It was something that was completely restricted to college, a form of performance which I would call "Improvisation"; history dates back to as early as 1900's where western marketing companies introduced a new concept called "ad-mad" where actors were hired to degrade their competitor's products. It was a general practice to perform such short acts in front of the town market and as advertising matured to print and electronic media, the form of performance took a new shape, which is now fondly termed as "mad-Ads" a form of art more popular in universities and colleges.
One such experiment was made by the team of PunchTantraa of Bangalore to bring a form of art which comfortably enjoyed a royal status in college to a professional arena, it was a transformation of one of its kind where not only the art but the transformation itself was put under test; can regular people who are more stereotyped to performances that has logic sense and story adapt to something which has no regular protocols of a performance in it?
"Why not?" would have been their answer, after all any form of performance is form of entertainment; "Being a ardent follower of legacy theatre, for me getting through the fact that a MAD-ADS performance can enter a professional stage did not jell well, perhaps that was the reason I booked my seats first to witness what was called as the laughter riot.
Packed house, fresh blood, new faces,care free, independent from protocols, the venue was set, as I invariably found myself sitting in the balcony of an auditorium which I had almost seen raising to its present glory, I wanted to witness the show as an "Audience" An empty stage with mere lighting and a HUGE camera tripods on the either side welcomed my mind, "huh! these college kids..I sighed!" the camera disturbed me a lot mentally, it never allowed me to concentrate and every time my logical part of mind kept on stressing! its a stage for performance not a "Wedding reception"
A gleam of theatre lights on stage relieved me a bit as a young person clad in jeans and white pullovers walked on stage with confidence, he was probably hosting the event, it looked typically "collegeish" I was just wondering where was the lady MC but thank god, that was then the performance started and I sunk into my seat.
"Put-Go-See" lenses was the word I heard first and I ridiculed the content but that's when i realized that I was too early in judging things! My eyes suddenly caught the attention of an amazing co-ordination in acting tagged with some beautiful voice modulation from behind, a style of theatre which greeks applied to their art form in their era, Perfect timing, simple co-ordination, good presence of mind and amazing voice over, the performance started with a thud of laughter and it stayed there, people rolled over the floor much to the claim by the host who asked the audience to hold on to the seats tightly, "Put-go-see" lenses though a product which the legendary beechi had popularized in his writings found a new meaning with some "PUNCH", that was probably their "TANTRAA" as well, An old wine in a new bottle is always refreshing. As the performance continued, their "PUNCHES" made a remarkable mark on most section of the audience, though few lines such as "Made in China Joke" seemed 1920's and few other jokes were inspired from FACEBOOK WALL POSTS, so what? questioned my brain? we all get inspired from something in our life, what's more important is how well we can express our inspiration and they had quite achieved it.
My highlight of the performance was when the "bike co-ordination of Batman" was performed, timed to perfect, it blew me off from my own seat, I was excited! I was enthralled, I got back the kid in me and i enjoyed that space. Humor always has a hidden message and PUNCH TANTRAA had realized it well, they did not hinder to show some of the most important causes which our country faces today through their style, "Eye donation", "Save Tigers", "Avoid Child marriage" were some the issues that were tackled, it is just that audience laughed over it and left it to air! that reminded me of the quote T.P Kailasam once quoted in his writings "Humor can deliver only smile, not a message"
To add on to the entertainment there was the movie spoof! of Titanic! which I thought was bit amateurish and not needed, at least a better film could have been chosen! A spoof of movie can only be shown through a movie, personally my mind never accepted a movie spoof through a performance on stage, infact I could not even understand the reason as to why was it included? why is that in our country movies are given such a special status that you need to put them in every possible corner? What stuck me then is, why could not they think better? may be a "book spoof", "Spoof of Steve jobs in heaven" or spoof of a "common man in office or in park", something which we all relate to, which we can iterate to ourself, that's when I thought that it is so important for us think differently, Movies are just part of entertainment not part of our lives.
The evening also had an amazing live band performance with the new kid in the block called "Beat boxing", something which probably took all of us to a different world, though it was short-lived it was refreshing and it was then back to more of "Mad-ads".
Call it illogical, call it funny, call it amazing, call it creative, call it experimental theatre, call it a performance, call it a laughter riot; it all boils down to one factor at the end of the day, did your audience enjoy the show? as an artist if you are in a position to answer that question then I would consider that you are successful in achieving what you wanted to, after all "Any performance is a form of Entertainment!"
Refreshing and smoothing, PunchTantraa has sparkled a new revolution in the performing arena, it is just that one has to wait and see how much turbulence can this revolution can bear?
Categories:
Perception