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Stay content – Be At Peace
 Vinodaya Chitham (’A
Contented Mind’) of ‘dummies drama’ has won six awards (best
drama; best actor; best direction; second best story-dialogue; consolation actor and actress) at the 15th nine-evening ‘Kodai Nataka Vizha’ conducted by Kartik Fine Arts at the Mylapore Fine Arts Club auditorium, recently (April 24–May
2).
Adi Sankara uses this word ‘Vinodaya Chitham’ in verse-2 (last line) of his immortal
song Bhaja Govindam to stress the truth ‘enjoy well-earned wealth and be content with it’.
This ‘key-word’ Vinodaya Chitham provides the meaningful theme for the play which details impressively the ever-wavering nature of the human mind especially under
beleaguered circumstances. Our efficiency and efforts earn for us our ‘riches’, cruel fate causes our misfortunes. This is our inherited belief. Central character Parasurama Iyer, a top level executive in a successful commercial firm, with which he has grown all along, waxes eloquent in his own praise, when things go well, and indulges in miserable
sulking when the going gets tough -- a true representative of most of us.
The play adopts a unique style to bring home to us this stark truth. Iyer meets ‘Kaladhuta’ (‘Death-Rep’), cajoles a ‘time’ reprieve from death, till he is ready to leave. He feels he has his feet firmly planted on the ground. In no time, the ground slips from his feet most unexpectedly. His wife falls seriously ill (an illness that strikes one in a ten million), his daughter walks out of the house with her lover in total defiance, the son brings home a daughter-in-law, all on his own. Iyer has to eat his words and swallow
humble pie, all because of that ‘damned fate’! He gets promoted as M.D., when all he was hoping for was to be a G.M. Well, the company has at last, but in good time, recognised his true potential. Eventually, he gets sick of the world and is ready to depart, to rest in eternal peace with himself!
The dialogues are very powerful, because there is eternal truth in each letter. Death! Where is Thy sting? – If I don’t fear it at all! Death is a necessary end, will come, when it will come. The conventional dialogue between ‘Death’ and ‘Iyer’ have deep philosophical import. But, only the
intelligentsia can understand this – it is a kind of tussle between the world here and the hereafter. The ‘earth’ cannot understand ‘Reality’, that’s the problem for us.
The touch of humour runs throughout the play. The play makes us think deeply- as long as you are in the auditorium. Once you are out of it, you are in the world again, deeply enmeshed in it. Still, the dramatis personae play their assigned roles very well! Gridharan (as Death – Kaladhuta) and Sreevathson as 'Iyer,' the pivot of the play, win top honours. The others (Sridhar, Ramesh, Rahul, Preethi, Hemalatha, Krishna, Anandi and Shoba) are fully supportive. Truly, a play that will touch our sensitive conscience introspectively, indeed! Giridharan is the
director of the play and Sreevathson, the script-writer.
R Srinivasan
Ph 24355576.
Published on 18th May 2004
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