Its "Love_Actually"

Okay … Its time to document a bit about my subsequent winning acting venture “Love Actually” – A performance packed melodrama.

Vipanchika ‘05 had an extra pressure on IT’ans as it was a Hat Trick prospect with taking hold of the champions’ Trophy indeed for our “English Skit” as well. Hence, we started with certain eye-catching titles but the mere remembrance of the last upshot was keeping every subject look incompetent enough to get us the Best Skit award when other silent branches like EC/Civil were on fire this time. It was until “Babil” – My classmate entered the confused scene and like his fizzy character proposed us to go for some enormously uncomplicated topics, I was inarguably persuaded as I was coordinating two more skits, a Hindi and English respectively. Thus, I was expected to be stretched out by all the three teams with dates getting closer.

Not receiving much of the contradiction from other ends we arrived onto a unanimous decision of showing some after wrecking-effects of “campus love”. And my most competent team geared up all through once again for the development of the script, locating best of their grey cells for most innovative ideas, within 2 days we were up with a rough draft. Practice started but unlike “US Placement Blues” which banked most on its storyline, this skit required lot of emotions and expressions, perhaps an action amassed consequence.

Getting inspired with my navy styled hair cut the role that suited me most was of the Retd. Military Father of the girl (who falls in love), catches his daughter red handed indulged in a romantic conversation while on phone. Contrary to my normal behavior (be assured of off praises) I had to scream throughout the scene & on the same hand clarity of voice was another factor which troubled me the most. After even about a day of practice exact emotions and dialogues weren’t able to find their flow. One moment it felt as if it was kind of an impossible role but hard practice & not considering me less than any most successful actor in the tinsel town I finally eased up with my character configuration, could find the relative voice and indeed the people who saw me for the first time were not less than surprised. Ah! Sigh of relief, what to say for long it felt on par acting in a film.

It was already dark on 26^th of Feb but this year Open air Auditorium welcomed us, with a third slot again … a superstitious corner of mind had already given us the best performance award. Crowd was ready to boo every stage performance irrespective of branch but once IT is on stage, all attempts to deviate the attention of the performers and observers are assured, when already IT has a lead of 20 points with Civil firmly following behind.

Whoosh! And raised up the curtains, Lainu (The Lead Character) had already started firing the saboteurs with his performance; [Now you need a great heart to miss that remarkable action happening on stage] we all behind the curtains were no doubt craving to see that performance as the crowd boosted most of scenes with the applauses. Improved coordination & last emphatic win certainly endowed us with the strong mental confidence. All banners were carried on time without any confusion, the biggest catch of the skit was the loud voice that everybody had maintained throughout; and this single factor with its absence is capable enough to diminish the whole team effort in a single go.

My Scene loomed, with bold heart I entered the stage with chest popping out (to bring in the so called “Military Personnel effect”), depicting suspicion in mind & on face. Indeed put all the voice that was remaining in me after some final practice sessions. Hold on! What is this? Mahima seemed to be really terrified, oh! My God her face expressions indeed made me feel real personnel on fire for a moment.

Not much bothered by the audience I continued firing her on stage but buddy “this is me”, how can I perform everything perfect without any confusion! Now I forgot a dialogue for a moment but again “this is me”, who managed to cut that part off and found a flow with the next very dialog and expressions. Perhaps that very moment gave me most of the satisfaction in this skit, coz challenge no doubt lies in such problematic situations - Lot of lessons in jus’ a single moment !

Can’t forget the incredible appreciation I received from KK (Krishna Kumar) – My Classmate, he was so impressed with my performance that he almost laid a kiss on my cheek. God how proud embarrassment that was! Its not that nobody else appreciated or nobody else than me got these praising, in fact I was nowhere in front of Lainu, Mahima, Kirtan & others, I mentioned it intentionally for the simple fact that KK encapsulates in himself a wonderful actor & a character. It’s undoubtedly a surprise when such great performers appreciate you, acting as the source of motivation for further proceedings.

After about an hour, results were announced, already dazzled by our combined colorful performances, judges had no other option left than to grade rest of the skits below ours. Our electrifying response mixed with merriment caught the due attention of the masses. A sudden surprise followed me when one of my classmates asked me for the script of the skit as his friends from MEC (Model Engineering College) been impressed seeing this performance & quite out of the box storyline, resembling with most unspoken real stories that they planned to perform the same skit in their campus scheduled to be after about a week.

This enjoyment din’t just stop here, being adjudged as the top performing team, we paved our way to the Sargam ’05 – University Arts Festival @CUSAT campus which started right after a single day break when Vipanchika got over and we found our slot due for 3^rd March again. Wasting a day with an intention to improve some weak frames in the skit we finally realized that the fun and humor was trying to keep a distance from all of us, thus, with no obligation again we landed up with the exact performance as it was prior but undoubtedly one good team outperformed our performance taking the lead to force us to settle down with the second best award. The relishing thing was that the judges openly described skit interpretations and they could derive lot more significance and meanings out of our skit than what we could have derived, had if we tried lot hard and also the margin with which we remained second was just minute, thus, enjoyed that second win and embossed lots of memories of those times, which will remain somewhere forever in the hearts for all the years to come.