JOIN USConveying a strong message
The MSRIT Theatre Society in association with Tea Productions presented a brilliant play at the Alliance Francaise recently. Titled Eelam, which is the Tamil name for Sri Lanka, the play had the students of M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology (MSRIT) dressed up beautifully in classic white kurta pyjamas with red and green dupattas.
It was a play about the consequences of various choices one has to make in life and how some are forced decisions.
It beautifully portrayed the story of a police inspector, who has to investigate a terrorist and wants to believe the terrorist. The play revolved around Karthi, a member of the LTTE and Ashish Roy, a police inspector. Karthi is a married man whose brother is a member of the LTTE.
When his brother dies in a battle, Karthi is forced to join the LTTE by the group’s leader Devan. Driven to avenge his brother’s death, Karthi joins the group. When he gets caught on a mission in Kolkata, he comes face to face with inspector Ashish, who wants to get more information out of him. Despite being innocent, Karthi is unable to prove himself. Even though Ashish wants to believe him, he has to execute Karthi on the order of the authorities.
Karthi records a message for his wife and son before Ashish shoots him dead and makes the latter promise that he will deliver it to them. This message is a piece of advice for his wife to not send their son to the LTTE camp. Ashish goes in search for Karthi’s family but by the time he meets him, it’s too late as the son is dead on an LTTE mission.
This play was being staged again in the City after receiving an overwhelming response at a theatre festival. The concept of the play was by Manoj Kumar Kalaivanan, a student of the college who also played the lead role of Karthi. Soumya Mukherjee played the role of Ashish Roy. “Initially, it was a 15-minute-long skit about a jihadi who comes to India and gets caught. But when we presented the play at a theatre festival, we had to make it an hour long,” explained Manoj, who hails from Sri Lanka himself. “Since I know about Sri Lanka, I adapted the original to make it centred around the country. It was a new experience to perform. Hopefully, we can stage it again soon,” said Manoj.
Despite their exams going on, the hard-working students put up a brilliant show. “In fact on the day of the performance, we finished an exam and came to the venue. So I must thank each and every person in the team for being so dedicated. Without their hard work, the show wouldn’t have been possible,” he added.