The Dramatic Arts : Sathiyama Solren

Sathiyama Solren was inaugurated last year by the troupe Legally Yours and it tells an intricate story involving a murder, a journalist hungry for fame, a dead beat lawyer trying to prove himself, a suspicious Investigating officer and an eccentric doctor.

While I was unable to catch this play last year when it was inaugurated, I did hear a lot of buzz about it. Many viewers called it one of the best courtroom dramas they had seen. Unfortunately, I cannot judge a play based on a show I didn’t see, so my review is based on what I witnessed at Naradhana Gana Sabha on the 1^st  of June.

Director - Satish Chandrasekaran

Post production - Rajesh

Music - Subramanian

Lights - "Cheta" Ravi

Stage - Mohan Babu

Makeup - Singamuthu

Cast - Muthukumaran, Shuba, Satish Chandrasekaran , Parameswaran, Ganapathy, Aiyappan, Ranjith, Balasubramanian, Varsha, Cynduja, Shyam Sundar, Sudharshan, Sriram Ramaswamy

Production - Legally Yours

What I Liked :

The concept of the story as a whole is thoroughly interesting and, as a viewer, it kept me guessing till the very end. Some of the twists were really unpredictable and all in all it felt as if it was ripped straight of a murder mystery. But it is the execution of the story that matters and the play falters a bit on that front.

The acting for the most part is pretty good, and I grew to love the character of the doctor played by Muthukumaran. Satish Chandrasekeran plays Raj, a dead beat lawyer trying to prove himself, and he does it quite convincingly.

Since this is a courtroom drama, it does have quite a few courtroom scenes. These scenes are executed brilliantly, especially towards the end where the tension keeps mounting. Another new addition to the stage is, surprisingly enough, is a projector screen. I enjoyed the new perspective it adds to the execution of the play, but I will have to reserve my judgments on how effective it is in an industry which prides itself on live performances over prerecorded acting, until I see how the troupe takes it forward in its upcoming plays. The costume design is good and I really have nothing bad to say about the makeup.

What Could Have Been Better :

While the play has an interesting story, the execution could have been way better. In a courtroom drama, the scenes outside the courtroom matter just as much as the scenes inside the courtroom. It is in these scenes that the play falters in the executions. Seasoned actors struggled to find the spotlight, leaving some scenes poorly lit. While the play did follow the Kodai Nadaga Vizha award function, and certain mistakes may be linked to very little rehearsal time, as a reviewer I am in no position to accept any excuses. The scenes outside the courtroom have an unpolished feel to them, and I am sure this is due to the lack of rehearsals.

Another thing which bothered me was that, the way the characters are presented to us in the beginning of the play and the way they end up when the play comes to a close have no correlation with each other. It seemed that an easier ending was chosen over a more realistic one to make sure no loose ends were left.

But through all of this one thing I could not accept was the completely shoddy music. While all the other problems I pointed out have very justifiable reasons, the one thing that doesn’t, is the music or more accurately the lack-thereof. Music is a tool which elevates every scene, accentuates every emotion and makes sure every twist hits home. The complete lack of music is baffling, especially with the number of twists this play has. The only place here music was used was during transitions and even then it never really fit with the scenes which happened on stage. Without music many of the scenes have no tension or urgency and I really think this is something which should be addressed in their future projects.

Final Thoughts :

While some scenes make the audiences applaud and the overall execution is really good for most part of the play, the negative aspects take away quite a bit of the enjoyment. To put it a bit more literally, it is not good individual scenes which make up a good play, but rather, a good play has really good scenes in it. Just because some of the scenes were great, it doesn’t make the play great.

I do empathize with the problems the troupe faced during the showing. Very little time, and lesser number of rehearsals to name a few, but as I said earlier, I cannot judge a play based on what it was.

I give Sathiyama Solren 3 out of 5 stars.

With a bit more rehearsal and fine tuning I’m sure that I will bump it up to a 3.5 but without the drastic changes made to the music aspect, this is the highest score I can give. This is one troupe to look out for in the courtroom genre, provided they make the necessary improvements.

Any further showings of the drama will be posted here, so make sure you check back often. Until next time:

Peace!!!