“Tuck your brains away. Don’t look for logic. Enjoy this full length comedy play.” This was the announcement just before Sowmya’s play, ‘Oodha Colour Ribbon,’ began. The play is written by Chithra Ram and directed by T.V. Radhakrishnan. The play was part of Kartik Fine Arts’ Kodai Nataka Vizha.
Looked like the audience implicitly obeyed those words for there was hardly a sound heard throughout. Of course, many tiptoed out of the hall while the play was in progress, disillusioned by the stale jokes.
It is time playwrights stopped depicting lawyers, constables and auditors in poor light. There are other ways to highlight the sense of humour in them. The dialogue here was just babble.
Addle-brained hero Madhavan with protruding teeth was an insult to Kamal Hassan’s ‘Kalyanaraman.’ Jeyasurya as Senior Advocate Varadachari was the only saving grace.
Every time the hero’s friend Ajith (T. Rajendran) had to deliver a lengthy dialogue, he turned towards the audience and said his bit in a stand-at-ease position. Sure enough, it had the audience in splits.
Now for the plot... Madhavan (P.T. Ramesh), a lawyer, joins Varadachari’s office and falls in love with a junior lawyer, without realising that she is his senior’s daughter. He plans a kidnap drama with help from his friends.
Veteran Karur Rangaraj, convicted because of Varadachari, escapes from jail with the intention of kidnapping his daughter. The friends, meanwhile, kidnap Varadachari’s wife. The captives are taken to the same place and both parties demand a heavy ransom from the senior lawyer. These scenes remind you of the film ‘Ullaththai Alli Thaa.’
The actors are to be sympathised with for being saddled with such a sloppy script.
Looks like the writer and the director themselves followed the announcement to a T. For, the play had neither style nor substance.
At Naradha Gana Sabha, 7 p.m.
May 2: Enna Kavi Paadinalum
May 3: Kalyana Vaelaiyil Karadi
May 4: Saalaiyora Pookkal
May 5: Vaibogamae
