Plastic Kadavul - A Tamil Drama by United Visuals, Chennai: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR PLASTIC KADAVUL - A...

As part of its 9-day 40th Annual Cultural Festival of Music, Dance & Drama at the Keyes High School campus from 23rd November to 1st December, Kalasagaram is organising concerts by eminent musicians such as saxophonist Dr. Kadri Gopalnath, vocalists Sudha Raghunathan, the Priya Sisters, Trichur V Ramachandran and T V Sankaranarayanan, and flautist Dr. N Ramani, and two Tamil dramas Vaasthu Vasu and Plastic Kadavul by United Visuals from Chennai.

Today, the last day, Kalasagaram will be felicitating T V Varadharajen with the title of Nataka Kalasagara. On this occasion, United Visuals from Chennai will be presenting a comedy play in Tamil called Plastic Kadavul. The play is written by C V Chandramohan and directed by T V Varadharajen. Varadharajen plays the central character of Rajaraman, Kripa his younger brother Shekar, Binny Ramachandran his neighbour Nathan, Usha his wife Seetha, and Ravikumar, Kanduvaddi Kandasamy.

Plastic Kadavul is a comedy drama which portrays the good and evil created in cities by credit cards. Rajaraman is not a spendthrift, but he believes in living within his pay slip, and avoids even office loans. Hence, he clings to his historic 1940s radio, the black and white television which is a throwback to the seventies era, and, horror of horrors, his wife Seetha uses the stone wet grinder.

A die-hard critic of loans and the credit card culture, Rajaraman is, however, forced to accept a card in order to help his younger brother Shekar meet his official target of 100 customers in order to stay on the job.

From being a reluctant swiper, he is enticed to use his credit card when his neighbour Nathan explains to him the tricks of credit rotation. Rajaraman becomes an expert credit card juggler, who uses one card to pay off the loan in another card. The mad caper comes to a head when he is faced with loans running into lakhs, the cards are frozen by banks, and brother Shekar's marriage to his cousin Mona Lisa, a VJ, looms large.

Unable to find enough funds, Rajaraman's planned suicide is stopped by his wife's tirade. Then enters Kanduvaddi Kandasamy, looking like a younger day Vijaykanth, and the play centers around him as he, with his clever and witty ideas, gets the issue resolved.

United Visuals was started in 1994 by T V Varadharajen, in Chennai. Varadharajen has about 28' years experience as a stage artist. He served as TV newsreader at the Madras Doordarshan from 1978, and has acted in many stage plays and TV serials, making him one of Tamil Nadu's top actors.

He is specially known for his portrayal as a middleclass man, and has acted in more than 25 serials, such as Kaadal Pagadai (submissive husband), Pennin Kathai (village school teacher), Premi (retired magistrate) and Annamalai (psychiatrist). Varadharajen has also produced 12 plays in the last 13 years.

Kalasagaram is a South-Indian cultural association situated in the East Nehru Nagar of East Marredpally, and has been organising Carnatic music concerts for the last 40 years. The concerts are usually held in the Keyes High School campus at the open-air theater. The singers are generally from outside Hyderabad, usually amateurs and upcoming artistes, and quite competent. Kalasagaram also occasionally stages South-Indian classical dances and Tamil plays.

The entry is by invitations for members, and by season passes of Rs. 400, Rs. 300 & Rs. 200 per head and daily passes of Rs. 100, Rs. 50 and Rs. 25 per head for others. Please contact V Rajagopal, General Secretary of Kalasagaram, at 2773-1775 for further details.