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Children stole the show

Children took centre stage at the fifth edition of the Kalam Theatre and Film Festival

SPONTANEOUS PERFORMANCE A scene from a play staged as part of the Kalam Theatre Festival Photo: T. Singaravelou

There's a story about how Lord Rama, as a child, wanted the moon and his mother showed him its reflection in a bowl of water. Children are always curious to know about the moon. And this curiosity formed the basis of a play, "Nilavai Thedi", recently staged by a group of 12 children.

The play, written by L. Ravi, a children's theatre specialist, was staged as part of the fifth Kalam Theatre and Film Festival at the Alliance Francaise auditorium in Pondicherry.

A boon

As for the plot, a group of children gets a boon from Lord Iyyanar to visit the moon. However, they discover that the moon is not a yellow ball of cheese, there's no bunny on it neither is there an old lady frying vadas! Though the children, who hail from poor families, are given all comforts on the moon, they yearn for their mothers and prefer to come back to earth. The cast had no prior experience, but they picked up the nuances of acting during a 15-day rehearsal.

Scientific facts

Their acting was spontaneous. The play had a lot of scientific facts about the moon and a fantasy element to sustain the story.

The children — Poornima, Prathima, Prathiba, Kasirajan, Ragavendar, Thenmozhi, Apoorvalakshmi, Karthika, Sathyapriya, Yogalakshmi, Kanakalakshmi, Subhasankari — had earlier staged the play at Thanjavur and this was their second performance.

"This time, we had two children's plays and two Iranian films for children. We want more children to be involved in theatre so that a future generation of theatre lovers can be groomed. This is our fifth festival and over the years, Kalam has become a hit with Pondicherrians as well as those in Tamil Nadu," said Ravi.

Kalam is a theatre group formed by the former students of the Pondicherry University's drama department with a view to building a serious theatre environment in Pondicherry.

The other play by Girija Ravi is an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's "Selfish Giant."

"We wanted to teach children the importance of sharing. In the play, a giant doesn't let anyone in his garden but children like to play there with the plants, animals and the wind. When he drives them out, the seasons refuse to change there and the snow covers everything. Then a divine being tells the giant that if he shares the garden, Paradise will be his," said Girija Ravi, who has been running a theatre complex for children in Thanjavur called Rangasree. The story, dramatised by Professor Ramanujam, was performed twice by the children of Rangasree.

DEEPA H RAMAKRISHNAN

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