Imagine getting a free pass to Evam’s play getting to sit right there in the second row, so near to where all the action’s taking place? Well, you would just be one of the lucky bloggers in town who got this opportunity, thanks to Evam and Hamsini! :)
Evam needs no introduction as it just totally changed the entire theatre scenario in Chennai by infusing freshness into it! This was the first time I was getting to watch an Evam play and only the second time in my entire life that I was watching a play! The first I saw was ‘This English’ put up by Mithran Devanesan, Neelakantan(Neelu) and Karthik and the second was this Evam play, yesterday at 2 at Sivagami Pettachi hall, Luz Church road. It was like a mini-bloggers meet in itself, considering 4 of us turned up- Hamsini, ‘Sagaro’ Ganesh, Kausik Ram and I.
The play started off with the big three- Karthik Kumar, Sunil and the other Karthik Srinivasan(TMK who had also acted in ‘This English’) giving a brief intro that gets disrupted by TMK’s whacky show of non-coperation! So starts what actually is supposed to be an interlude to the actual play- Monty Python’s ‘The Cut’. A space-filler supposed to keep us occupied till KK recaptures TMK and brings him back to stage- convinced to do ‘Hamlet’, ‘The Cut’ proves to be a very different, funny and whacky.
I’m no play-hopper and so I am no great authority to comment on it but I found the script of the play…or plays rather, that, in totality, form ‘The Cut’, to be something which required a wild imagination to conceive it! To put it simply, ‘The Cut’ was a play within a play within a play within… and it goes on! It’s hilarious and had brilliant performances to back it. Every actor fit his/her shoes to a ‘T’ and were simply too good!
The way the actors mingled with the audience and suddenly popped up with their lines was a very innovative conception! You never could predict if the sober gentleman sitting two seats away was part of the play or not until the play actually got over!
‘The Hamlet’ began after the short break when KK finally returned with a reluctant TMK. The spoof was good and the comedy was good, but not exceptional! TMK was the best in ‘The Hamlet’ and his performance as ‘Ophelia’ was beyond brilliant! He was so natural and innovative. Oh… just TOOOOO good! I was bowled over by his acting in ‘This English’ and this time has just increased my admiration of his immense acting potential! You should have seen the way he recited the poem ‘Farewell to Ms.Padma’ by Nizzim Ezekiel in ‘This English’. Oh… he’s a GENIUS!!!
Karthik Kumar and Sunil were brilliant in their own way. These guys are so not self-conscious and their passion for theatre is seen clear! I liked the way they recapitulated the entire play backwards! It was hilarious!!!
Now for the flip side…. WHAT I DID NOT LIKE…
The Cut
The play tried to convey the piteous state of actors who live many a role in their life except for their own original selves! This theme- quite brilliant in its idea, lost focus as the play shifted gears to just be funny! And the fun was momentary. The kind of stuff that makes you laugh momentarily but that not really lingers when you get back home. It was not classy humour!
The ending was very insipid and trite! It required a more impressive ending.
The Hamlet
First things first-I have not read the Shakespearean classic to comment with authority! But what I felt was that the play banked more on the final ‘replays’ in backward motion and quick motion than in its normally paced fuller version!
I loved the fact that the whole play was very interactive and involved the audience in its scheme of things. But what was the whole point? What were they getting at? I couldn’t answer that! The whole play was just to make us laugh and had absolutely no other purpose to it!
In case you just want a good two hours of hilarity coupled with a talented bunch of actors, go ahead and watch Evam’s ‘The Cut of Hamlet’. But in case you’re looking for a tad more than that…some kind of a purpose and theme behind the whole thing other than just comedy, you will be left laughing all right, but you wouldn’t derive the complete satisfaction!
I liked the play but did not love it! ‘This English’ still has me going on about it! I LOVED that! Somehow, in some way ‘The Cut of Hamlet’ did not have me as impressed as the first play I ever saw.
