Harish Palaniappan's

Drama, Play, Natakam are all synonymous in tamil.. and my use of these in the below post, mean all the same.

I have been to many Plays, a few times now, and whenever I hear debates and arguments on the dying state of Natakams in Chennai or India as a whole, I only could make some observations from what I like to view and what I wouldn't like or haven't enjoyed watching a play. Below laid out are my observation of core issues with Plays, and when people can be expected to consider watching a Play as equal to(or more than) their movie experience.

Core issues:

1. Too costly tickets.. even costlier than watching a blockbuster movie in an elite cinema hall.

2. Many actors don't have a feel of the audience, their body language shows it all as if they are doing it for the sake of it. The spirit of capturing the attention of the audience is not there.

3. Bad Sound management. Sound management is important for a Drama to be enjoyable. Most chennai drama actors and organizers have problems with understanding this. The actors shout out their throats or sneeze or cought at the mike, and most of the time the background score of the drama is so unclean/ bad on the speakers, or they just enact the play without background music at all for the worst.

4. Respect for the stage. Performing arts like drama, or dance needs to respect their stage space, its spot-clean looks, how they use it while pulling up background screen, structures and boards to make for the sets...at the least. More clearer respect for stage could be expressed by praying on stage. Some drama companies which focus on the weekend market, just ignore anything on stage use, and treat it like a rehersal ground with everything strewn around backstage.

5. Respect for the audience. Understanding audience age-groups and relatively presenting the play in an entertaining manner is core to any stage performance. It could not only save a Play but also make it profitable, even when most of the above points are not addressed. Avoiding this like smoking literally to act like smoking, or shouting slangs loud to act like insulting, are things to avoid.

6. Last but not the least. Infrastructure. Be it proper seats and air conditioning and environment for the audience, or proper optimal cost snacks at the counter, or the quality of sets put up behind an act in the Play.... if not high, I only wish organizers consider give some amount of priority to all this, rather than hosting the drama in a hall which best fits their low-cost budget with smelly seats and not-good snacks in the counter.

How not to Play - A bad example:

The other day I had been to a drama 'Ayya amma ammamma'.. by kathadi ramamurthy.
I paid the usual 150/- for a ticket.

The experience was totally unworth the money i paid, for the following reasons:

1. The drama advertisements mentioned popular comedy track writer and actor Crazy mohan's name as if he was in the crew, but
turned out that Crazy Mohan's was not part of the drama but his name was being used to market the drama and
it was the story once written by Crazy Mohan. Disappointed! that this was not mentioned clearly in the ADs.

2. The core character in the drama was played by one Mr.Kathadi Ramamurthy. This man
had no respect for the performing arts, and his body language with a lungi on the stage said it all, he was acting like it was a rehersal.

3. Also, for the reputation he enjoyed being a well-known comedian in chennai, it was dissappointing that Kathadi Ramamurthy
had no respect for the audience or their health and was smoking literally in scenes where he is to act like he is smoking. The smoke
got circulated through the air conditioning system, and the audience were literally second-hand smoking and the hall was smelling smoke.

4. Neither did the organizers(Abbas), of the drama have any respect for the audience. There was no break in the three hour long drama...also it wasn't enjoyable enough to make not having a break interesting. And the drama ended quite abruptly, there was not even a mention of 'The End' or a 'Thank you'... let alone the usual S.Ve.Sekar style commencing lineup of all actors to thank the audience.

I decided, I could even see a bad film, rather than going to a drama where Kathadi Ramamurthy is acting..or where one somebody Abbas is organizing.