• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Mohan Padmanabhan

Comedy plays have to guard against being too cerebral, says Y.Gee. Mahendra, a popular film and theatre personality.

Kolkata Tamils, bitten by the theatre bug, recently got a generous dose of attic salt (refined wit) delivered through light-hearted upadesams (non-religious sermonising) from the 52-year-old United Amateur Artistes (UAA) troupe of Chennai. The audience interest was heightened by the presence of popular small screen actors in the UAA troupe, who appear in big banner mega serials produced by top Kollywood producers like AVM. Heading the troupe was Y.Gee. Mahendra, a film and theatre personality from Chennai. He has acted in over 250 films.

Inspired by the legendary Marx Brothers, and spurred by a strong creative urge, two young actors, Y.G. Parthasarathy ( YGP to all) and Pattu, who also boasts extraordinary playwriting abilities, left the famed Suguna Vilas Sabha and formed the United Amateur Artists, Chennai in 1952. Beginning with It happened at midnight, the first stage presentation of UAA, and after nearly 4,000 performances and over 52 productions to its credit till date, in an uninterrupted run of over five decades, the artistes of UAA are today known for the quality of comedy they provide.

Among the artistes who have passed through the corridors of UAA to emerge as big names in Tamil cinema were Cho Ramaswamy, Nagesh, Visu, Lakshmi, Mouli and even Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa. It is said that Pattu of UAA actually inspired Cho to start writing plays.

At the helm of the UAA, among the few survivors of the vanishing tribe in Chennai, is Y.Gee. Mahendra, son of YGP. A qualified chemical engineer, with an MBA, Mahendra, who also heads the YGP Foundation, finds time for his first love, theatre, through which he provides humour with a message. Staging three of his popular plays, Kavala Kavala, Judgement Day and Upadesam Seivathu UAA, at the 78-year-old South India Club, Kolkata, Mahendra took time off to speak to Life about the theatre scene in Chennai, on issues such as why only a few have survived, and what it means to live up to the lofty traditions of Tamil theatre, nurtured by legends like the T.K.S. brothers, the late Sivaji Ganesan, and of course his father, YGP.

Says Mahendra, "We specialise in comedies involving caricatures of human folly, pretentiousness and the like, somewhat like the plays of Moliere, the 17th-century French dramatist. Our plays, especially a political satire like Judgement Day, have been received well by audiences in Chennai and abroad, because we caricature individuals, ridicule situations and even ideas through the effective use of mockery, wit, parody or even irony, which can be both humorous and serious, but which never misses out on our basic objective of providing humour with a message."

He continues to explain, "We do not want to create the kind of laughs which die in the lobby of the theatre hall, but those which the audiences can take home, like in Upadesam Seivathu UAA — a presentation based on five humorous short tales inspired by ancient texts and orations, ranging from Bhagavad Gita to Zen Buddhism to Shiva Purana." Upadesams, on the other hand, he says are like pie-crusts — the shorter, the better.

Mahendra is optimistic about bringing back the audiences to theatre halls. He says that today, a playright must dig at the roots of the various ills that plague our society and portray them as he sees them, lacing his presentation with subtle humour.

He blames the poor patronage of Tamil theatre in Chennai on the advent the television and its power to tie one down to the couch for hours. According to him, people are treated to a true theatre experience when troupes visit places like Kolkata, known for its theatre legends like Sombhu Mitra and Utpal Dutt. He, however, admits that budget constraints are major problems for amateur theatre groups.

Stressing on presentation to sustain audience interest, he insists that comedy plays have to guard against being too cerebral, as the middle class audience reacts better to punch lines and double takes.

Dramatised and directed by Mahendra, UAA plays are scripted by playrights like Kovai Anuradha, Murali and Venkat. Mahendra says that scripts are developed like screen plays, and in a painstaking manner, to ensure that they do not turn into "drama masalas", a kind of escapist entertainment that is the order the day in some Chennai theatre circuits. He admits that the sabha system has killed good theatre, as the paying public have become few and far between.

Picture by Bijoy Ghosh

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Love in Tokyo

Copyright © 2004, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line