Deconstructing Captain Dhoni’s brainwaves

Chennai Super King’s pokerfaced skipper MS Dhoni is known to be as cool as a cucumber, in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. But what goes on in that complex brain of his, every time the boys in yellow get down to business? Does he grow pensive or is he chilling throughout the game? Will he or won’t he?

Chennai-based arts entrepreneurship group evam has set themselves the task of telling cricket fans exactly what Dhoni is thinking, but not showing. Aircel Dhoni’s Brain, an in-stadia activity that takes place during each CSK match in their home ground, finds about 20 mime artists from the city, acting out Dhoni’s emotions and thoughts at crucial points during the game.

When asked about the evolution of the idea, Sunil Vishnu K, Director of evam Entertainment said, “We are fans of CSK and run a theatre entrepreneurship in Chennai. BranDrama, evam’s brand communication division came up with idea to create a dramatic tribute to Dhoni this IPL. We started out by deciding to do a fan tribute to Dhoni in theatre style, got mime artists and the director of the show, John Pradeep on board.”

The team has previously used drama-based solutions for brands in the form of corporate plays, flash-mobs, on ground properties and online videos.

But why did they choose to figure out Dhoni, of all? Sunil says, “Dhoni is “Thala,” our leader. And he doesn’t emote. We, on the other hand, are are all about emotions! So, when we decided to do a tribute – becoming an army of emotions for MS Dhoni seemed to be the perfect fit.”

John Pradeep, special conductor of the act and a theatre director with the group says their USP, compared to that of any other cheerleading outfit is that, “This is a live theatre improv performance. Every situation in a match has some action, so we react with formations and placards. We are all mime artistes – actors who act, sing and dance – and there are 20 of us. Cheering on for our favourite team using the art form we love is an amazing feeling.”

Fans bracing for today’s match can expect quite a few bombastic moments as Kaushalya Ganesh, marketing manager of evam reveals, “We’ve been rehearsing for the last two weeks. We were preparing to perform in Chennai during the last IPL but unfortunately, the home ground matches were called off. But we are ready this year!

“Aircel loved our idea and we are prepared for all possible match situations - armed with our giant whistles, banners and more. There are some fun audience engagement surprises that people should brace themselves for. It is going to be a very exciting game!”

Sunil goes on to add, “We will do our very best to cheer Dhoni and the team. Chennai’s crowd is the best. They gave us a lot of love and support during the previous games. We hope to entertain them and keep the energy high at all times.”

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