Review of Tamil Play : NAAM ENDRUM ORUVAR from Mali's Stage

29 January 2017   :  Inauguration of the Tamil Play from Mali Stage – Naam Endrum Oruvar.

Venue :   Mylapore Fine Arts Club -   Karthik Fine Arts

Drama / Tamil Play:   Naam Endrum Oruvar

Story & Dialogues:   K.S. N. Sundar

Direction - Kudandhai Mali

Presented and produced by Mali Stage.

It was pleasant Saturday evening, the time for some good theatre experience, we went to MFAC, the stage that sets most of the inaugural shows sentimentally for most of the drama troupes in the city.   Karthik Fine Arts is known to have given great opportunities to talents and Mali Stage is one of the most pioneer drama groups in the City.   

Foreword:  Awesome concept, excellent acting, amazing coordination and great direction and dialogues.  

Plot & Review:    Advocate Meenakshi donned by none other than theatre star Sowmya Ramnarayanana, daughter in law of great Mr. Mali sir himself is the highly determined women feminist advocate.   She is popular and love the prestige as being called specialist lawyer in divorce cases.   She advocates the same theory and uses all the loopholes in the law to get divorce for her clients.  She ensures that her lady clients get divorce, no matter what and irrespective of whether the divorce reason is genuine or not.  She is also known as kayirasi divorce lawyer.    Her husband Mr. Sundaram, acted by Bhaskar is also an advocate who advocates against divorce.  His theory is that husband and wife should try to reconcile, realign and remove the differences and lead a happy life.   Bhaskar did an amazing job almost in every scene in the drama and needs great applause.  Baskar had been a real pillar of the show and awesome acting with his charismatic portrayal of the character.  Probably, he needs little more makeup to look older as a father and father-in-law.   

Their only son lives in USA and is married to a girl called Charu.   The plot goes around when Charu send a divorce notice to her husband and how the advocate Meenakshi fights between being a mother and an advocate.   Her version of divorce changes and takes twists and turns based on the events happening in her own life.   Sowmya acted very well as a professional lawyer and appreciate her way of dressing and changing of 7 sarees in 1.5 hours drama which is not an easy feat.   

Balaji who acted as the son did a neat job by showing emotions of a youngster caught between parents with two different attitudes towards life and his commitment to marriage and love for his wife Charu.   Sundar Sir did a wonderful script.   Arvind is another talent artist who performed well.   The Sambandhi to Meenakashi acted by Arun was a humble character showing real emotions and the Gumastha character shows how it actually operates in Indian courts and how the real Clerks feel and work. Well done Arun Sir for your modest and flawless acting .   Ramani Sir is an experienced artist who needs no recognition and did a wonderful character as a father showing his acting experience and emotions required of the play.   

Daughter in law Charu character did by debut actor Ramya to the Tamil Stage did a good job.   Her expressions were good and there is scope for lot of growth for her in the theatre arena.  Monaja acted as Jennifer, the foreign lady did a good acting though her part was only for one scene and did a neat job.  

The volume could have been better and mikes probably need to increase the volume as at places, the dialogues were not audible.   However, other than the minor initial issues, it was an excellent show.  The lighting effects and music was good and back stage support also need to be appreciated for their quick turnaround of the stage sets and wonderful coordination.  

The end to end credit goes to Mr. Mali for such a wonderful play.  For the theater lovers, this play gives you a good concept and relevant to the present day scenario.   Instead of opting for divorce, if our youngsters and their parents give some time for reconciliation, many a relationships would be saved.   

Divorce is not a wrong thing if there are genuine cases of harassment, dowry, betrayals and any other serious issues.   But today, the youngsters lose patience easily in relationships, opt for change, jump the guns at the fall of a hat, and take decisions hastily and regret later.   This drama is a lesson to all those people.      Though humor was not the objective of this play, you do get to laugh at the twists and turns of the play itself and Sundaram and Meenakshi steals the show.    Worth watching when played in stage. 

Congrats Baskar Balasubramanian & Soumya Ram and congrats team... enjoyed the evening! Well penned story with expert direction and action.     

Kudos to the entire cast and crew of NAAM ENDRUM ORUVAR.