Enjoyable
The dialogue was racy and kept the audience leaning forward to catch each pun and joke. Once again, Indu Dharmasena had excelled in the genre of Comedy which is his forte.
“It is not easy to make people laugh,” commented Indu who plays the main role of Tommiya, a country bumpkin who has come to town to learn English and become a sophisticated gentleman. The theme is hackneyed but Indu brings new life to the role and the audience (many of whom have followed the Tommiya adventures in the series of comedies) loved it.
The situations were hilarious as the plot unfolded. Indu played on words like “calamity” which Tommiya translated into Sinhala as “Kalavay miti” and Nilmini who was on holiday from America wanted a herbal treatment which the beauty salon did not offer.
Govinda was the villain who dumped Nilmini ten years ago to marry a rich politicians’ daughter and his bodyguard provided many laughs. Govinda was now sick of his wife and wanted to get back with Nilmini and enlisted Tommiya’s help. Tommiya has good principles and wants to do the right thing although he has been told the story of Govinda. Tommiya agrees to arrange a meeting with Nilmini and the situation turns comic when Govinda’s wife Anupama turns up and Tommiya mistakes her for Govinda’s Personal Assistant (P.A.) and reveals the details of the rendezvous.
There is more laughter with Tommiya dressed as a “Paeeppa baas” talking of the bust pump while there is no water in the pipes of the salon to wash the clients’ hair. Govinda’s bodyguard is mistaken for Kumar, the baas and there is much romping and chasing as he tries to fix the pipe but is clueless.
Tommiya suggests “impeaching” when a complaint is made and the audience laughed at the topical theme. But generally, the play steered clear of politics and was good fun.
Indu was lucky in that he had a responsive audience even though I personally don’t like laughing at people who make mistakes when talking English. English is not the mother tongue of the majority of Sri Lankans and there are many who understand the language but are afraid to speak for fear of being laughed at. Anyway, this play was good-humoured fun and the medium was mainly Singlish (a mixture of Sinhala and English). It was an enjoyable evening.
Comments from the audience
Mrs.Jayanthi Daluwatte, “The play was nice with a lot of humour. Indu acts very naturally and we come for all his shows.”
Lal de Mel, “A reasonably hilarious play and it kept you entertained.”
Mrs.Clarice Wahid, “The show was excellent. I come for all Indu’s shows.”
Ravi Karunanayake, “It was a light reflection on how people come from villages and socialise in Colombo. The acting was natural.”
Karu Jayasuriya and Dr. Mrs Vasantha Jayasuriya, “It was quite fun. Hilarious. Light relaxation and people of any age can enjoy it.”
Shyana Wijayratne, “After some time, we heard some very good jokes in this play.”
Reviewed by Sirohmi Gunesekera
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