short n sweet - week 1- 12/7/14

s n s theater has turned out to be an event i eagerly look fwd to and thoroughly enjoy the bursts of small shots of well written screen play and some powerful acting performances.

the 10 plays in the week 1 managed to live upto my expctns to a large extent..

The Zombie apocalypse was a reflection of the sorry state of affairs we r in hooked on to our 'smart phones ' and other devices. the actor who played the business man quipped in his dialogues in a manner evoking humour spontaneously.

Its ok to ask was powered by some classic writing and a powerful performance by kasturi Goswami. Her singing was particularly magical.

Rishi Nair's looked like a casual attempt that u wished ended quickly.

Mr.Politician hinged onto a b'ful and stylish performance by Sruti Hari.

take two was an intersting couple's story, well written and well meaning. the way the initial bike and the final helmet were weaved into the story line exemplified some fine writing at work..

The thing is the stuff of a longer play to be relished in a relaxed manner-it doesn't fit in here, however it was a good attempt.

Tech-no-logic while trying to get us thinking abt our environment got a bit boring.

Heavenly Baddie was a liberal flow of comic onliners delivered with ease by vikram mankal who simply stole the show.

new years eve, though had a point, had a few awkward moments..

a typist with destiny simply blows u off with its refreshingly new style and fearless content..

eventful... Vesna- 25/6/14

i have this habit of saving the schedule of interesting events that i come across on to the calender on my mobile, immaterial of wen and wer the events happen. and later wen i am around someplace i check if there is anything happening around and try and attend the event.

This is how i saved on to my calender the schedule of  ukranian movies being screened at Russian Cultural center over a span of 3-4 days in the evenings. i happened to have some time at hand before getting my bike repaired and i was on thiru.vi ka road ( gen patters rd) and it was close to the start of a movie. I immediately grabbed an auto to the Russian center, which is at the corner of the road beside chola sheraton. Its a pity i had not visited this place all these days. have to make time to make a leisurely visit another day..

it was quite a luxury of a hall for film screening, quite grand but old, its age showing in the ambiance. the movie was slovenian 'Vesna', 1953. I loved the close up shots of the heroine's face the darling of all the boys in the movie. her face exuded so much love and a cute shy expression in her demeanor.

a sequence where the heroine brings the draft question paper from her father's desk for her lover, reminded me of a similar sequence in shankar's 'nanban'.

the story line, i gathered as i went in quite late,
where the boys take it as a challenge among themselves to win over their prof's daughter and thereby access the draft q paper, the girl coming to know of this later and feeling betrayed, and finally true love winning over has certainly inspired many movie makers across languages, i m sure..

Ponniyin Selvan - on stage

This June 8th was a day i have been looking forward to for quite some time now. This is the day that i would see a popular Tamil literary work being staged. i was eager because, one, i wanted to see how had the makers manged to make a screenplay out of a novel that runs to 1000 pages and takes place in varied locations and has so much twists and turns and political intrigue and further the novel is such a widely read and passionately followed work that any serious attempt would have to stand the judgement of millions of passionate readers.

The very fact that someone has dared to was in itself very exciting enough. i had more reasons to be excited. I had auditioned for an appearence in the play and was a part of the team for a couple of weeks and hence had happened to befriend the makers and the actors. so it was a day to see my friends perform.

Having known Pravin, the director of the play, having felt his inspiring presence on me and having witnessed his sincerity and the dedication he puts in,  i was sure that he was capable of nothing but sheer magic and his efforts would yield nothing short of a phenomenal performance. knowing what to expect, i was very eagerly looking forward to the show.

The play was special in it had to face the double challenge of having to be judged by the scheming eyes of the reader and the discerning eyes of the viewer. The reader enters with a ever suspecting and unbelieving mindset. he keeps doubting how could his magnum opus running to 1000 pages be lived up in a sapn few hours. He is possessive about his personal experience with the book. he has his favorite moments, fav characters, he has an image for each of the character playing out in his mind, eccetera, he savors the novel with a personal touch. so he is suspicious about how this stage play is going to touch upon his personal realm.

(abruptly ended..)