PETals

Kaadhalin Shakti

by Hariraam



Kaadhalin Shakti. An experience throughout my dramatical life which i will never forget. The power of the woman. The one who longs for attention, popularity or maybe understanding. Isn't it obvious to all of you guys out there that girls want so many things from boys? I think it is because in this 3-piece play, all the woman want attention, and understanding.

Manju, a character who loves drama, especially Romeo and Juliet, is a person who overacts, in my opinion. Once again it comes back to girls who, in this case want a big chunk of attention from the guy who is suffering, who is trying to please the girl, who is trying not to upset her and finally, who must listen to or obey the girl. The pain, the agony, it turns out that it is the man who is in distress. In this play, Manju, is going to get married to Hari, her beloved. Therefore she wants him to do so many things for her, as usual, it all leads back to the girl.

Playing 'Manju' was an interesting experience. I say this because, playing a girls part may be quite out-of-this-world, but then again, during Shakespeare's time, men would play girls parts, so what the heck. Now, creating my view of 'Manju' was quite tough, well maybe because i did not know how to act as a girl, but as time passed by, things started falling into place. Improvising her was also a challenge. Once you start getting to know your character, you sort of become one with him or her. So thats how things got going. I also realised that 'being a girl' was tough, well because if you look at it in real life, the girl has to get the boy to listen to her. Attention basically.


But the good thing about being someone else is, everything is already inside of us, therefore we have to dig deep into our mind and heart and catch hold of that 'person'. That is what finding the core of the character means, i think. Anyway who cares, nothing's wrong or right. For me, having grown up with a whole lot of girls (got boys also, don't worry), i know vaguely what girls are like. So i used whatever i knew about girls and applied it to 'Manju', and I think I hit it!

I also learnt that, playing different characters teaches about how we can be that person, or how we can create the person according to our ideas. As we grow older, we will definitely meet people who are different in many ways, and since we are in the PET, using their 'styles' will have a great effect in whatever character we are playing!

posted by hari @ 9:44 PM