The Dramatic Arts : Kasethan Kadavulada

Kasethan Kadavulada, the 66^th production of UAA, is a comedy play directed by YY Gee Mahendra and written by Chitralaya Gopu and Chitralaya Sriram. Based on the movie which was an adaptation of a drama, Kasethan Kadavulada is an attempt to bring back to stage the astounding success of the original.

I don’t want to say much in the introduction, other than that I think Y Gee Mahendra has become another person who thinks that audiences will hail anything he puts up on stage as a brilliant piece of art.

What I Liked:

I really tried to think of something that I liked, but after god set designing by “Padma Stage” Kannan and decent music and lighting by “Kalai” Ravi, I am afraid I am drawing a blank. I just cannot think of any other single part of the play which was even remotely good. Not even a joke.

If you are looking for something else,

What Could have Been Better:

Everything could have been better. The acting could have been better. The jokes could have been better. The comedic timing could have been loads better. The dialogues could have been better. The scripting and screenplay could have been better. This play is, in reality, a big hot mess.

Let’s start from the beginning. The play is two hours and five minutes long. Here is a small tip for any budding artist. If you are going to make anything that long, be it a movie or a drama, make sure you have something worthwhile to fill the time with. I do not, for the life of me, want uncharacteristic unrelated filler. It doesn’t matter if it is for comedic reasons, or if it is because there is one person who you want to desperately to appear in your production and you can’t find a role for them. If it does not mesh into the flow of the story, it is unwanted filler. The reality is that, people don’t pay to see unwanted filler; they pay to see a coherent story. Please don’t waste their time and save some money.

A scene from a movie cannot, I repeat cannot be replicated on stage. It is lousy screenwriting. It just isn’t possible. Any movie has a higher budget and a better production value. The tone of the stage is different, the setting and the spacing of the stage is different than what you see in the movie when you sit in front of a television or in a theater. People will believe things which happen in movies more easily than things which happen on stage. That’s just plain fact. So unrealistic action and fighting scenes cannot be replicated on stage and, in my opinion, do not belong on there.

Number three. During the press meet for this play, Y Gee Mahendra claimed that this play had family friendly and good natured humor in it. Now I am going to be upfront here. I have not seen the movie or the original play. So I guess this criticism extends to the movie as well, but making jokes about someone’s height, appearance, makeup and sexual innuendoes, are not good natured and friendly humor. That is just regular humor which everyone does. In my opinion genuinely good natured humor happens when the play on words doesn’t make fun of someone, but rather makes you think for a minute before you laugh. And for the love of God, please realize that slapstick comedy, does not work on stage. It just doesn’t.

Number four; harkening back to my second point, songs from a movie, do not belong on stage. I don’t care if is the most iconic song in the whole world. I do not care if it got fifteen Oscar’s. The only song that belongs on stage is the National Anthem. If I wanted to see people lip sync horribly, I would watch Tamil Serials. I am not ready to pay money to see men and women, get dressed, wear make-up climb on stage and lip sync like they are doing karaoke at the party night in the restaurant at the end of the street. 

This is an adaptation of a really old film. I understand that some of the jokes are outdated. But Y Gee Mahendran claimed to have modernized the play. If only I knew modernizing meant saying “Nerupudaaa”, making jokes about Vaiko, Nityananda and the Tamil Nadu political system.

For those of you who are interested, this is the place where I stopped after I got too irritated thinking about this thing and went to bed and I picked it back up after re-watching Ghost in the Shell and Zootopia.

I cannot condemn this play anymore. It is slow, boring and immature; and I am sure that the original creators and actors must be either turning in their graves. I am completely gob-smacked and baffled by the lack of clarity and flow in this play.

Final Thoughts:

I have a lot of final thoughts to give here. I have heard about the brilliance of Y Gee Mahendra, and if it is true, then I feel sorry to have been introduced to his work through this monstrosity. I want to go into the details about how much he praised the play in his press conference, even going on to call it a laughter airplane ride. But I am not going too. I have neither the inclination nor the patience to do so, for I have had enough.

The worst part about this is that, since he holds a prominent position in the field that people will praise whatever he puts up, just so they don’t antagonize him. I believe it is this influence which made prominent drama veterans to climb up on stage and praise this mess like it is the greatest thing to happen to the dramatic arts after Shakespeare.

I have to apologize, because I am not a person who tells something to someone’s face and whispers behind the back just so that I can be in their good books. If every single person who praised the play in front of Y Gee Mahendra, didn’t call it nonsense when they stepped outside, I am surprised that they became veterans of the field.

I want to make it clear, I do not have anything against being courteous when explaining the negatives of something they have created, but I sure as hell hate it when someone calls a rotten tomato the greatest thing they have eaten in their lives.

Most of all I hate the fact that Y Gee Mahendra thinks that anything he directs will become masterpiece. But I really cannot blame him, because everyone who must say his work is bad do nothing but praise it in hopes of gaining favors.

I am not going to be rating this thing. I don’t believe that it deserves any rating I give it. It just feels unethical to even think about rating this. I hope that this is not the state of his future productions, because if it is, I suggest he get a “Lifetime Achievement” Award and stop directing, and perform cameo roles.

If you want future date, I have posted them in my coverage of the press meet for Kasethan Kadavulada. But honestly, this play does not deserve your hard earned money. *sigh*. Until next time:

Peace!!!