Tamil theatre doesn’t come up with many political satires, although lampooning of politicians in plays of different genres is quite common. Undo Fine Arts’ play DemoCrazy has broken with the usual trend, and has come up with a full-fledged political satire.
A poor man dies because of a doctor’s negligence. It turns out that the doctor bribed a Minister to further his career. The Government is put on the mat.
A new political party with a time serving leader (Raghunathan Ramanujam) tries to capitalise on the situation to dislodge the Government.
Even God (Gurukulam Sriram) stands for election as a candidate! But the Chief Minister (good performance by Dummies Sridhar) remains unruffled.
He is a veteran of many political battles, and is sure that victory will be his. He knows that people find comfort in keeping the status quo going, because corruption makes life easy for them.
Pungent lines
DemoCrazy puts the onus on us — the people — for the corruption of politicians. DemoCrazy tells us to get off the moral high horse and start taking responsibility for making democracy function the way it should.
For a first attempt at satire, DemoCrazy is good, with its pungent lines.
The script is by Sri Arunkumar, and this is also his directorial debut.
The Chief secretary (Preeti Varma) popping in and out of the Chief Minister’s room, announcing visitors and doing clerical jobs, and assuming a familiar air with the Chief Minister was unbelievable. The newly arrived politician speaking Madras lingo of the 1960s was anachronistic.
The playwright should change these lines to be in tune with language that is current.
