Mohana hits a century
CHENNAI:In this day and age, to stage a play more than a dozen times is a feat in itself for most theatre groups. But here’s a five-year old theatre troupe — Theatre of Maham (ToM) — that’s changing the dynamics of Tamil theatre in the city. The troupe recently staged the 100th show of their play — Thillalangadi Mohanambal, a rollicking comedy at the Mylapore Fine Arts Club and we catch up with Madhuvanthi Arun (producer-cum-lead actor), S Sureshwar (director) and G Radhakrishnan (writer).
Soaking in the moments of euphoria right before the 100th show, Madhuvanthi shares, “It still hasn’t sunk in that we are on the 100th show! We inaugurated this play on March 16 last year and I still remember we just had about 45-50 days to prepare. This is a homage to my grandfather on the occasion of his centenary year.”
The drama has been received like a film, thanks to the playwright’s fresh treatment and witty dialogues. “There are people who come back to see the play a third and fourth time. It resonates with them and there has been an amazing turn out of repeat audience,” smiles Madhuvanthi who is also the protégé of YGee Mahendran and grand-daughter of YGP. Recently, a drama lover who had seen the play 40 times was felicitated.
Sureshwar gushes over how Thillalangadi has set a milestone not only for Maham, but for Tamil theatre itself. “If the play of an upcoming young troupe like ours can run for 100 shows in 10 months, then no one can dull the shine of good Tamil theatre and plays!” he points out.The play has been performed in 15 cities in the US, across Tamil Nadu and all over India. “We will also be going to Delhi, the Gulf, and more cities in the US and if all goes well, to Kenya and Australia as well,” shares Madhuvanthi.
“When we first did Perumale, another play that completed 100 shows, we weren’t aware that it would become a thought-provoking play. So, I wanted the next to be an all-out fun one,” narrates Radhakrishnan (RK).
He decided to spin a story from one of the scripts that he had initially written for a movie. “Since this was thatha’s 100th year, we wanted to focus on Madhu. So, we first came up with the character and title of the play, and then began weaving the story around it. We had to cut a lot of sequences and tweak it to suit theatre sensibilities. It took me almost a week to write this story!” he recalls.
Ask them about goof-ups on stage and Sureshwar laughs, “Our mentor, YGM, says that the pleasure of doing a stage play lies in the goof-ups. The reason? It’s very interesting to think on the spot to cover that goof-up, without the audience’s knowledge. Those things keep happening from time-to-time and YGM has trained us to tackle it.”
ToM usually announces their next play during the 100th show celebrations, but this time, that wasn’t the case. “Our Thillalangadi play has been so well received that we have shows till June this year. So, we will be announcing and starting work on the next play only afterwards,” adds Madhuvanthi.
The practise
The troupe rehearses for about 25 days with just dialogues before they start with the movement rehearsals for their plays, until it reaches the crescendo — which in this case is the grand rehearsal overseen by YGM himself. “Our rehearsals are a lot of fun (fights and arguments included), but we basically are like a family of second and third generation actors performing together. But, on stage, we are thorough professionals,” explains Sureshwar.