Dressed in black and white, theatre artiste Anish Victor sat on the floor with a smile as he started the Koogu act, a solo performance, produced by Sandbox Collective at Atta Galatta recently. The only props were a drum, a green cloth and a plastic water bottle. The performances mainly focused on incidents and stories from Anish’s life. It was sprinkled with humour and used a lot of Tamil, when Anish was talking about his childhood. His stories about his grandmother, his friends and the church choir touched a chord with the audience. A lot of the performance was dominated by movements and Michel Casanova’s choreography for the act was a hit. Anish’s movements, graceful and strong held the audience’s attention.
Anish gave an effortless performance and was an excellent storyteller, reminding one of a a friend whose stories would have audiences enthralled and demanding an encore.
He also recited two poems that dealt with the roles people played outside their regular lives. Anish’s engagement with the audience was commendable. There were moments in the performance where he would just make eye contact with each person in the audience, actively interact with them and compel them to introspect on diverse social issues. Koogu is an interesting and one-of-a-kind combination between movement and theatre is a must watch.
