It was time again to watch a play enacted by Dummies Drama. This group has been doing extremely well in the chennai theater circle. After a long time, the city's theater enthusiasts get to see serious tamil drama - apart from the usual SV Sekhar, Crazy and YG comedies that have now become quite a boring affair, mainly because of being repetitive and sarcastic.
Anyway, Vinodaya Chitham was the latest effort by Sreevathson and team. A story about how much contentment you need in your life and whether there is an end to whats happening to any person in this world. The play started off very well - ample opportunity to create comedy strips, very natural and simple, like the ones between the humorous husbands, witty wives, bantering friends and joshing daughters. Comedy that simply blended into the story line without giving the audience a chance to regret.
The protagonist is on the other side of 50 when familial responsibilities are at peak (son's and daughter's wedding planned). Office work is good as well. Suddenly death comes. He cannot take it. He fights the character called death and wants to come back to earth to fulfill his duties. An interesting piece of dialog that I remember. "If I die after a few years, after I finish all that I had thought about, the others will be mature and they will understand it" and then Death says "When will you be mature". This was a turning point in the story and it struck my heart like the sound we hear when a slave who bangs the distress bell in the castle.
He seeks time to do everything and death says OK. All this while no one knows that a strong message is being poked through their minds, because almost every minute there is an exchange of dialogs that evokes a laughter. After seeking time, the protagonist sees that all the events that happen around him are not happening to his satisfaction or favor. He is not happy but he has to take things the way they are. Also, these events would have happened anyway and his presence was unimportant. This gets explained in the latter part of the play during a serious conversation between him and Death.
When things happen on the positive side, then its LUCK. But when things go belly up and totally wrong, its FATE. Its always up to us to decide whether is Luck or Fate. Its the mind. We are so happy some time and then we pray to God that we should just leave this world as we are and when he actually comes to get you, you are afraid and you need more time.
The play ends when the protagonist is upset with what happened with him and he feels that he could have left this world and that's where Death picks him up again. One way, no return. And Bhaja Govindam plays in the background.
The translation of the Sanskrit verses goes like this - " Oh fool! Give up now the thirst to amass wealth; Getting rid of vain desires, fill the mind with good and holy thoughts; Entertain it with the wealth you acquire by fair means. "
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