their wives lived in a village called Tarakavanam were very learned – they believed that a disciplinary life and morale living is all that is needed to attain enlightment and there was no need to pray to Lord Siva or Lord Vishnu. To cure their arrogance on this matter, Mahavishnu and Siva came down to earth and tried to lure the saints, and their wives, at Tarakavanam. The elderly Yogis enraged sent one after the other animals such as tiger, elephant, deer and snakes to attack Lord Siva. Lord Siva won, and the Tarakavanam residents learned their lesson. Adiseshan after hearing this story did penance to Lord Siva to see this performance again. He was asked by Lord Siva to take the form of Saint Pathanjali and visit Chidambaram, which he does and sees Siva’s Thandavam”
Overall an wonderful experience, don’t miss it if you get a chance to see.
(My thanks to Bing Search and to the The Hindu article for recollecting the names of the texts and works correctly)
Every year Nungambakkam Cultural Academy as part of Chennai Music season, conducts its programs in Karnata Sangham Hall in Habibullah Road, T.Nagar. My knowledge of Music is Zero, so I am not a regular for Carnatic Kutcheris. I like Tamil Drama’s (Plays) and over the years I have watched many of them year on year.
Today I went for the versatile comedian “Kathadi” Sri Ramamurthy’s new play – Ah Ah Aha, story by Thuglak Sathya. The drama was very hilarious with many timely jokes on prevailing Politics in Tamilnadu. The story is about a young unemployed man getting married to a bride and as the main condition for the marriage moves to the household as In-house BrideGroom. The Bride’s father is allergic to even the word “Politics”, the story is a comedy twist on how the BrideGroom uses this to his advantage.
If you like comedy plays, I will highly recommend going for this one. Great Show!
I heard few days back in RadioOne FM station, RJ Suchi say about a Mythology play "Maya Bazaar" to be performed by a 124-year old group "Surabhi". And it contains excellent special effects on stage. My son loves the story of Ghatotkatcha (after watching the film), so I decided to take him to play "Maya Bazaar" today at 3:30PM. Booked the tickets online. The group Surabhi is an entire performing family (everyone on stage and back stage are related and from the same family) and are experts at rope & pyro techniques and other special effects. You can read more about them and the synopsis of the play in the brochure they gave from here (PDF) .
The play was in Telugu language (I don’t speak Telugu), still it was very enjoyable. They had over 50 artists (as young 2 or 3 years to very elderly) perform brilliantly on stage. The special effects were awesome, especially considering today’s viewers are used to 3D Graphics, Movies, XBOX and more. The notable scenes with special effects were a garden (with real water fountain), fireworks from Arrows, Rain to quash the fire, Bed floating on air, Narada coming down from sky, the famous eating scene with laddos flying, birds flying, an eagle hunting a fish, dual-screen – hide and show Hero/Heroine at the same time and many more.
The play shows only today (two shows) in Chennai. If you get a chance to see this play next time (may be in Hyderabad) don’t miss it.
Early this month as part of Chennai Music Season, in Nungambakkam Cultural Academy I saw this new Tamil Theatre Play (Drama). It was "Re(a)el Estate" by T.V.Varadarajan – written and directed by ‘Vedham Puthithu’ Kannan. The story deals with the aspirations of the middle class people to own a house and how the couple in the play – Boomi (Husband name) and Patta (Wife’s name) gets cheated by a Real Estate agent. The play starts with good enjoyable jokes, progress to explain the nuances of the words commonly used in real estate transaction (sq.ft., patta, layout, plans, approved and unapproved) and then ends with the difficulties of owning/building a house. The scenes before the climax are quite emotional and acted very well by both the lead artists.
I remember to have seen the earlier version of this storyline in the troupe’s previous play ‘Ilavasa Enaippu’ staged in late 1990s.
