Via – Ram’s abode.

The show was not the usual kinds, which we see in Chennai theatre, it was a dated spoof on Arabia, a la Alibaba, Aladdin types.

There is trouble in the ancient Arabian kingdom of Petra, where the main characters of the play, Ali (Ashwin) is the handsome peasant deeply in love with the voice of a song he heard in the palace and his brother Sinkbath (Bharath) the bumbling sailor who owns a ’ship of the desert’, a camel named Humpy and not a ship!

The Director Harish, performed a cameo which was a totally unexpected character, school boy genie, right after the interval. Imagine a genie dressed in school boy clothes, well all is fair in spoof’s and it was really a funny performance by him.

The play had a happy ending when the pairs find their match and all’s well ends well. Music was scored by SAE School, was a nice hear. Arabian backdrops, costumes and music makes a little complex play compared to their other ones. The show had it all, from skeleton dance to bumbling guard, arabian dance and lots more.

Err Im not advertising for them, even though I happen to be the PR of the group, but if you want to join Rebelz, check us at www.rebelz.in

If you can overlook the image of a Muni (demigod/warrior guardian/whatever) guzzling beer, you might want to come to Koyembedu tomorrow.
But first, a little background.

So, there’s a little thing Sharanya Manivannan and I are doing – trying to kick-start a poetry/performance/literature indie culture in Chennai.
And that’s why you should be in Koyembedu tomorrow – it is the fourth event – a poetry reading on the theme of blasphemy. RSVP here, or on my/Sharanya’s blog or to our e-mail addresses.

Yes, I realise I haven’t kept up my end of the bargain and haven’t answered questions raised in this post. My defence: time. Or rather, the infinitesimally small amounts of it that I end up having. I intend to catch up with that this weekend.

So, anyway, to the point of the post.

Sharanya and Meena (and I) are organising a poetry event this Friday at Mocha. An open-mic session – which means we’ll keep the mic by the door. Errm…it means everyone’s invited and everyone can read out. Friday, 21st March is not only Good Friday, it’s the World Poetry Day. So the idea is to kill two birds with one metaphor. The idea is also to bring poetry to Madras city, and do it closer to the city than Thalankuppam was.

Head out to Sharanya’s blog for the details. But if you are click-lazy, here’s the short version.

What? Original + Translated poems, to celebrate World Poetry Day & Good Friday
Where? Mocha, upper-reaches.
When? Friday, 21st March, 10 AM
Why? Um, it sounded like a good idea?
Who? Sharanya Manivannan, Meena Kandaswamy and Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan

Attakalari works with “contemporary physical expressions and digital arts” and is a form influenced by Kalarippayattu, Yoga and Bharathanatyam among other Indian movement styles, as their brochure puts it. The performance itself, was of breathtaking snippets to the tune of, well, what someone described as “atonal” music, entwined with intangible rhythm patterns, that were there yet not quite, designed by Japanese sound performer Mitsuaki Matsumoto. To add the the already intriguing mix was Kunihiko Matsuo’s visuals and Naoki Hamanaka’s stage or rather light design, all directed and choreographed by Attakalari’s Jayachandran Palazhy (his gurus, the Dhananjayans’ were there to bless him)

The performance, which is based on the concept of Purushartha, the meaning of being, is an exploration of various individuals’ versions or visions of the same in what appears to be a 60-minute linear timeframe. However, just as the dancers weaved in and out of the LED-lights, the flow of thought or being was layered, overlapping, one dilemma or situation spilling over to the next, alluring, confusing, challenging and yet unaccountably moving. Palazhy and the performers explained at the interaction in the end, that each member of the team was asked to bring forward an incident from their lives, an experience which for them framed a meaning of being. Refusing to narrate any of the stories, he asked that the audience continue thinking it through, interpreting and connecting the dots as they felt natural or likely to.

Like an open-ended novel, where the reader is asked to contribute towards its completion in a sense. Palazhy and members of the team invited the audience to collaborate on the creation of the performance, through projecting a meaning, a thought or fixing a life experience, understanding a pattern or perhaps even just leaving their cellphones on!

One looks forward to more performances from Attakalari in Chennai!

The deeper meaning is beneath the comedy, it’s what underscores the relationship between the three principle characters. The play, after I understood that it’s about homosexuality seems a masterpiece. I was just too darn bloody dense to understand the deeper meaning in the play. Ivan, Mark and Sarge subconsciously attracted and in love with each other, especially Mark with the other two. Ivan’s impending marriage first jolts Mark, his friend, his lover has just walked away, and his world has changed over night. Now adding to this is Sarge blowing an obnoxious amount on the painting, it’s almost like Sarge has changed overnight. Mark is now emotionally disturbed by these events, his worlds changed; his gay friends have decided to walk down the path of heterosexuality. This leaves Mark alone and disturbed. And this explains Marks strong objections to Sarge spending money on the painting, for ideally he shouldn’t be bothered about it. And the climax reiterates this point too, when Sarge is confronted by Mark and told its either him or the painting, Sarge unable to let go of his sexual desires towards Mark, decides to choose Mark over the painting.

Without my interpretation of the subtext in the play, the play is a plain bore. It drags, and it really is not funny. It’s actually quite terrible, adding to this is Evams style of set changes when they have someone on stage doing something totally unconnected to the play. When its someone doing tap dance its fine, but a dude pretending to conduct an opera really is the pits. It would be better if the backstage staff were just whipped to change sets faster than put the audience through this torture. The play in one word was terrible, but not terrible enough for it to be enjoyable. Really terrible, corny plays or movies like T Rajendar’s are actually enjoyable. This was not that bad, but it was still terrible and leaves a bad taste. The problem with the play, is quite simple that it takes it self too seriously and tries to hard.

