Evam Indrajit

CAST:
Writer...Sunil Vishnu
Indrajit...Asim
Amal...Ishwar
Vimal...Vivek Hariharan
Kamal...Vidyuth
Manasi...Sheena
Aunty...Premalatha

Produced by...Evam and The Madras Players

A day after we wrapped up Barefoot in the Park by Evam late February, the late Bhageerathi 'Bhagyam' Narayan arranged for a reading of Evam Indrajit,an Indian play written by Badal Sircar.This was incidentally Evam's first ever play when the founders Karthik,Sunil and Preethi were students in MICA.Sure enough this play was close to their hearts.But as we sat around to read, I felt as if I was trying to decipher an abstract piece of art.It seemed excruciatingly vague and boring,seemingly without a particular direction.The play had a message to all of generation Y but I failed to see it.Then Bhagyam popped the question to all of us..."Give me your honest opinion of this play".Opinions varied.My main fear was that it might just fail to connect with the audience, and a rather vast audience too.The setting seemed archaic,the story was disjointed and in the center of it all is one heck of a confused guy called Indrajit.
But did I jump to conclusions too quickly?

The main thing that evoked my curiosity(before I saw the play today) was the overall presentation and visualisation.It was this aspect of the production which stood out.Evam used its creative imagination to its best,bringing a lot of life to a dull script.To start with, the casting was intelligently done by Bhagyam, despite taking the risk of casting two first timers.Both the debut actors, Vivek and Sheena gave no indication of their inexperience.Indrajit's character was portrayed brilliantly by Asim and same for the Writer as well.The chemistry and camaraderie by Amal,Vimal and Kamal was perfect with no instances of any of their cues overlapping.
The choice of music was apt,the traditional Indian classical music giving it a truly ethnic setting.The tabla scores in the middle (by M.T Srinivasan) complimented it.The stage and sets were expansive and yet, simple.The lighting was also executed rather effectively, which ultimately made the play visually stimulating.The video display at the background showing images and words at the appropriate places can make a theatre purist frown,but frankly it added a lot of value as far understanding the script is concerned.

But on the flipside, the script is indeed weak with too many loose ends.The play basically deals with the decisions youngsters need to make regarding their careers,marriage,whether to conform to the rules of the society proactively or not.But you often wonder why the protagonist Indrajit keeps whingeing,whining, looking confused all the time.Why must a person dissect and scrutinise his life in such detail in an already complex world? It almost makes you want to stand up and shout,"Get a life,man!Chill and get back to work".The ending too is inconclusive, with Indrajit back to square one, still searching for the elusive answers.

The message given out by Evam prior to the show was that "this play changed our lives and will change yours too".I don't see that happening in me. Not all human beings are like Indrajit and only those select few who see Indrajit in them can feel the transformation.The punchline of the play is "Your life in 3 acts".I'd change it to "A life in 3 acts".Act 1 is probably the more enjoyable of the three with a lot the subtle humour thrown in.The humour unfortunately lags behind in Acts 2 and 3 where the intellectual matter takes over.
Evam, like any other fledging professional theatre group did the best they could given the vast resources at their disposal.It would be unfair on my part to generalise the entire audience based on my personal opinions.It ain't over till the last review is written....