Five Point Someone

After all the super fun at ECR on my friend's birthday, i rushed to IIT-M to catch the play which i missed three days in a row at Museum Theatre. I was at the venue 30 mins earlier than the show time, the Q was long but i thought i could make it into the auditorium. After reading all the thumbs-up reviews of the play i was even ready to stand and watch the entire play if the seats are full.

My friend Rachel who is from the press comes in, she sees the long Q and goes to the organisers to see if she could get seats for us, she doesn't turn up and the place has no network coverage. Damn ! And then the guys at Saarang close doors saying the hall is full. I knew Rachel must be nicely seated inside and i faked as a person from the press. They took me into the auditorium through a special entrance and i got a seat right in the front row beside Rachel who gives a stupid grin and spells a series of apologies .... Ok forgiven ! Man, the front row had recliners : )

My interest in plays was brought out by Evam's Sunil. After watching Evam's Art i was hooked to plays, Madras Players just took it one step further. The play Five Point Someone tells what not to do at IIT. Every soul who finds a place in IIT has worked really really hard for two years in school just to find that, college is no different. GPA is what determines what you are in college and under performers are treated as an outcast.

The story goes around three under performers in college Ryan, Hari and Alok who manage only a 5.something GPA. College has labelled them as outcasts. Five Point Someone is all about what is life other than the serious studies at IIT, what is friendship, life and love. The set props were simple and nicely used. Three props made the entire play. Ryan Oberoi (Praveen Bharatwaj), Hari Kumar (Abhijeet 'Monty' Mohanty) and Alok Gupta (V Sarvesh Sridhar) rule the stage for a solid two hours. Alok is this serious guy who is very keen on studies while Ryan is a happy-go-lucky guy, Hari can be easily influenced by both of them in anything and everything. These three guys carry a perfect rapport all through the play.

Ryan, Hari and Alok expects more out of life and in this frantic search they end up with a 5.something GPA which gives a serious blow to their friendship. In this chaos, engineering and fashion designing meets thanks to Hari who falls in love with Neha (Uttara Krishnadas). Neha is also an excellent performer and her solo scene on stage where she writes a letter to her dead brother speaks volumes.

The senior Madras Players come like a storm with their more matured voice and modulation. P.C. Ramakrishna as Prof. Cherian the most hated professor by all speaks as though he swallowed a couple of mics, what a voice he has got, too good ... Dialogues and humour is fantastic. P.C. Ramakrishna introduced Nikhila Kesavan to the audience as the youngest director of Madras Players. There are re takes while directing a movie but in case of plays ...
This is where Nikhila rocks !

Something i noticed in the play was the prompt and timed dialogues uttered by the artists. If the audience are laughing or clapping loud, the artists wait till the laughter and claps fades and then speak their dialogues, so that no one misses a word. Hari was this normal guy when it comes to the love scenes, tensed and messing ! Neha and Hari do leave the audience clapping all the way. The story is narrated by Vidyuth Sreenivasan who is calm and cool and walks around the stage narrating, he even takes a shot of vodka with the performers.

Overall the play made two hours fly so easily and my lie worth it.