The Dramatic Arts : Sivagamiyin Sabadham

The cast of Shivagamiyin Sapadham .

Sivagamiyin Sabadham is a play based on the novel of the same name written by Amarar Kalki, brought to stage by the spectacular people of Ajay Entertainers, who brought Ponnian Selvan to stage yesterday. Those of you who read my review will know that I liked the drama very much, and since this is a play by the same group, the natural question to ask would be, is Sivagamiyin Sabadham as good as Ponnian Selvan?

In short, the answer is yes. But stick with me, because that yes is not so clear cut.

Sivagamiyin Sabadham is directed by D Mallik Raj and produced by Ajay entertainers, and while it doesn’t contain much in the way of a complex plot, it is once again the actors who shine in a very faithful adaptation of the original work.

Direction - D Mallikraj

Assistant Direction - G Saravanan

Story, Dialogues - Kavingyar Poovai Dhaya

Music Production- Alex

Sets - Baalan

Costumes - Thangapandiyan / Clara

Make-up - Doss

Lights - Govindan, Mano Lights

Technical Assiastance - Kalaivanar Kitcha

Cast - Muthukumar, Jagadeesan, Girish, Raghavan, Prakash kutti, Janardhanan, Saravanan, Suresh, A S Jayaraman, Mohan, V S Sridhar, Raman, Thangapandiyan, Udhayakumar, Dheepan, Muthu, Parimalam, Sekar, Revathi, Suhasini, Sri Lakshmi, Ishwarya, Sumathi, Ra Rathina sabapathy.

Production - Ajay Entertainers

What I liked:

This troupe has some of the best actors in the business and they make good use of them. The acting in this play is nothing less than the best this genre has to offer. The dialogues flow from the actors with practiced ease, capturing incredible amounts of intricate emotion. While I mentioned just three actors specifically in my review of Ponnian Selvan, this play had actors stealing the show left right and center, with clear cut performances.

The list of actors may be long, but I have no qualms about pointing each and every one of my favorite performances, because they were that good. Raghavan was nothing short of amazing as Narashiman, delivering his lines with gusto and emotion. The range of emotions he manages to express just through his words and body language is just too good. Sri Lakshmi as Sivagami, while not a great dancer, depicted the growth of her character from an innocent love struck girl to a worried daughter to finally a dangerous woman seeking revenge against those who stole her pride. The scene where she makes her titular promise left me stunned.

Mthukumar as Pulikesi, while not the main villain of the story, still plays his character with a lot of menace and surprising nuance, especially in the scene where his pride is broken by his enemy king. Jagadeesan played the villain with sufficient, for the lack of a better word, villainy managing to appear evil even without a mustache to twirl. Girish has a subdued performance as Paranjothi and instead acts as a perfect compliment and companion to the characters he shares the stage with and Ra Rathina Sabapathy appears kingly and courageous as Chakravarthi Mahendran. I do realize that I have not mentioned all of the characters, but every one of their performances was perfect, even if a few lasted barely a few minutes. These artists have serious acting chops and this is one troupe to look out for.

Another thing I liked this time around was that the sets were better. Like I mentioned yesterday, it is not the budget of the play but how it is spent which matters, and yet again Ajay Entertainers stick to this motto. The costumes by Thangapandiyan are as majestic as ever, and the make up by Doss is still top notch. The costumes and make up were as good as they were yesterday if not better, but what made it stand out even more were the new sets by Balan, along with technical assistance from Kalaivanar Kitcha

.

While the music by Alex is more miss than hit, it suits the scenes just fine, but it is not as good as it was yesterday. More on that later, though. The lights operated by Govindan from Mano Lights accentuate some of the important scenes, and provide a great effect.

What Could Have Been Better:

When I mentioned in the beginning that my answer was not clear cut, I want to clarify that statement in the following paragraphs.

The acting is immensely better than what it was yesterday. While there were some actors who lazed through some parts of Ponnian Selvan, the acting in Sivagamiyin Sabadham is absolutely great. My ambivalence stems from the fact that, when the play began some of the casting choices left me baffled, but as the play went on they seem justified.

A gripe I had with the play is that in the scenes where it deviates from the source material, it makes a few factual errors, which could have been avoided all-together. Another problem is that, while for the most part the dialogue flows really well, certain lines seem to be said just to give information to the audience.

Another problem was the sound effects. Some of them were really bad. Elephants sounded like they had a cold and war drums sounded like they were torn. Another part where the music took a hit was during the scene transitions. While live music is great, it could definitely use some improvement.

While this may not seem like much of a problem,  most of the backdrops have a large portion of the color green and it wasn’t long till some of the scenes started to take on a green tint.

Some of the jokes were hit and miss and, again, like any other historical play a few scenes could have been cut short, but the drama is still a masterful adaptation of the original.

While this is not a criticism of the play itself, the story is a bit on the slower side, and an increase in pacing could have done wonders.

Final Thoughts:

I’m very much ambivalent about this play, and for the first time, I am struggling to give a definitive score. While it is better than Ponnian Selvan in some cases, Sivagamin Sabatham does not fix Ponnian Selvan’s problems, but it sure does not create new ones.

For the first time, since I started drama reviews, I am very much torn because of this single play. Even after typing till the end here, I remain undecided about the score I have to give it.

So here is what I am going to do, I’m going to give two scores. The first one is for people who are satisfied with just a good story and acting. The other is a more grounded score based on people who come to see the whole play with all his parts.

According to the first criteria, I give Sivagamiyin Sabadham a 4.5 out of 5 stars. The acting in this is supreme and a complete standout for all the right reasons.

According to the later criteria, I give Sivagamiyin Sabadham  3.5 out of 5 stars. While there are some faults, the play surpasses them to become a great piece of art.

Sivagamiyin Sabadham is a must watch for fans of history and amazing performances. Future showings will be updated when the dates are made available.

Peace!!!