LKG Aasai, a drama by T.V. Varadharajen’s United Visuals, woven with wit and humour that made the audience laugh and think about today’s education, was staged for the first time at Sri Sathguru Sangeetha Samajam on the last day of its 72nd Music and Arts Festival 2024.
A message was conveyed to the prospective parents and parents in general that they should not impose all their dreams and wishes on their children.
The story, written and directed by ‘Vedam Puthithu’ Kannan, revolves around two families, one dreaming about their child’s future as cricketer, tennis player, musician, badminton player, etc., and the other not blessed with a child and wishes to bring up a nice citizen.
LKG Aasai describes the ordeals that a child (becoming hysterical and mentally depressed) as well as its parents undergo to get admission in a school and how education turned out to be an interest-free business with capital from the parents in various forms called fees and deposits.
Varadharajen as Vellamandi Mani, Lakshmi as Gomathi, Hema as Yashoda, Girish as Marker Manickam, Sridhar as Muthu, Jeyaprakash as Abasagunam Annasamy, baby Seethalakshmi as Meenakshi did their roles impressively and effectively, which made the drama lively. Though there were serious twists and turns in the story, the audience were able to follow the flow of comedy and enjoyed the humour.
The strength of the play was the humour which flowed through the script and the comic orientation of all actors. At times, the hall burst into laughter and at times it made the audience think and correct themselves.
The strong dialogues viz. stone grinder is lesser in weight than school bag, modern child unable to speak when encountered with problems, not all the children are equal and bringing up a child is a profession, importance of grandparents, over loading by downloading lessons, lorry carries a load of sugarcane but the finished product fills a tricycle are noteworthy.
S. Padmanabhan