Maybe it was just that I was unfairly comparing both the plays…or maybe I was being too judgemental…or maybe I am no authority to gauge its standards and review it… or maybe it was just that meeting and talking to Karthik Kumar at the end of the play stole the thunder away from the whole show…
;)
And guess what??? He asked me if I was sitting in the second row! And…. I WAS!!! Hu hu hu!!! Boy, am I not thrilled? :D
June 24, 2006
WHEN CHENNAI HAD ITS BIGGEST BLOGGERS’ MEET…
When Chennai had its biggest bloggers meet …
Ascendas slightly trembled in its foundations due to the presence of a bunch of 25 over-enthusiastic bloggers!
An area called Anna Nagar was officially ousted from the city of Chennai
Engineering got termed the best way to end up with jobs of auto-drivers and sweepers!
Women bloggers made their presence felt and changed tides and made sure they turned up in a good number!
And I ended up with the list of URLs to be posted!
:)
What started at 3 in the afternoon of an exceptionally sultry day in the normally humid Chennai city in the now-well known Ascendas Food Court(The place ROCKS in font size infinity!), turned out to be THE Chennai Bloggers’ Meet till date!
It was super fun, lots of talk[yeah yeah Praveen… I DID contribute a lot to the talk! X( ], LOTS of taking one another’s asses ;) and a bit of ‘blog gyan’ passed on to ill-informed junta(Me! Me! Me! :D ) by the kings ‘n’ geeks of blogworld! Imagine if all that was spread over a tasty cold cup of the yummiest of lime-teas(Lime Tea Sparkler) I’ve had in my life! Ah… I couldn’t have asked for more!
The whole meet turned out one BIG surprise for me! I met, after ten whole years, an old classmate of mine who actually remembered the elastic-strap-hat I used to wear way back in my first standard!!! It truly was an oh-my-God-that-isn’t-YOU-is-it-?-Its-AGES-since-we-last-met moment man! Raghuveer- was super seeing u there pal! :)
I was actually pretty concerned about what people were gonna do after Praveen’s ‘kind’ advice to all bloggers attending the meet, but thankfully no one got along a wad of cotton and Sheky apparently ‘forgot’ his[hmph X( ]!
On the whole it REALLY was THE BEST BLOGGERS MEET I’ve been to![ I wish Vani had been there… Aw Pisa… You SHOULD have come!!! :”( ] And though none of the four people who told me they would mostly turn up- Murali[endhan anbu anna! X( ], Charan, Karthik Murali and ‘Whiny’ Arvind –never came, it still saw me enjoying to the maximum! One…no…two things I was glad of- One-Praveen and Harish did not come and two-Pravenn and Harish did not come! He he… ;) I was spared from the tortures equivalent to being strung up on a cutting rusted metal wire by your tongue from the top corner of the Leaning Tower of Pisa!!! :D Habba!!!
Well… Now for what my duty calls attention to- The list of URLs…
Here goes-in the particular order of your scribbles on my notepad…
Bhargav Ramesh (One funny fellow… Had me clutching my stomach and laughing all through!!! )
tsunamispeaks.blogspot.com
Anush Krishnan(I CANNOT forget the sparrow story!!! He he…)
theraytracer.blogspot.com
Jammy(Was thrilled to meet one of my favourite bloggers… He’s simply too hilarious)
ouchmytoe.redifffblogs.com
KausikRam(namma Mark Issuak Thaan… :D Camera vechchu banda pannindrundaar,sir )
chaosbudha.blogspot.com
Raghuveeran(my old classmate!!! )
virtualveeran.blogspot.com
Vinayak(was totally enjoying himself but a li’l quietly)
excreation.blogspot.com
Balakumarmuthu(a quiet person…or did we not give you a spare moment to talk?!)
i5bala.blogspot.com
Ramanujam(namma pettai ivan!)
ramanujamp.blogspot.com
Kartik(one more of the funny fellows!)
kraktik.blogspot.com
Ganesh A.P.P(beware of the Sagaro card! ;) )
gapp.wordpress.com
Sharique(‘had a blog posted on his tee’, as Jammy remarked!!!)
