A different experience

Recently, I had the good fortune of getting free tickets to a theatre thanks to a friend whose brother featured in the drama. He had two tickets and it was Saturday evening so most of his friends had already made some plans or the others and when he texted me, well… all I thought of was, “why not?” So I agreed. Both he and I then set off to the concert hall in lady Andal School, Chennai, where it was being held... Also it had been a long time since we both had met so we did a lot of catching up chatting on our way there. The first of my surprises was to find such a magnificent auditorium built just for a school! It was huge from the outside and inside it looked something just short of the opera house and I instantly felt it was a great place to host good plays and as of for me, a cool place to start this newly found pastime. The play, by the way, was called 'Jesus the Superstar' directed by this guy called Michael Muthu who apparently is quite popular for his plays in Chennai atleast... cause quite a lot of people to whom I enquired knew him well. Moving on to the play, it was story of Jesus of Nazareth in the form of what I can call a Rock Musical, hence the name 'superstar'. The cast was well chosen especially the lead roles of Judas, Mary Magdalene, Simon, the chief priest and Jesus himself. Duh! It’s a musical so they're expected to sing too and oh man! They all did an awesome job with it. The play had some nicely choreographed dances added here and there quite aptly and there were a lot of these scenes (I think it’s called a soliloquy, don’t take my word for it though…) where the characters sang about their emotions alone on stage in a form of introspection which were really a treat to the eyes in the form of their acting and to the ears too as they all sang so beautifully. Through the play, not only was acting talent exhibited but also a lot of credit for how the whole event was conducted. Believe it or not, there was a live orchestration playing backstage complete with electric and bass guitars, keyboards and drums. So, synchronizing the music while the actors sang on stage was also a crucial part of the play. Thus, it was altogether a huge success and suited well to be 'the' platform for exhibiting talent. Come to think of it, I don’t think any of these actors were professionals and all; they were just youths in the age group of 20-25 enjoying practicing drama as a hobby. I enjoyed the show to the fullest and got a couple of snaps of important scenes like the last supper and that of the crown of thorns being placed on Jesus’ head for the memory of how much I enjoyed the play. Well… as an amateur to the idea I can popularize the theatre performance only by writing a blog of my experience or by word of mouth, but all I can say is that this play has instilled in me a great interest for drama and a nice new hobby. A pleasant prospect…

Desi movies and why they are so

I’m not that person who watches movies day in and day out and knows about each and every one of the latest releases and all the news related to them. Still I do have a well defined taste for movies. In general a movie becomes a hit on how well it appeals to the audience and this aspect differs from place to place. For example the movies from Hollywood and the U.K are grossly different from those made here in Bollywood. While movies from Hollywood are more dramatic and serious, the Bollywood movies are ones with a lot of masala, songs and fantasy. I prefer to watch a good English movie over these masala movies cause there is something to watch in them, some nice hidden meaning, or an idea that can be given some thought to. Watching movies like that would make one reminisce it later on and talk about how it felt watching it and all... whereas the most of the movies from India depend too much over glamour and songs and generally have a clichéd story line like poor hero, rich heroine, villain tortures heroine, the hero breaks free from the shackles of life to save the heroine and win her back to end with a happily ever after scene. There is no scope for anything in movies like these as by the time you step out form the cinema hall you’d have forgotten most of the scenes.

However there are a few movies in India too are made depicting the reality in India with themes like poverty or backwardness but movies like these are rare and don’t turn out to be box office hits and also it’s not the kind the general audiences enjoy... This came into light quite recently in my life, the reason why I’ve chosen to write about this in the first place. Well.., it started off with me wanting to watch this movie called kanchivaram, by director priyadharshan about how a kanchipuram weaver who can’t afford a silk saree himself. But when i asked my mom why none of the theatres screened the movie for too long she replied saying- those sort of movies are only meant for the awards and not meant for commercial profit.

From then I’ve been asking myself why is it that the general public prefer to watch these lousy movies with hopeless storylines, amateur acting and skimpily clothed women rather than movies that have such great value and meaning and in the end get good value for the 120 bucks movie tickets these multiplexes have to offer?

Well... I did get an answer to that question in the end. I was watching this program in Discovery channel called Gateway India which I happened to come across while surfing through and incidentally it was about the Indian movie industry and how it has evolved into becoming such an integral part of the lives of people here in India. Besides all the things they described about the movie industry there was this one line I caught them saying which actually meant a lot of things. India is primarily a poverty ridden country, slowly developing into being a more prosperous nation- fact and movies theatres and cinemas are taken to be a place of refuge by the common people so that they can escape the grim reality surrounding them at least for those couples hours in them. Thus to them it’s so much value for money to be watching a movie bundled up with the fantasy of the stars, the romance, action packed scenes, punch dialogues and melodious songs and dances besides other things rather than one with the drama and realism thrown back at them...

How true...