இன்று ஞாயிற்றுக்கிழமை (விடுமுறை) என்பதால் நன்றாக மதிய உணவு அருந்திவிட்டு ஒரு குட்டித் தூக்கம் போடலாமா வேண்டாமா என்று சோம்பேறித்தனமாக இருந்தபோது தெரு முனையிலிருந்து சத்தம் கேட்டது. ஜன்னல் வழியாக எட்டிப் பார்த்ததில் இரண்டு பேருந்துகளில் ”சென்னை சங்கமம்” கலைஞர்கள் எங்கள் (சென்னை மேற்கு மாம்பலம்) தெரு முனையில் சென்னை சங்கமம் தெருவிழா நடத்தவிருப்பது தெரிந்தது. அலறி அடித்துக்கொண்டு கேமராக்களும் கையுமாக தெரு முனைக்கு ஓடினேன்.
மதியம் ஒன்றரை மணியிலிருந்து இரண்டு மணிவரை அருமையான கிராமிய/பாரம்பரிய கலை நிகழ்ச்சிகளை வீட்டின் அருகையில் இலவசமாகக் கண்டுகளித்தோம். தப்பாட்டம், புலி ஆட்டம், கத்தி வித்தை மற்றும் சில கலைகளை அழகாகவும் சுருக்கமாகவும் செய்து காட்டினார்கள். சென்னை நகரத்திலேயே பிறந்து வளர்ந்த நான் இது போன்ற கிராமிய கலை நிகழ்ச்சிகளை இதற்கு முன்பு நேரில் பார்த்ததேயில்லை, சினிமாவில் பார்த்ததோடு சரி. என்னோடு என் மகனும் பார்த்து ரசித்ததைக் கண்டு நான் மகிழ்ந்தேன், என்னைப் போலவே அண்டையயலிலுள்ள மற்ற (அரைக்காற்சட்டை அணிந்த) அப்பாக்களும் தான்.
தெரு முனையில் ஓரிரு நிமிடத்தில் ஏற்பாடு செய்தாலும், ஏற்பாட்டின் எல்லா அம்சத்திலும் நேர்த்தி – பங்கு பெற்ற அனைத்து கலைஞர்களுக்கும் நல்ல வண்ணமயமான நேர்த்தியான புதிய உடைகள், சரியான வாத்தியங்கள் மற்றும் வந்திருந்த பேருந்திலிருந்த வண்ணமயமான பேனர் என சொல்லிக் கொண்டே போகலாம். அழிந்து வரும் இந்த கலைகளுக்கும் கலைஞர்களுக்கும் இந்த நிகழ்ச்சிகள் நிச்சயம் நல்ல ஒரு ஊக்கம். இதற்காகவே ”சென்னை சங்கமம்” நிறுவனர்களுக்கும் அவர்களுக்குப் பொருளதவி செய்யும் தமிழக அரசையும் மற்றும் விளம்பரதாரர்களையும் பாராட்டவேண்டியது அவசியம். இவைத் தவிர நான் கவனித்த சில நல்ல அம்சங்கள் – மக்களை அழைக்க/கவர ஒலிப்பெருக்கி பயன்படுத்தாமல் விதூடகனை வைத்து சிறுவர்களைக் கவர்ந்தது, காவலர்கள் வராமலிருந்தது, மக்கள் ஒழுங்காகச் சத்தமிடாமல் நின்றது.
இப்போதுள்ள நிலையில் நகரங்களில் இது போல ஒரு நிகழ்ச்சி நடந்தால் தான் தெருவிற்கு வருகிறோம், இல்லை என்றால் நாம் எல்லோரும் கதவையடைத்து வீட்டினுள்ளேயே இருந்துவிடுகிறோம் – அண்டையயலில் யார் இருக்கிறார்கள் என்றோ அவர்கள் முகங்களைப் பார்க்கக்கூட வாய்ப்புகளில்லை. அப்படியே பார்த்தாலும் உதவி கேட்டுவிடுவார்களோன்று பார்த்தும் பார்க்காமல் சென்றுவிடுகிறோம்.
சென்னை சங்கமம் தெருவிழா, சென்னை மேற்கு மாம்பலம். ஒளிப்பதிவு தி.ந.ச.வெங்கட ரங்கன்.
The content of this site are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway. In addition, my thoughts and opinions often change, and as a weblog is intended to provide a semi-permanent point in time snapshot you should not consider out of date posts to reflect my current thoughts and opinions.
_1.jpg "Zakir Hussain Dasavatharam (7)")
.jpg "Kathadi Ramamurthy Ah Ah Aha (2)")
