Lacking in finesse
KAUSALYA SANTHANAM
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Raw and loud, ‘NRI Wedding’ screamed out its message.
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Photo: G. Praveen Raju
Amateur: NRI Wedding.
Two plays on NRIs in two weeks. On the heels of Krea’s ‘Seeds and Flowers’ came a performance of ‘NRI Wedding’ by the Mahalakshmi Ladies Drama Group. The craze to get one’s daughter married to an NRI groom and the
trauma arising from a marriage gone horribly wrong formed the basis for the play written and directed by ‘Bombay’ Gnanam.
The theme has been dealt with very successfully in Tamil fiction and cinema and so was not entirely new to audiences. ‘NRI Wedding’ was staged at the Sathguru Gnanananda Hall by the Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha as part of its drama festival.
It is about a middle aged woman, a single mother, who is eager to marry off her daughter to a youth who resides in the U.S. The girl is as eager to comply despite the warning sounded by her smart sister. She gets married to the only son of another single mother, a caricature if there is one, and after much delay lands in the U.S. A terrible scenario unfolds and the bride realises that the grass is certainly not green on the other side.
For those who prefer not to see women playing men’s roles, the play came as a change from the other productions of the troupe. It had only one major male character, played quite believably by the tall and lanky actress.
One dimensional
The others were all cardboard characters — utterly one dimensional. The two middle aged woman, not to forget the third, the lawyer, need to polish their act. Waving one’s arms uniformly in both directions while delivering the lines does not help in a natural performance. The actress playing the groom’s mother remains highly amateur, play after play.
There were a few good patches of dialogue and the sets had been done with care though the backdrops were moved with the most jarring noise. The wedding scene, in a few light strokes, was pleasant and reminded one of dance dramas. Lighting and costumes were fine but the music in the scenes of suspense was like that in an unsophisticated thriller.
The play held interest as it painted a graphic picture of the plight of girls who get trapped alone in an alien land. It brought out their isolation and helplessness. What, however, emerged positive was the note of caution for those who get carried away by the lure of the West. But it screamed out its message and to make sure it had been heard, the playwright addressed the audience directly. The girl’s sister — incidentally the only character who is natural and not too much of a caricature – while opposing the match refers to NRIS as ‘Non Reliable Indians’ which seems a non-responsible remark for anyone to make. Such sweeping generalisations mark the play.
‘NRI Wedding’ was quite raw and loud. It has to be worked on more and also fleshed out more, both the characters and situations, for the message to come across with finesse.
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