evam Indrajit
(Source: Vijay Times, BVT Pg 4.)
Copyright © 2005 Puja Goyal. [BVT photos]
The Madras Players and Evam Entertainment have come together to bring a Classic adapted from Badal Sircar’s original work, which was written in Bengali in 1960 and translated in English by Girish Karnad. The play was staged recently at RangaShakara on the 24th of July 2005.
While evam Indrajit on one hand traces the story of four friends and their trials and travails from when they are 18 to when they are 35 living in urban middle class India, on the other hand it also traces the struggle of a writer who wants to write a play about these four friends.
Through the story of these friends the play projects all the prevalent attitudes, vague feelings and undefined frustrations gnawing the hearts of the educated urban middle class. Whether to be a part of the crowd or to single out and voice one's opinion? Are our thoughts our own? Or do they just mirror those of countless others? Are some people special and unique or are they just smaller chapters in the larger scheme of things?
There is only two ways one can look at Evam Indrajit, either one goes for the entertainment content or one goes for the message. Although the actors were at their finest they could have eliminated the screen that reflected a blue light that pierced the eyes of the audience who was expecting something from it… and was disappointed. It had only resulted in an eyesore.
By the end of part one, one got the message… there are three types of people, one who conform to the norms and go round and round in circles, the other who wants to follow their own dreams and the third who observes and writes about it. One has to find one's space amongst these three categories of individuals… the message was heavy and very philosophical. The concept was genuine and was presented in a very contemporary way; even then the audience seemed a little perturbed by the end of the first part.
As we progressed to part two, the play spoke of the same things over again, and one could feel the emotions of the audience. Although the message was just; towards the end, it resulted in sounding more like a lecture and less like entertainment. Maybe they could have gone milder with the dialogues… even then; the troupe should be applauded for an excellent performance despite all technical errors, especially Asim who played Indrajit.
Copyright © 2005 Puja Goyal. [BVT photos]
The Madras Players and Evam Entertainment have come together to bring a Classic adapted from Badal Sircar’s original work, which was written in Bengali in 1960 and translated in English by Girish Karnad. The play was staged recently at RangaShakara on the 24th of July 2005.
While evam Indrajit on one hand traces the story of four friends and their trials and travails from when they are 18 to when they are 35 living in urban middle class India, on the other hand it also traces the struggle of a writer who wants to write a play about these four friends.
Through the story of these friends the play projects all the prevalent attitudes, vague feelings and undefined frustrations gnawing the hearts of the educated urban middle class. Whether to be a part of the crowd or to single out and voice one's opinion? Are our thoughts our own? Or do they just mirror those of countless others? Are some people special and unique or are they just smaller chapters in the larger scheme of things?
There is only two ways one can look at Evam Indrajit, either one goes for the entertainment content or one goes for the message. Although the actors were at their finest they could have eliminated the screen that reflected a blue light that pierced the eyes of the audience who was expecting something from it… and was disappointed. It had only resulted in an eyesore.
By the end of part one, one got the message… there are three types of people, one who conform to the norms and go round and round in circles, the other who wants to follow their own dreams and the third who observes and writes about it. One has to find one's space amongst these three categories of individuals… the message was heavy and very philosophical. The concept was genuine and was presented in a very contemporary way; even then the audience seemed a little perturbed by the end of the first part.
As we progressed to part two, the play spoke of the same things over again, and one could feel the emotions of the audience. Although the message was just; towards the end, it resulted in sounding more like a lecture and less like entertainment. Maybe they could have gone milder with the dialogues… even then; the troupe should be applauded for an excellent performance despite all technical errors, especially Asim who played Indrajit.
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