CHENNAI: The idea of women’s power by author Gaura Pant gets the orchestrated treatment in Binnu, part 2 of Apradhini: Women Without Men. It is a collection of seven stories translated by Gaura’s daughter Ira Pande.
Padma Shri ‘Shivani’ as she was known in the Hindi literary world, was a writer par excellence, who churned out actual stories of women, whom she met in her daily walk of life. Going to prisons to meet inmates, throwing her arm around and getting the facts right was no tall order for the prolific 20th-Century writer, whose birth centenary is being celebrated this year.
Beyond rules
Men are the reason for the birth of a woman and they are the reasons for their end too, is what the seven plays by Theatre Nisha showcased. Out of the nine short stories in the second part of Apradhini, two had to be left out as director V Balakrishnan felt the emotional content was not on par compared to the other seven.
In over 40 novels, many short stories and essays, Shivani has brought to light the culture of Kumaon, through her writings. This was conspicuous in the varied characters, the pick being Binnu, which gets a prominent time in the play.
The innocence of Binnu is total in the portrayal of Aparna Kumar, who has her thumb rule as to how life has to be lived. Men are lecherous and prevention is better than post-mortem is her way of sending across the message and moving on. Sari-clad Shakti Ramani, who plays the author, enlivens the audience of what woman power could do when hands are joined for a reason.
The lives of courtesans were featured prominently in Shivani’s well-crafted characters. Preethi Bharadwaj has her moments in Naseem where her dreams get a riot of colour in the VIBGYOR fashion. But she had not bargained for the harsh realities when her charms does not take her past the four walls and the cushion of a bed.
Neekaria, who played Mrs Ghose was an absolute beauty bowling over the author (again Shakti Ramani) with innocence. She has a tale of sufferings from her husband and is in dire need of a decent pair of clothing to shield her modesty. Simple dialogues convey the mood where the victim allows a little smile admiring the professional ways with which she had been duped. Shakti Ramani was not finished yet, playing the mad woman ‘Pagaliya’ to her heart’s content. Here was a character who was very close to the author’s heart. She goes berserk, tearing her hair, exposing her assets, and the desire of a teenage woman is shown unabashedly. She shrieks at the men, “If this is what you want, I am game.”
Not without women
Then there was Lalita, easily the pick of the lot, who is wedded at an age when it is playtime with the dolls. Even without knowing what it means to get a child, she passes that phase. There are scores of Lalita who had been pawns at the hands of men, used and disposed of — the artistes pour out the feelings of the writer.
The pain and suffering of a woman could only be brought by a woman. Each story is strewn with facts where the author has brought about the innocence of young minds. Songs are the essence and bring out the nativity of the characters set at the backdrop of Kumaon.
Artistes playing more than one character was another feature of the 95-minute delight. The musical score of Srivaralaxmi ‘Maya’ and Deepak takes the viewers to a different planet with a varied set of rules for the two genders.
Cast & crew
Binnu
Author: Shakthi Ramani
Binnu: Aparna Kumar
Binnu’s Mother: Shivangi Singh
Binnu’s Dancers: Preethi Bharadwaj, Shivangi Singh, Neeharika KS, Meera Sitaraman and Farha Sultana
Tattoo Maker: Karthik Gowrisankar
Bangle Seller: Navaneeth
Mrs Ghose
Author: Shakthi Ramani
Mrs Ghose: Neeharika KS
Naseem
Author: Shakthi Ramani
Naseem: Preethi Bharadwaj
Bua Bi: Meera Sitaraman
Dancer: Shivangi Singh
Railway Station Guard: Karthik Gowrisankar
Pagaliya
Author: Meera Sitaraman
Pagaliya: Shakthi Ramani
Maid: Neeharika KS
Rambadan: Karthik Gowrisankar
Lalita
Author: Shivangi Singh
Lalita: Neeharika KS
Author’s Sister: Farha Sultana
Jagrani (Lalita’s Mother): Preethi Bharadwaj
Driver: Navaneeth
Lalita’s Husband: Karthik Gowrisankar
Mourners: Aparna Kumar, Shakthi Ramani and Meera Sitaraman
Madhu Ben
Author: Aparna Kumar
Author’s Sister: Neeharika KS
Madhu Ben: Meera Sitaraman
Author’s Mother: Shivangi Singh
Madhu Ben’s Husband: Karthik Gowrisankar
Baby’s Mother: Shakthi Ramani
A Mother’s Prayer
Author: Preethi Bharadwaj and Aparna Kumar
Neelkanth Goswami (first letter): Navaneeth
Dungar Singh (second letter): Karthik Gowrisankar
Mother (third letter): Meera Sitaraman
When reel and real blur
The Hindi film Badhaai Ho brought to light the chaotic time in a family when the mother announces the arrival of her third child to her two grown-up sons. It is a ‘natural calamity’ the father tries in vain to convince the children. An attempt never made in the movies, fetched huge returns.
