Kalavaram in Kabaali's pEttai :-)

That is the name of the first skit I acted in MIT (Kabaali pEttaiyila kalavaram). The event was the inauguration of Athenaeum activities in the second year. Senior Jagan of 47th batch Aero wrote the skit. Apart from him, Arun and Karthikeyan (both from my batch Aero), and myself participated in the skit.

We started the script work two days earlier. That itself was a very funny experience. The plot was about a youngster's love failure, upon which he goes to the local dhaadhaa Kabaali for some general advice about life. I played the hero's friend, making funny comments now and then, in the middle of their conversation. One of my famous comment was as follows: "One needs some personality for girls to fall in love. Look at me, I have been in college only for one year, but I already have three girls behind me!!"

I don't think I need to explain the subsequent outrage and furore such a dialogue created among my batch girls. Nevertheless, it was a very good learning experience for me. Senior Jagan gave several tips on how to act, especially how to act in a funny way, and it stands me in good stead for hosting plays on stage even today at my office. He was a very jovial personality. So was Karthikeyan, who played Kabaali. He had no problems whatsoever about the local chennai thamizh dialect (Ey dubukku, innaandre ippa? vUtla sollikkinu vantiyaa? sOmaaRi innaaththukku ippudi bEjaar paNNikinu kiRe?, etc) he was required to speak in.

Overall, the skit ran for about 20 minutes and each second of it was good fun, both for us and the audience. It was a nice initiation for me into the college skit activities.

(Posted on 11-Dec-2004)