An Evening of HahahahaHehehehehe

It was a lazy Friday evening when I received an sms for the S Ve. Shekar drama to be held in Bangalore. I was immediately transported to the years I spent living in Chennai. I was introduced to S Ve Shekar's brand of humour by friends and cousins. We spent countless afternoons listening to his cassettes and laughing at his jokes. We actually even knew some of the dialogues by-heart. "Yenna Mirugam Aakathe" was a personal favorite that was usually uttered by the actor who played S Ve Shekar's father in the drama. I soon liked his clean sense of humour and his comic timing, which was an amazing contrast to the Sendhil-Goundamani comedy style that was sweeping Tollywood. I wished I could attend a live performance - but alas that never happened while I was in Chennai. So, receiving this sms was like a "Wah Wah Woo".

I pestered the Arien to book tickets but he was not too keen. Finally after a lot of rhona-dhona, usually a major part of all tamil mega serials, I got my way. The Senior Arien was going to be all-alone over the weekend as the Taurean was away at Chennai. Used version 2 of rhona-dhona and managed to get a Yes from him as well.

Sunday, 4:10 pm, saw us (the senior Arien, the Arien, and self) happily driving to "Ghana Sabha". I had amazingly deleted all the smses and so was not sure of the name of the place. An auto-driver informed me that there was no "Ghana Sabha" in K R Road and that I am probably looking for "Ghayana Samaj". After reaching K R Road, and taking various detours, we finally reached Ghayana Samaj at 5:15 pm. While the Arien goes to park the car, I get the tickets by sharing the online booking id and the senior Arien is asking ppl standing outside if the show has begun - we suddenly spot the comedian himself sauntering past us. He has not changed much. He is extra-ordinarily fair in person and he speaks in a typical tam-bram accent when he informs the organizer that he does not want to make the audience wait any longer. Both the Senior Arien and self are busy gogling at him, beaming at none in particular, when the Arien walks up and asks us 'bout the tickets - we tell him in hushed tones that HE jes walked by.

At 5:30, the play titled "Periya Thambi" began. It was a new experience for the Arien. The Senior Arien and self were laughing away to glory. It was funny, familiar, laced with political inundoes, and naughty as well. The auditorium was one of those "Thaatha Kalathu sabhas" and soon it was pretty warm inspite of the fans. We were seated 5 rows away frm the stage which was perfect - I spotted certain improvisations made by the artistes tht would not be visible frm say the 10th row. The grandfather who uttered senseless proverbs was hilarious. Its usually pretty tough doing a live show and I was pretty impressed at the way they performed. A young gal in the third row was recording the play using her cell phone and S Ve Shekar caught her and waved a No! from on stage. While it was pretty embarrassing for the gal and her companions, I was surprised he could make out smne was recording with all tht light on the stage and the near darkness that the audience is in. The play was 2 hours short and had an intermission for 10 mts after the first hour.

After the play, S Ve Shekar introduced all the cast members and he was at his funny best at tht time. He also thanked the audience for encouraging drama artistes by coming to these plays when temptation such as multiplexes lured you. He also shared details 'bout his first play in Bangalore. It was complete wholesome entertainment and we had a Hahahahahehehehehe evening. Both the Ariens enjoyed the different experience inspite of creating all tht fuss earlier :D