Taking a leaf out of that, Prasiddhi Creations worked on its formula in Thaayumaanavan at the business end of Kartik Fine Arts 32nd Kodai Nataka Vizha. Only here, one of the two sons is married while the other one is on the threshold, pursuing his love interest.
It is never too late to beget a child, the director-duo of Ambi Raghavan and Girish says with a speck of humour and a dash of reasoning. The turmoil in the family hits the boiling point when the mother of the baby girl dies, post-birth. The father is blamed, arrows shooting at him from all directions. Shockingly, he walks out, leaving the fate of the bundle of joy to his family members.
The second son takes on the mantle willingly, supported by his beau. One could see the ‘Pasamalar’ effect in the ways and upbringing of Sivachandran, so tellingly enacted by Girish Venkat. When there is chaos all around, the requisite calmness is brought in by Sivachandran’s uncle Moorthy. He reasons out with conviction that it is crisis time in the family which can be wriggled out with tact and understanding. Anand Srinivasan is the fulcrum of the plot, his affectionate ways to the family members are reflected in every frame. The new kid on the block deserves to be given the best of everything, for it is not her fault to be born — the sharp lines smack the desired punch in the storyline of Ambi Raghavan.
Shivani in the all-important character of Malini is the vital cog when the plot thickens. She is brainwashed by the family members that Sivachandran had only vested interests when she is armed with a medical degree. In the end, the uncle again rises to the occasion, reeling out the sacrifices of Sivachandran, paying the capitation fees for her studies without her knowledge. A play with the start of a lighter one has its magical moments, thanks to the well-conceived dialogues backed by the good work of the ones in front of the stage.
Empathy, lost and found
A story of the hardship of a dramatist is told loud and clear by Navabharath Theatres. Ratnam Koothapiran lives with the character of Rajappa all through the two-hour spectacle in the recently concluded Kodai Nataka Vizha.
Rajappa has his hands full running his drama troupe, but for him, the show has to go on, by hook or by crook. Inevitably, he takes a loan but it pinches him to a fault when confronted by the lender. When Rajappa’s son comes on vacation from abroad, he takes it on his father. What use of the dramas, when it does not pay you and the ones surrounding you depend on you for their livelihood? The son poses a query, not holding any punches.
The father reasons with him that he had lived his whole life on stage and he had lived with the characters he had created. The loans he had taken were for the sustainability of the troupe and to provide education for the less-fortunate ones in the bunch, he reasons out.
Rajappa breathed his last while enacting the role of ‘Bharathiar’. The son gets an insight into the range of his father’s scripts lying scattered in the bureau. Going through, he is startled to know that one of the scripts of the 70s was exactly the one he had witnessed in London in the English Play ‘London Magic Carpet’. Convinced that his father was much ahead of his times, he could not wait to lay his hands on all the scripts; mindboggling, it turns out. There are some missing pages in one of the scripts. A puzzle for him as to why his father had named every female character Lalitha. He gets his answer in the end that Lalithaa was indeed Rajappa’s love interest. But she had moved away from him deliberately to enable him to focus only on his first love of the stage.
Ratnam Koothapiran (storyline is his) is all fire, enacting ‘Rajappa’ with a calmness seen to be believed. His real son Vignesh brings the desired spark, lashing out at his father for the insurmountable loans. He settles those but gives his piece of mind, a prerogative when every son takes it as a right. The credit line of direction has Vignesh but one could see the inputs of Ratnam between the lines. Swathi Sridhar (as Manasa and Lalitha); TP Sriram (Rajappa’s buddy Rangasay) are the huge support aided by Padma Stage Kannan (scenes); Babu (lights); Viswajit (music) and Perambur Kumar (make-up).