shaarique.blogspot.com
Aishwarya Rao(a very sweet and nice person! Enga area thaan!!)
aishwaryarao.blogspot.com
Kartik Kannan(The unofficial ‘spammer’ of blogsville! :D )
katchucrap.blogspot.com
kartik.sulekha.com
Kiruba Shankar (King Kribs… Do I need to say any more? :) )
kiruba.com
S(h)ekar (treat-kudukaama escape ayittaru namma sir! Grr…. Iru iru… naanga 99 times vandhu spam panrom un blog-la! Yihaahaaa… *evil grin* >:D )
shekys.blogspot.com
Katheeja(An architect in the making… was delighted to see someone so enthu about architecture!)
poisonivy88.livejournal.com
Hamsini(I was delighted to meet her!!! She’s one fun-party! Coca-cola voda jollu…ahem…water supply ivanga thaan panraango! He he!!!)
hamdamn.livejournal.com
Nina(Quietly observed the proceedings and started opening out only towards the end…)
duffilled.blogspot.com
Varun Rajan( He found great satisfacshunnnnnn in the meet ;) )
ibanti.blogspot.com
Rekha Rajan(Jammy’s wife and blogger…constantly supervising Jammy! :D )
rekhs.rediffblogs.com
Rahul Maniyar(not very talkative but not too quiet! )
hunkydorylife.blogspot.com
The three other Mesdames who had to leave early-Please leave your URLs here…
It was fantastic meeting you all and I really have no words to describe how much I enjoyed the whole time I was there, more than what the above 719 words could convey! And thank you all for the fun time! Those who couldn’t make it- You sure missed something good! Yeah yeah, there were the ‘dips’ in conversation but then that was fun too-counting silence!
So ppl- I promise you to drop by soon at your nest in blogsville! Till then- tata bye bye and take care!
However long you stayed, it was a great exchange of ideas, thoughts and vetti talks.And for the last ones to leave, well, it all ended with KOKA!!! ;)
Ascendas slightly trembled in its foundations due to the presence of a bunch of 25 over-enthusiastic bloggers!
An area called Anna Nagar was officially ousted from the city of Chennai
Engineering got termed the best way to end up with jobs of auto-drivers and sweepers!
Women bloggers made their presence felt and changed tides and made sure they turned up in a good number!
And I ended up with the list of URLs to be posted!
:)
What started at 3 in the afternoon of an exceptionally sultry day in the normally humid Chennai city in the now-well known Ascendas Food Court(The place ROCKS in font size infinity!), turned out to be THE Chennai Bloggers’ Meet till date!
It was super fun, lots of talk[yeah yeah Praveen… I DID contribute a lot to the talk! X( ], LOTS of taking one another’s asses ;) and a bit of ‘blog gyan’ passed on to ill-informed junta(Me! Me! Me! :D ) by the kings ‘n’ geeks of blogworld! Imagine if all that was spread over a tasty cold cup of the yummiest of lime-teas(Lime Tea Sparkler) I’ve had in my life! Ah… I couldn’t have asked for more!
The whole meet turned out one BIG surprise for me! I met, after ten whole years, an old classmate of mine who actually remembered the elastic-strap-hat I used to wear way back in my first standard!!! It truly was an oh-my-God-that-isn’t-YOU-is-it-?-Its-AGES-since-we-last-met moment man! Raghuveer- was super seeing u there pal! :)
I was actually pretty concerned about what people were gonna do after Praveen’s ‘kind’ advice to all bloggers attending the meet, but thankfully no one got along a wad of cotton and Sheky apparently ‘forgot’ his[hmph X( ]!
On the whole it REALLY was THE BEST BLOGGERS MEET I’ve been to![ I wish Vani had been there… Aw Pisa… You SHOULD have come!!! :”( ] And though none of the four people who told me they would mostly turn up- Murali[endhan anbu anna! X( ], Charan, Karthik Murali and ‘Whiny’ Arvind –never came, it still saw me enjoying to the maximum! One…no…two things I was glad of- One-Praveen and Harish did not come and two-Pravenn and Harish did not come! He he… ;) I was spared from the tortures equivalent to being strung up on a cutting rusted metal wire by your tongue from the top corner of the Leaning Tower of Pisa!!! :D Habba!!!
