Rajyasri Gopinath’s dance on the fifth day of the anniversary celebrations of Tamil Isai Sangam began with a pushpanjali at the Raja Muthiah Mandram. Her mime of Ganapathi’s stride, the opening of Siva’s third eye, Avvaiyar’s stance and her pose of Muruga astride the peacock bearing his flag were well done.
Rajyasri maintained the pleasant expression expected of the Bharatanatya exponent and emoted with expressive eyes for the phrase, “Penn avalin kann azhagai,” for Ulundurpet Shanmugam's “Chinnanjiru pen pole.”
Her costume as Meenakshi and her hushing of the audience who clapped for the lullaby (as it might wake up the infant) were much admired.
The live orchestra was led by the nattuvangam of guru Lalitha Ganesh and the singer Preethi Mahesh, with excellent support from Sigamani on the violin, A. N. Srinivasan on the flute, Sakthivel Muruganandam on the mridangam and Papanasam Sethuraman on the kanjira.
The maze of corruption, long drawn procedures and duplicity that a well-meaning middle class Indian should go through in order to build a home for himself in the 21{+s}{+t}century were dramatised in an engrossing stage play, Re(a)el Estate , by T. V. Varadarajan.
The main character loses almost all his possessions in order to build a house in a secluded area but is cheated by an unscrupulous middleman and left on the streets. How he succeeds in building his nest takes us to a satisfying climax of the play.
Familiar situations such as looking through The Hindu Property Plus section and the funny discussions on getting approval for the plot were rendered more humorous due to the word play with the names of the main characters, Bhoomi and his wife Patta. A number of timely jokes and situational songs in the background kept the pace of the play peppy.
Rajalakshmi Padmanabhan
