A Critique by J Rengarajan of
Chennai
A group of Indians in the famed Silicon
Valley near San Francisco otherwise known as the Bay Area staged the Tamil play
‘Kalavaram’ at an auditorium in Palo Alto on the 4th repeated it
on the 5th August 2001. The play is a satire on the current political
situation in India, Tamilnadu in particular.
The play (said to be an
adaptation of a Hindi play) brings out with great cynicism the interlink between
the politicians, bureaucracy, high powered businessmen and the underworld in
fomenting riots in India and taking advantage of the situation thereafter for
their individual benefit.
The story is about an
anticipated riot for which a minister works out, in advance, the relief amount
payable for the expected deaths and injuries and sends the money to a police
station for distribution after the riot. The minister also records appropriate
speeches to be broadcast before, during and after the riot. However due to a
mistake made by a police constable, the recorded broadcast scheduled to be made
by the minister during the riot is actually made before the scheduled riot. This
leads to confusion and panic amongst people particularly slum dwellers. A shrewd
businessman who wants to drive out the slum dwellers from their homes to take
over the land to expand his factory takes advantage of the situation by
employing an underworld character to drive out the slum dwellers for a fee.
Kabali a professional
murderer employed for this purpose has other ideas. He steals the money kept for
riot relief and distributes it to the victims of a past riot thus earning the
goodwill of the slum dwellers and becomes a political leader in the process.
Even though the story has familiar overtones, Kalavaram differs in showing
things realistically. There is no hero jumping into the fray to save the slum
dwellers.
Under the Director,
Mahesh Umasankar the all-amateur cast performed brilliantly. Balaji Thirumalai
excelled in his role as the easy going police constable and had the audience
roaring with laughter. His explanation for playing the wrong audio of the
minister was comedy at its best. Mani Ram as Kabali the ‘pettai rowdy’
becoming in a short time a benevolent politician played both the parts very
convincingly. Srikanth Anandal played his dual roles that of a businessman as
well as that of a slum dweller with great aplomb. Govindaraj Haridass as Yogi,
the commentator on the stage was a new feature in a Tamil play. Mani Sundaram
played the character of Paneer the speechwriter for all occasions and all
politicians, realistically.
The properties and
stage management were of a high order, done under able guidance of Lalitha
Rajagopalan. The policemen on the stage wore uniforms, which looked almost
original. The ‘potti kadai’ (small wayside shop) on the stage was a replica
of ones found all over Tamilnadu sidewalks. The enormous efforts made by the
entire team in making the play as close to the real life in today’s Tamilnadu
as possible was evident in every scene. The make up artists Saritha Sundaresan
and Shobha Rengarajan contributed enormously to make the actors absolutely
authentic for their parts.
Considering everyone involved in the play is holding a full time job in a highly competitive environment, Indians in USA can take pride in having such a talented group in their midst. The repeated applause and curtain calls at the end of the play indicated Mahesh and his group would have their hands full in staging more such plays.