Emjayreviews90

It is rare to come across a perfect play; where impeccable direction, writing, screenplay and technical direction seamlessly blend together to create what is, necessarily, a breathtaking experience. It is rarer still to watch a play that manages to change the way you look at the medium. Interestingly enough a ground breaking play need not be perfect. Nethradharisanam belongs to the latter category and while not impeccable, the effect it had on me changed my perspective on the way Stage plays can tell truly touching stories. As it has been a while since I penned a review let me go through this part by part before I bombard you with my opinion. Nethradharisanam, written and directed by C V Chandramohan, was first released in the year 2005 to critical acclaim. The play that I am reviewing now is the re-staging of the same play, with the same writer- director, the same technical team and it also stars one of the three original cast members. Let me be upfront in saying that I have not...

One of the many challenges that a writer of comedy drama faces is making a cohesive plot that ties together all the jokes, so that it doesn’t end up being just one random joke after another. Probably the easiest way to do this would be to take up a concept that is inherently funny and basically the jokes write themselves. This is why I am completely amazed by the writer and director of Ninaipadhaellam Nadandhuvittal, SL Naanu, because he takes a concept that is not all that inherently funny, a grandfather restoring his sons faith in the younger generation, and manages to combine it with wit, charm and most importantly good natured humor to create a play that won me over as it progressed. Ninaipadhaellam Nadandhuvittal is basically a family comedy, as most of SL Naanu’s recent plays have been, but to its credit it has a lot of new things in store for us. While the concept itself may not be original, the execution is actually very well done. The spin that is added to the age old ...

I am not sure many reviewers or critics would agree with this statement, but as a guy who calls himself both I have to admit that I am not without inherent opinions and biases. I have strong opinions about a lot of things and this, I believe, applies to each and every single human being. We all have predispositions to certain things. I, for example, prefer Thrillers to Comedies. I prefer English movies to Tamil movies. I prefer instrumental music to music with lyrics. I think that Adele is a better singer than Beyonce and that Inception is a better film than The Dark Knight. But the kicker is that with every word I write in my reviews or analyses I strive to differentiate myself from every other person with an opinion by setting a standard that is almost universal and I make sure the standard that I set makes sure that I don’t favor my biases over what is technically a good production but it has something that doesn’t align with my views. And with that preface I would like to mov...

Something that is pretty common when it comes to entertainment of any form is that a concept ends up being more interesting than the actual final product. This is very much common in a lot of movies, novels and, focusing on the topic at hand, stage plays. It always breaks my heart when I see it happen, and I have seen it happen a lot, because most of the time the concept is so original and so beautifully intricate that you are left wondering what it could have been. Uravodu Vilayadu is not a badly executed play but the concept itself outshines the execution so much that the end product feels incomplete. Before I dive headfirst into this analysis I want to admit that I have been working on this analysis for the past week because I really want to do this play ju stice. I also want to say this, GirishAyapathy and Gowthami gave their all on stage and they were by far, along with the music by Guhaprasath and lights by “Cheta” Ravi, the most captivating aspects of the play. T...

Family dramas are a tricky thing to pull off; because the play has to maintain the pacing and at the same time make sure the audience are not underwhelmed with the conflict that is presented in the story. Generally this is done by focusing on two simple things, making sure that the comedy before the conflict is funny and clever enough, that the audience both enjoy the play and at the same time notice the build up towards the conflict; and when the shift from comedy to a much serious dramatic atmosphere does happen, the audience don’t find it jarring. Last year Mayurapriya presented Oru Kodi Kanavagul, a play that explored a very serious and rarely broached topic of the pressure that the education system places on youngsters today, in a very down to earth fashion. While I wouldn’t call the play an astounding success, it was definitely a very enjoyable one. This year they bring to stage Vivahamalai.com; another family drama that explores the difficulties that youngsters and ...

When creating a play, it is difficult to achieve both critical and commercial acclaim; but once you do it becomes even more difficult to do it once again. It’s like lightning striking the same place twice; it is possible, just incredibly rare. After the incredible success of Kaleeshwarabhavanam, with its incredible sets, powerful music and impeccable lighting, the bar was set incredibly high for Koothapiran Navabharath Theaters; and with their newest play Saduranga Parvai they aimed to set the bar even higher. Did they do it? Let’s find out, in this in-depth analysis of Saduranga Parvai. Seeing as how an in-depth analysis is something that I have not done before, I want to preface it by saying that I will be spoiling some details, barring the main twist of the play, as it is its most important component. This is something new I am planning to do with the Drama reviews this year both in an attempt to improve my own writing and also because I believe an in-depth analysis will g...

I know that it has been a long time since I have written anything productive and interesting and I really want to blame it all on my exams, but since I major in English, that excuse is not exactly valid. And with that statement out of the way, let me share some of the things that happened over the past few days and also delve a bit deeper into some of my personal opinions on a particularly touchy subject: Theism. For the longest time, since I was a kid to up till I was around thirteen, if you had asked me if I believed in God, I would admit that, yes, I did believe in god. I knew a lot of devotional songs, some of which I still remember, I believed that praying actually worked, I believed that there existed a person, omnipresent, omniscient, and all good that looked over all of us and made sure we were safe. I believed in poetic justice; you had to be good to have good things happen to you. It was also around this time that I started looking a bit deeper into religion a...

Let me address a question that I have been asked on many an occasion. “In your opinion, what is the greatest movie?” Another one such question would be “What is your favorite movie?” While they don’t really seem like two distinct questions, there are a lot of differences between the two questions. To me a great movie is something that doesn’t have a lot of flaws, and by extension of the definition the greatest movie would not have any flaws. Well therein lies the problem. Critical analysis of films and their flaws in a highly personal matter, and what may seem like a flawless film to may seem flawed to someone else. And on my personal opinion, there is no film in the world that is flawless. Even the movie that is regarded the greatest piece of cinema; “Citizen Kane” has the flaw of not being accessible to a normal, everyday audience. So in the end I have to say that I can never say what, according to me, the single greatest movie is. But a favorite movie is a completely different...

Like the title of this post suggests, I am going to be talking about long trips; to be a bit more accurate, long train trips where you are stuck with nothing to occupy your time with. Recently I went to Delhi, on a train of course, to manage the music for two Dramas, written and directed by CV Chandramohan, one being Eendra Pozudhil, and the other Kalyana Samiyal Boodham, bout of which I have reviewed in this very blog. Suffice to say, they were both really good plays, and I had an amazing experience at the actual venue, after reaching Delhi. The one and a half day journey to and from Delhi, on the other hand, was an entire beast all together. Most of you probably know that I am a voracious reader. If not, well, now you know I guess. I did pack three of Patricia Cornwell’s novels, but as fate would have it, I did most of the reading at Delhi, before the shows, than during the actual trip there. Both the forward and return journey consisted of two nights and one day. Great, th...