Logic takes a knock, so does quality
No logic but only magic, says a voice before the start of Dummies’ Aadai Paadhi Aal Meedhi. It stays true to that for many parts of the offering of director Prasanna Sridharan. A fantasy script on the face of it had the ammunition to go the distance. But in restricting the theme to a few characters, the director is hard-pressed to derive his intended message.
An old bureau and a tailoring machine are seen as a mascot for the happiness and smooth career strides of a young IT exponent. He does not believe in the old school of luck and sentiments but a few incidents leave him convinced. That there is more to the bureau and the ‘loose’ shirts get the desired space where the director plays around his limited characters.
Typical of veteran Sridharan to come up with a peach of a role in the garb of Secretary of the Flat Association where Bhargav is the tenant. The monotony of the characters repeating the same thing is a test of the staying power of the audience.
The climax is swift when Bhargav finds the key in a t-shirt to open the bureau which had the blueprint of the building. The secretary was in dire need of it, having to prove the authenticity of the sales deed.
In the pivotal character, the familiar face of Karthik Bhatt churns out a performance right down his street. Lalitha (as athai), Aarthi (Jhanvi) and Srija (Meera) leave their mark in their limited say in the stage. Holding the centre mike, Sridharan carried the whole plot on those well-endowed shoulders.
In any crisis, he is the Man Friday for Dummies.
Richness to the fore
The ninth play of Legally Yours Bakkunu Pathikuchu helmed by actor-director Satish Chandrasekhar in the Kodai Nataka Vizha was like a curate’s egg, good in parts.
Touching a sensitive subject on the happenings in an ashram has to be handled diligently; more in the wake of the streaming noise created in the media, for a length of time. Without taking any sides, Satish brings to light the actual happenings. He does take the liberty of getting into the personal side of Guruji, by way of a dream enactment. The victim gets the space to scream her lungs out when she is confronted by the Guruji. Which is the beauty of the media, as in the next scene, she opens out her feelings to the law force that the person who is the cynosure has a clean image, contrary to all the speculations.
The director in Satish takes pain to churn out the valuable lessons learnt by the disciples, who go the distance in their chosen profession. Not restricting to just the locals, ‘Mayura Koodam’ Ashram opens its door to foreigners who benefit immensely in learning the cultures and doing research to enlighten the masses of the power and reach of the gurukulum.
Satish is adequate, getting his mannerisms and dialect right as Guruji. The limp in his walk is the added charm to the image of a larger-than-life persona. Krithika as Devika and Dhivya (Devasena) use the footage well, delivering what the director ordered.
Expansive sets (art director Mohan Babu); Kavitha Dilip (costume designer); Shade 69 Studio (animation and special effects); Holography Technology (Gravity Media Solutions); Original Background music (Dakshin); and Kesavan (dialogues) played a significant part.
Razor sharp is this light
Payum Oli, the debut play of the newly formed drama troupe ThRee (Theatre Redefining Entertainment Experience) makes its mark in Kodai Nataka Vizha, livening up the proceedings on the stage. A master in knowing the pulse of the audience, the storyline of V Srivathson gives the ammunition for actors to execute with refreshing freedom, aided by sharp dialogues. As is his wont, the director packs a lot of English dialogues targeting the younger section of the audience.
A simple storyline of a boy meeting girl in the traditional ways gets a boost when the respective parents see a silver lining. Both have lost their spouses and connect in their line of thinking. When the window of opportunity opens up, why not give it a try? After all, life has to be lived and how you do it depends totally on the individual concerned — the director says with conviction, giving a damn to the logic. It did not matter in the end that the meeting which was intended to unite the young hearts, did not materialise. Maturity comes with age and it pays to follow the heart, never mind the numerical number of the age is the crisp finale.
In her 25th play in a decade, Lavanya Venugopal is too seasoned to let the golden opportunity slip. There is a calmness in her character Narmadha, doing the balancing act to perfection. MV Bhaskar, a regular in Dummies, stands tall in the character Shatrughan, matching Lavanya in every frame. The exchanges are sharp but the decibel level is soft to render the serenity, lifting the merits of the quality. No debut blues for Paramesh and Sukanya and the scene stealer is veteran Jayanthi, (the grandmother of Aditya). A play with all the softness could have been done without the noise of Subbu, playing the friend of Bhaskar.