Narada Gana Sabha’s main auditorium fills up fast nowadays – besides Mylaporeans, people from across the city pack in to watch a set of new Tamil plays, part of the annual Kodai Nataka Vizha.
Free drama in good air-conditoning, and for foodies, a quick, prepshow bite at a Mysore masala dosa or sambhar vada at the Woodlands restaurant on this campus.
On Saturday, there was a bigger drama on stage.
A Vande Bharat train, lets say a small part of it from the engine side, rolled up. Artistes got on the platform, and got into the bogie and two female train motorists got the VB moving – this part of the drama got the biggest round of applause.
The effort was appreciated.
Director Satish Chandrasekaran, a Mylapore lawyer who handles criminal and civil cases, enjoys creating sets and gets sponsors to fund him for his Legally Yours drama company. “It costs, ” he said before the play was launched. “I need at least one lakh rupees to stage this new play elsewhere.”
Satish and his artistes had a good thread to unravel – the mysterious death of an actor-politician travelling in the Vande Bharat. It was loosely wrapped around the actor-politician everybody has heard about the past few months and in the TN elections.
But while the Vande Bharat travelled at good speed – good imaging and visual work on the rear screen, to get to Dindigul junction, the drama shuffled and was listless, with the same set of actors doing the rather amateur – ‘stand and deliver into mike’ acts.
Legally Yours’ ‘Kudumbadang’ needs reworking. To match the smart Vande Bharat prop. The props and visual work deserves a better life on stage journey.
