The Tamil play MUNDHRIKOTTAI was the last in the lineup of new plays that previewed at Prithvi theatre as part of the Writers' Block Festival 2016. Set in a coastal village somewhere near Puducherry, the play tells the story of two young boys, KP and Ahmed, and their friendship. Director Anitha Santharam and writer Sunantha Ragunathan have tried to present an insightful critique of social institutions, community life and caste through this coming of age story.
The play tells the story of a young boy KP (Umar) who has recently moved to the village with his mother. At the school he is enrolled in, certain political machinations are under way. Abdul (Vinoth) is the head of the local Panchayat. He is Ahmed's (Prasana) father and he has just informed the school that the mid-day meals will be stopped during the month of Ramadan. The Christian teacher, Selvaraj points out, with slimy subservience that the new student is a Hindu and his widowed mother will struggle if the meals are stopped. Lack of compassion on Abdul's part and the decision to forgo what is right for the sake of profit on Selvaraj's, has consequences. The widowed mother Pavnu, played by Kali, and her son KP must suffer the diktat.
The central plot of MUNDHRIKOTTAI occasionally stands in danger of becoming trite but is redeemed by the complex characters and their struggles. KP and Pavnu must struggle against poverty and intolerance while also struggling with the memory of the life they once had; Ahmed and KP must struggle with the tensions that exist between their communities without succumbing to those very tensions, and Selvaraj must eventually struggle with the consequences of his vested interests. These characters are well cast and both Umar and Prasana convincingly play the role of young boys caught between their fantasies of movies and cricket, and the weighty expectations of their families. Bhaskar (Niran) plays the jealous and xenophobic, once-best friend of Ahmed, and it is often his energetic portrayal that helps the play move through clumsier bits of plot.
However the play rests too heavily on these younger characters. The adults of the play are less developed and stray into the arena of caricature. Yet Kali's performance as the mother who struggles to raise a son right while living up to the memory of the other dead parent, and Vasanth's portrayal as the slimy Christian teacher with a drinking problem and a hidden agenda were not unenjoyable to watch. Their characters' engagement with the actual plot of the play felt forced though. This says something of the structure of the script itself, which in its overwhelming desire to paint a clear picture of the place and people, creates unnecessary reiterations of certain themes. The questions of discrimination within the community and the local traditions that support such exclusion are one such theme: though played out in every scene, the true horror of such discrimination- a horror that very much lies in how subtly such discrimination enters day to day practices, is sadly lost on the audience.
A theme that the play does cover very successfully is that of masculinity. The Tamil man as understood through the classical Tamil text or even through Tamil film is a hyper-masculine creature who can bend the world to his will. While the play lacked a female presence beyond Panvu, it still managed to highlight questions of gender through its male characters. The grandiose fantasies of KP, the trickster-like assurances of Selvaraj, the arrogant confidence of Abdul, and the questionable outcomes of their behaviour leaves audiences with the opportunity to question the so-called inherent capabilities that cultural tropes insist men possess.
MUNDHRIKOTTAI is a character-driven play that sometimes looses its own thread. However excellent performances, an interesting use of props and sound, and the director's very real desire to pull audiences into the world of the play, make it an easy and enjoyable watch. Though occasionally heavy handed in their use of metaphor and characterisation; the stylistically pleasing, but somewhat meaningless rope tree that is more prop than set, is one such instance - the pair have succeeded through clever stagecraft, quick dialogue and interesting characters, to create an engaging and meaningful piece of theatre.
Nayantara Nayar is a freelance scriptwriter based out of Mumbai. She has previously worked as an artistic director and resource trainer for a youth theatre company in Chennai. She enjoys writing about theatre and the arts.
