EVAM - Chennai Theatre. Changing landscape.

Plays in Chennai. Bah, who goes for 'em?
English plays in Chennai. Heh! Check this guy out! are you kidding me?
Intelligent english plays in Chennai. Not even in my dreams!
Intelligent english plays done by intelligent minds in Chennai. Oh God!

There is this smart-looking youngster who comes in the movie 'Kanda naal mudhal'. He performs his role with ease and elan and walks off with a neat performance. Probably professional is the word you can associate with that performance of charismatic Karthik Kumar. And a professional he was, as was Sunil Vishnu; working professionals who worked their mules off (Karthik would know what I mean! But I digress) for two years so that they can earn what it takes to start off a venture. A venture so extra-ordinary, it can be termed madness, by any casual onlooker.

But these folks must certainly have known what they were doing, for they have walked the path only a few others have dared to tread, and have emerged successfully. To retain themselves in the performing arts arena with an concept as unusual as theirs, is in itself a triumph, but they have done themselves proud by putting up 150 shows (number to be achieved by the end of this season), all to almost-packed, enthusiastic and delighted audiences.

Theatre was always a diseased, if not deceased, phenomenon in Chennai. Over the years, so many people have tried their magic, but, they have probably left a bigger vacuum when they bowed out. Just like so many others, I have very limited exposure to any form of Theatre in Chennai and I can recall only a few icons who have made their mark in thamizh theatre - Poornam Viswanathan, R S Manohar, Y G Mahendra, Kaathaadi Ramamoorthy, S Ve Shekhar, Crazy Mohan et al. And even their attempts were mostly one-dimensional. Either serious conventional stories or historicals or comedies. Indie attempts like Kooththup Pattarai were always little known and always attracted audience only with alternative tastes.

Though I, with my limited knowhow, should not comment on the success or failure of Theatre in Chennai, I can say this much. Well-informed sources do accept the fact that Theatre in Chennai is too risky a proposition to be pursued as a career.

It is in this backdrop that we should view Evam's success. Their scripts are not conventional. They seem to pick international scripts that are popular and have scope to be enacted comfortably in front of an unassuming audience, which comprises of a mix of young and old. Yes, I did say young! Young people coming to watch a live play; the kind of youth you would normally associate with the halls of Sathyam Cinemas, the arm-chairs of Amethyst, the dance floors of Geoffreys' or the plush sofas of Barista or Cafe Coffee Day. Now, they have an alternative; A new choice, a 'none-of-the-above' concept to spend an evening. And what an evening it turns out to be!