With a hint of madness

There is a reason why they are called ‘Mad Heads’. Despite all the last minute chaos and haphazard plans, the theatre and Mad Ads crew from CMR Institute of Technology bagged the second place in the grand finale of the ‘VStage Open Theatre’ event, at ‘Microsoft Vfest Goa 2015’. Their show was a tribute to the Indian Army and focussed on many pertinent issues. It also highlighted the need to celebrate ‘Army Day’ in a bigger way.

Bharath Nagaraj, the manager and narrator of the team, said, “Our theme was ‘festivals’. We wanted to make our act very different from the usual and hence refrained from the mainstream festivals. It was quite chaotic before the show. We only had two days to prepare, and sat up all night to write the script and plan our props and costumes. We went to Goa to get our costumes done. However, on the day of the show, we lost everything. Yet, we performed our act with only hoodies. We didn’t lose our confidence and determination till the end.”

Bharath had taken part at the Channel V fest and performed radical mimes for which he emerged as the runner-up. He was then selected for the grand finale in Goa. He credits his entire team for the success and lauds them by calling them “extremely quirky and hardworking”. “The co-script writers, Vinay and Gireesh, were also very cooperative,” he added.

The activities of ‘Mad Heads’ include mainly short films, mock rock, skits and radical miming. Though their scripts revolve around themes that are timely and relevant, and contain social messages, each script has humour and quirk sliced among them. The team comprised second year and final year students who have performed a variety of topics – Bollywood spoofs to current affairs.

‘Mad Heads’ has won a number of City-based college fests, having competed with some of the best teams. Though Bharath is yet to decide whether he will continue his studies or take up a full-time job as an artiste, he knows that his journey with ‘Mad Heads’ will continue.