Early this month as part of Chennai Music Season, in Nungambakkam Cultural Academy I saw this new Tamil Theatre Play (Drama). It was “Re(a)el Estate” by T.V.Varadharajen (டி.வி.வரதராஜன்) – written and directed by ‘Vedham Puthithu’ Kannan. The story deals with the aspirations of the middle-class people to own a house and how the couple in the play – Boomi (Husband name) and Patta (Wife’s name) gets cheated by a Real Estate agent. The play starts with good enjoyable jokes, progress to explain the nuances of the words commonly used in real estate transaction (sq.ft., patta, layout, plans, approved and unapproved) and then ends with the difficulties of owning/building a house. The scenes before the climax are quite emotional and acted very well by both the lead artists.
I remember to have seen the earlier version of this storyline in the troupe’s previous play ‘Ilavasa Enaippu’ staged in the late 1990s.