Lucky with Drama!!

A day after I was lamenting about the high cost of tickets for Drama, one of my cousins called me up and said he has a ticket for S.Ve.Shekhar's "Ayirum Udai Vangiya Apoorva Sigamani" drama at Narada Gana Sabha.  I was pleasantly surprised as I didnt expect it totally.  

Today morning I went for the drama and experienced stage drama.  The drama ran for 2 hours approximately and it didn't have any great story.  It is more like a string of jokes joined together to provide comic relief to the public.  The "drama" of starting a drama started at 10.00 AM with pooja behind the screens.  Then we waited for 10 more minutes before the curtains went up.  As usual, who are familiar with S.Ve.Shekar's dramas, the first dialogue is something like this: "Amma thaiya, ellorayium nee than ma kapathanum.." which is more of a sentimental dialogue for Shekhar. 

Shekhar this time has added few topical jokes to his very old screenplay to make things little livelier.  Jokes this time around are on the ongoing flood relief, Cauvery water issue, Dr Ramadoss's penchant for Tamil usage and self-deprecating comments about politicians.  For those who dont know, S.Ve.Shekhar is the current MLA from Mylapore constituency which he won on AIADMK ticket.  There was one more comment by Shekhar about his present state within the party, of being neglected by Jayalalitha and other senior leaders.  Shekhar has been side-lined within the AIADMK party for his lack of respect to Sasikala and her family members. He has been always a staunch Jayalalitha loyalist but without Sasikala's blessings nothing moves within the party.  So he was cracking jokes about not being recognised by his own party and who knows if he gets a ticket to fight the next elections.  The general feeling among the Mylapore constituents is that though he is very approachable his hands are tied as he is in the opposition and also not in the good books of his party's high command.  Poor Shekhar, neither here nor there.. 

The drama had an interval of 5 minutes and after the interval, S.Ve.Shekhar took some 5 minutes to talk about the social initiatives his trust has been doing.  Few notable things are that the trust takes care of the educational needs of 40 students every year, frequent blood donation camps.  Shekhar has himself donated blood on 54 different occasions!! On stage today he also donated computers to two students.  One thing which touched me is that he and his fellow trust members have been taking 15-20 unclaimed bodies from the Government mortuary every month and they are doing the mass burial with due respects.  This is a very touching human gesture from him.  He also encouraged people to contribute their might for the cause of humanity.   Looking at all his deeds and actions, I am convinced he doesnt have any qualifications to be a politician!!

The drama wound up around 12.15 pm.  Leaving aside the interval of 8 minutes, Shekhar's speech of 7 minutes,  Sabha secretary's speech of 5 minutes, it is totally 100 minutes of on stage acting.  Out of this 100 minutes there were atleast 20 breaks of 45 seconds each,  where the lights were switched off to change the back drop or change in the characters.  

Overall, I would rate the experience of witnessing the drama as not a great one and a good cinema may probably provide you with better satisfaction.  Days of drama are over, I guess.