Well… Now for what my duty calls attention to- The list of URLs…
Here goes-in the particular order of your scribbles on my notepad…
Bhargav Ramesh (One funny fellow… Had me clutching my stomach and laughing all through!!! )
tsunamispeaks.blogspot.com
Anush Krishnan(I CANNOT forget the sparrow story!!! He he…)
theraytracer.blogspot.com
Jammy(Was thrilled to meet one of my favourite bloggers… He’s simply too hilarious)
ouchmytoe.redifffblogs.com
KausikRam(namma Mark Issuak Thaan… :D Camera vechchu banda pannindrundaar,sir )
chaosbudha.blogspot.com
Raghuveeran(my old classmate!!! )
virtualveeran.blogspot.com
Vinayak(was totally enjoying himself but a li’l quietly)
excreation.blogspot.com
Balakumarmuthu(a quiet person…or did we not give you a spare moment to talk?!)
i5bala.blogspot.com
Ramanujam(namma pettai ivan!)
ramanujamp.blogspot.com
Kartik(one more of the funny fellows!)
kraktik.blogspot.com
Ganesh A.P.P(beware of the Sagaro card! ;) )
gapp.wordpress.com
Sharique(‘had a blog posted on his tee’, as Jammy remarked!!!)
shaarique.blogspot.com
Aishwarya Rao(a very sweet and nice person! Enga area thaan!!)
aishwaryarao.blogspot.com
Kartik Kannan(The unofficial ‘spammer’ of blogsville! :D )
katchucrap.blogspot.com
kartik.sulekha.com
Kiruba Shankar (King Kribs… Do I need to say any more? :) )
kiruba.com
S(h)ekar (treat-kudukaama escape ayittaru namma sir! Grr…. Iru iru… naanga 99 times vandhu spam panrom un blog-la! Yihaahaaa… *evil grin* >:D )
shekys.blogspot.com
Katheeja(An architect in the making… was delighted to see someone so enthu about architecture!)
poisonivy88.livejournal.com
Hamsini(I was delighted to meet her!!! She’s one fun-party! Coca-cola voda jollu…ahem…water supply ivanga thaan panraango! He he!!!)
hamdamn.livejournal.com
Nina(Quietly observed the proceedings and started opening out only towards the end…)
duffilled.blogspot.com
Varun Rajan( He found great satisfacshunnnnnn in the meet ;) )
ibanti.blogspot.com
Rekha Rajan(Jammy’s wife and blogger…constantly supervising Jammy! :D )
rekhs.rediffblogs.com
Rahul Maniyar(not very talkative but not too quiet! )
hunkydorylife.blogspot.com
The three other Mesdames who had to leave early-Please leave your URLs here…
It was fantastic meeting you all and I really have no words to describe how much I enjoyed the whole time I was there, more than what the above 719 words could convey! And thank you all for the fun time! Those who couldn’t make it- You sure missed something good! Yeah yeah, there were the ‘dips’ in conversation but then that was fun too-counting silence!
So ppl- I promise you to drop by soon at your nest in blogsville! Till then- tata bye bye and take care!
However long you stayed, it was a great exchange of ideas, thoughts and vetti talks.And for the last ones to leave, well, it all ended with KOKA!!! ;)
June 20, 2006
CHENNAI BLOGGERS' MEET
Quoting Kausik
There is going to be a blogger's meet on the 24th of June at the Ascendas, Taramani at around 3 p.m. All Bloggers from Chennai are welcome to hop in and share a word. And in case you are more interested in the grub rather than in petty talks (which I am sure is not the case), then for you people, it is going to be a YOYP (You Order You Pay) system.
I'll be there.... You too join in!!!
