Imagine walking into a book store and witnessing Gods and Demons descending to earth, hearing the sound of the conch, the shower of arrows and the voice of sages. Well, this happened on the April 15.
‘Evam’ conducted a book dramatisation of the Amar Chitra Katha at Landmark, Citi Center on April 15.
Evam is a theatre entrepreneurship fuelled by youngsters for the youth of India. It was founded in 2003 by Sunil Vishnu K and Karthik Kumar. Evam stages English plays, corporate workshops, student interactions and theatre festivals and their aim is to make people’s lives happier and to fill their lives with lightness and a sense of purpose, say the promoters.
Members of Evam include Pavithra Ramaswamy, Vijay Saravanan, Bhaargav Ramakrishnan, Lakshmi Priya, Vijay Karthik and Aparna Narayan.
On that day, a few members of Evam read the oft -told tale of Ghatotkacha to the children gathered and passerby’s. The actors included Suchi, a Radio One RJ as the narrator.
Karthik Srinivasan and Shakila Arun, the director of Applause were the two voices. The characters of Ghatotkacha, the Pandavas and the Kauravas came alive. These talented artists interacted well with the audience using their voices and simple instruments to achieve great sound effects.
A much appreciated moment in the narration was when sweets were thrown on the children to symbolise stones being pelted at Karna. The interactive session at the end had young children mimicking the Rakshas and singing a song.
This book dramatisation was held to promote the two plays that Evam staged on the 25th and 26th of April at the Music Academy. They are ‘Pathala Bhairavi’ (a love story from the Mahabharata) and ‘Maya bazaar’ (an Indian Alladdin folk tale)respectively.
Nippon Paints sponsored these events and when asked about the unique choice of sponsors, Aparna said, “Nippon has recently launched a campaign – ‘Emotions of colour’ and since our plays have lots of colours and eye catching costumes they have decided to sponsor us.”
When asked if there would be future projects like this, Aparna said, “Yes, Evam is an entertainment company and works in a fun way. We hold workshops and events like these throughout the year. We are also holding dramatics classes in the summer for teenagers.”
Aparna had this to say about ticket sales, “Evam sells its tickets through different deals. We donate some tickets to NGO’s to be sold to the poor families. Children are given concessional tickets but these events are not only child centric. The two plays were made into movies about fifty to sixty years back. So even our elders can enjoy them and reminisce.”
The actors kept the audience enthralled and they themselves seemed to enjoy every moment of evil laughter and sound effects.
The young kids did not want the show to end and one bright spark said, “I wish I was a super hero like Ghatotkacha”.
All you big kids out there, who gave this event a skip thinking it was too childish, make sure you catch their next event. It’s fun for all.
Evam is at www.evam.co.in