PS: Now I’m off to Ramdoss house to protest over his inaction regarding the play. Blasphemous to have Tamilians being shown plays dealing with homosexuality. It is against our culture, we tamilians don’t have sex only, we see no sex, hear no sex and indulge in no sex.

I had a blast today, sampling Virudhunagar kotthu parotta and drinking Jil Jil Jigal Dhanda. But the real fun was when the music started. 2 hours of exhilarating street art, from Silambattam, Therukkoothu, and Singara Melam (Chendai Kottu) and even some Jazz Carnatic electronica from Susheela Raman.

The Therukkoothu from Thiruvannamalai was hilarious and took some earthy digs at contemporary society. It featured Lord Yama, a comical man who is about to be taken by aforementioned for a ride on a buffalo, and strangely enough, Veerapaandiya Kattabomman as well.

Let me present a sample dialogue from that street play.

Comical man: Yama, today somebody knocked on the door and I opened it, only to find a buffalo. A very large buffalo

Yama: Oho. A large buffalo, you say?

Comical man: Yes, and you were sitting on top of it.

Yama: Aha. So I was sitting on top of it

Comical man: Yes, and you told me that you had come to take me.

Yama: Oho. Is that so? And what did you say?

Comical man: I ran to my wife to ask her for help

Yama: Aha. And what did your wife say?

Comical man: She asked me not to disturb her and get lost.

Yama: Oho. So your own wife asked you to get lost. Perhaps you don’t treat her well. What did you then do?

Comical man: I ran to the other folks in the village and asked them to help me.

Yama: Aha. And what did they say?

Comical man: They also took your side. Apparently, you had bought them all "a quarter" sarakku.

Yama: Oho. So the villagers dumped you for a "quarter" sarakku. What has civil society come to. What did you do then?

Comical man: I ran to a "pie-nance" company and asked them for a loan for Rs. 2 lakhs.

Yama: Aha. 2 lakhs, you say? And what did they say.

Comical man: They didn’t ask me any question. They handed me the 2 lakhs, which gave me the comfort that not even you, Yama, can take me away when I haven’t paid the loan back to those guys.

And so on.

The second half of the play featured a dialogue between Yama and Kattabomman and an intervention by a thrisoolam wielding Kali.

All in all, good fun, and importantly, a good eye-opener to rural art forms that are dying out thanks to the onslaught of Tamizh soap serials and 5-movies-a-day TV channels.

I did a cursory search for "Chennai Sangamam" in flickr, and found some excellent photos by B Seshadri and Stalin Ramesh

The play was in the museum theatre, Egmore, which has lovely acoustics and not to mention the charming Victorian architecture. The play was a mix of two stories by Basheer, one is Love Letters, and the other story’s name, I sadly do not remember.

The sets were neatly done, the entire play occurs in two locations, one is a bachelor pad and the second a tea shop. Both these unrelated locations were integrated into one set, and devoid of the need for set changes.

In any adaptation the script plays a vital role, if the script fails to capture the essence of the story, the play usually falls apart. In this adaptation, the script retains the indianness of the play and also the humor present in the story. The blending of both the stories has been done well, the audience is fooled into believing that they are actually one story rather than two.

Since both the stories are love stories, I expected soppy, and emotional scenes. But to my surprise, the play was hilarious. There isn’t much to call as the story. Its essentially another of those breezy romantic plays, but just that it has an Indian background, with the average middle class clerk, the educated middle class mallu girl, tea shop owner, and a petty thief as the principle characters. With a card shuffler as the quasi-antagonist, and the interaction between these characters is a laugh riot.

The play is a value for money entertainer. Walk in, time flies by and walk out. This weekend, the same group is staging an ambitious play, which blends 8 different stories by Basheer, and after sitting through this one, I am definitely planning to watch that one too!!!

Very recently I had been to my native place (Thrissur, Kerala) and checked out the number of channels in the Television. Whooping 100 and odd channels, Including the pay channels at a price of about 150 INR (Indian National Rupee) per month. Where as we pay 100 INR with limited channels and excluding the PAY channels. (some channels purposefully blocked due to competition, some times)

Who benefits out of this system?
Did all chennaiites say that we wanted CAS or some one took the initiatives on behalf of the people.

While looking on the recently built up on news about the DTH free offer in Chennai. Which makes me think.

Irony: Well sounds like some one decides on what we can view and what needs to be payed by the people of Chennai.

Note: There are places in chennai who don’t have CAS nor DTH and happily viewing some pay channels to for a price of 150 INR. Check Kundrathur, Chennai 69.

Date: 13th October 2007
Time: 4 p.m.
Venue: Queen Mary’s College

It’s part documentary, part play and is essentially a journey into our common feminist past and comprises moments from modern history that show women in public life or thinking of being part of something beyond family and domesticity. The docu-drama is around 75 minutes and touches on the nationalist movement, the devadasi debate, the coming of Christianity to Tamil Nadu and changes in women’s status, on unknown Muslim women’s voices and finally on the women in the self-respect movement.

This play is a way of linking up with our past, of claiming a history that is usually forgotten and using that to connect to the present.

Do tell your friends who might be interested.