:)
DATE 24 June
TIME 3 pm
VENUE Ascendas, Taramani
There is going to be a blogger's meet on the 24th of June at the Ascendas, Taramani at around 3 p.m. All Bloggers from Chennai are welcome to hop in and share a word. And in case you are more interested in the grub rather than in petty talks (which I am sure is not the case), then for you people, it is going to be a YOYP (You Order You Pay) system.
I'll be there.... You too join in!!!
:)
DATE 24 June
TIME 3 pm
VENUE Ascendas, Taramani
June 09, 2006
Tata... :)
Naah... I'm not leaving blogsville forever, though considering the limited activity that's been happening, you may be pardoned to have thought so!!! :)
My exams got over on 8th June(were OK) and tomo at 6 am, yours truly will be off to Coimbatore for a ten-day holiday! Yipee!!! And me's goin alone!!! Actually not-my dearest best friend(whose native's Coimbatore) is coming along! And i'm sure I'm gonna bug him to death talking for a straight 6 hours!!! He he!!!
I'm visiting my grandparents there and hoping to return on 19th to meet Vani on 20th!!! Yay!!! My chella Pisa's comin to town! And ppl---
BLOGGER"S MEET ON 20th June at AMETHYST most probably. Pl Bug Hamsinin and 'Mark Isuak' a.k.a. Kausik Ram for further details!
I'll be comin oif Pisa's comin... :)
Take care... Tata!
Actually got loads to post but simply no time! :(
Will be back soon!
MISS ME!!! :)
My exams got over on 8th June(were OK) and tomo at 6 am, yours truly will be off to Coimbatore for a ten-day holiday! Yipee!!! And me's goin alone!!! Actually not-my dearest best friend(whose native's Coimbatore) is coming along! And i'm sure I'm gonna bug him to death talking for a straight 6 hours!!! He he!!!
I'm visiting my grandparents there and hoping to return on 19th to meet Vani on 20th!!! Yay!!! My chella Pisa's comin to town! And ppl---
BLOGGER"S MEET ON 20th June at AMETHYST most probably. Pl Bug Hamsinin and 'Mark Isuak' a.k.a. Kausik Ram for further details!
I'll be comin oif Pisa's comin... :)
Take care... Tata!
Actually got loads to post but simply no time! :(
Will be back soon!
MISS ME!!! :)
June 02, 2006
ANNE-O-MINE!!! :)
It's with a great glad feeling that I'm posting this... I just received my own copy of the Anne of Green Gables calendar!!! :)
I received it this afternoon and I just can't take my eyes off it!!! It's so nice to be able to see and hold and own a truly delightful calendar featuring pictures of places, so intimate to L.M.Montgomery and Anne! I'm totally delighted and in seventh heaven at the warm gesture of L.M.Montgomery Institute to send calendars to the winners! I have no words to express my gratitude!!!
It's so beautiful and I'm so totally thrilled and delighted and what not! It's as if I'm holding a wee bit of Montgomery and Anne with me!!! :) Oh... to be able to see the pictures of all the places that L.M.Montgomery used to haunt in her life... Oh, words fail me!!!
I'm totally thrilled!!! :)
Once more, thanks LMMI!!! :)
Kindredly,
Sandhya Ramachandran, Chennai, India :)
(Now in seventh Heaven!!!)
I received it this afternoon and I just can't take my eyes off it!!! It's so nice to be able to see and hold and own a truly delightful calendar featuring pictures of places, so intimate to L.M.Montgomery and Anne! I'm totally delighted and in seventh heaven at the warm gesture of L.M.Montgomery Institute to send calendars to the winners! I have no words to express my gratitude!!!
It's so beautiful and I'm so totally thrilled and delighted and what not! It's as if I'm holding a wee bit of Montgomery and Anne with me!!! :) Oh... to be able to see the pictures of all the places that L.M.Montgomery used to haunt in her life... Oh, words fail me!!!
I'm totally thrilled!!! :)
Once more, thanks LMMI!!! :)
Kindredly,
Sandhya Ramachandran, Chennai, India :)
(Now in seventh Heaven!!!)
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