Despite choosing an issue like the increasing lack of understanding between married couples, ‘Sangamam,’ a social drama staged at R.R. Sabha, Tiruchi, on Monday, addresses other socially relevant issues as well with an undercurrent of spirituality.
Opening with Nadamuni (S.V. Rangarajan), a Vedic pandit delivering a religious discourse, the play clearly establishes that the hero is a devout, 45-year old pandit who has decided to remain a bachelor. Interrupting the discourse as well as Nadamuni’s life decisions is Parthasarathy (V.G. Abirakshith), a man in the audience utterly frustrated with his wife’s tantrums.
When Nadamuni dwells extensively on the need for couples to be mutually compromising, Sarathy decides to challenge the pandit by asking him to marry a woman and live with her for a year and then deliver the discourse. That is how 35-year-old feminist Amirthavalli (V. Gowthami), Sarathy’s younger sister, gets bulldozed by her family into marrying the panchagacham-toting Nadamuni.
While their marriage remains unconsummated (upon Amirthavalli’s condition), the couple pretend to be made for each other: having agreed to be a house husband, Nadamuni makes Amirthavalli bed coffee, cooks and works secretly as a chef in his father-in-law’s mess. On the other hand Amirthavalli is happy to work and doesn’t mind being the bread winner. Though a marriage of convenience, the play packs in a range of situations that positively change Amirthavalli’s disposition towards men and marriage.
Scripted and directed by Srirangam Rangamani, ‘Sangamam’ makes a clear case for the absence of understanding in our family lives – a concept that the audience greatly identified with. Through his calm disposition, Nadamuni is shown as a person who believed battles were won through the mind.
Though lifted up by the cast’s realistic portrayal and the seamless integration of incidents that make Amirthavalli change her mind, the dialogue delivery was hindered by poor microphones that couldn’t pick up the words with clarity. Ending with the predictable, Sangamam is a family entertainer for those who want to refresh their family ties.
