VIDHURAN by MacTrics - A Review

             I'm still awestruck and gaping, yet to come out having experienced a truly vivid display of sheer performance, at its best of coordination and execution. Having said that, in my humble opinion every performer or rather every person who has been a part of this theatrical production has to completely believe and go by the spirit that "What I did was not my best, what I've learnt and gonna do next could be my best". In that spirit of the game here's my take on what went right and what went wrong, where the right should be taken in the humble spirit of acceptance of appreciation and pride should not find a place and wrong should be taken as a scope of improvement of one's respective contribution and nothing personal.

• MacTrics - The Mummers
• You were the pillars both metaphorically and literally.
• As the entire part of yours involves a high degree of precision and timing, being the audience I did not see even a bit of that been missed out or delayed.
• Though the entire performance involved a lot of physicality there was not a compromise on the expressions at various points that required.
• I especially loved the expression of the girl who played Draupadi Kunthi during the moment where a Vidhuran's man would fall at their feet pleading them not to go to the palace and she would be the last to leave and I felt her reaction was just priceless mixed with anxiety, confusion, worry, concern etc.
• The quick regroups portraying the flash back, the mirrored maze and final exit from the cave were my pick of best of formations and executions.
• Dancers
• Firstly, the idea of portrayal of dangers bound for Pandavas via a dance form, was a commendable and novel interpretation.
• The expressions at varied points enhanced by the well synchronized lighting was just a visual treat.
• The single beat of foot tapping resonating out of 10 feet altogether at many instances was an audible testimony to the coordination with which you girls performed.
• A few instances of gestural and hand movement miss of coordination were seen which apparently is not a big issue however it just does not give the tag of being called a flawless one.
• The Joker
• The way The Joker began (circling the audience and making stunts) really set the mood of the audience to get hooked to the performance right from the word go.
• There was that variety of expressions delivered by you at different points in the monologue which was doing justice to the role however your dialogues could not keep pace with that clarity.
• The subsequent monologue transitions from the mime began to be felt like more of a dip in the attention level rather than increase or maintenance to the audience energy levels. However the course of monologue "managed" to uplift the energy levels towards the end of each of it just before being transitioned into mime again.
• The monologue as such was a long one and with many of the line endings being said twice and sometimes even more, made it even more dragging. 
• I felt it would have been better if The Joker finished just the way he started, circling around the audience and exiting finally.
• Background Score
• I must say that MacTrics have been what they are, with a huge role of such a wonderful and talented mind behind, scoring the music tracks.
• The music indeed has been the string that held and moved the puppets (Mummers & Dancers) in the way it is supposed to.
• The expectation bars have been raised and the next time it would be a lot more.
• Lights & Sound
• If Victor Paulraj had done this feat I would have said, "His experience and versatility has done it again", however it was Charles who did the magic and its truly laudable.
• The inexperience, 20+ meters of distance from the stage, swift light change queues did not cause even a bit of downtrend in the commitment and quality of his deliverable.
• Way to go Charles, hoping to see you create much more wonders in the future.
• Just a concern was the stage blue lights when The Joker walked in during every mime to monologue transition. I felt it was not necessary and the show would've gone good with a black out instead, each time.
• The Marketing
• I guess it was the toughest challenge to the MacTrics throughout the entire production.
• I feel MacTrics (one of a kind in this city, at least) truly needs a lot more support from this crew.
• Maybe the ones here need to get to the drawing boards and start from scratch if need be, for branding and reaching out to the best, for the future MacTrics productions.
• Shutter Monkeyz
• Being the video and promo partner, I understand it was the first attempt at something of this sorts and there is quite a lot of learning you guys have to take away from this.
• Promotions these days are of much reach and ease more on social network than anywhere, hence you should have done a lot more on that front. Probably teaming up with the Marketing team at some points would have given better results.
• Stage Manager
• Managing the stage with such an enormous cast being entirely present almost the whole of showtime is no easy task and I must appreciate the work done by the one responsible and it was truly commendable.
• The Monologue Writers
• No doubt that the script as such was well written and the crowd's applause and appreciation at many a time is the proof for that.
• However in my opinion there were certain elements that were either not thought off or rather overlooked which did not make the The Joker's role on par with the performance of the mime and dance.
• There's this fine line of cohesion and comfort that should be there between the performer and the script which I felt was lacking to some extent. The script as such was good and well written, The Joker as such was a good performer however these two coming together did not deliver that punch expected out of a monologue and need to be really worked out together, moving forward.
• The Concept
• The message that MacTrics wanted to send out to the audience was truly a practically viable and needed one, drawing parallels from VIDHURAN from Mahabharatha and hats off to you folks for choosing this.
• I felt the audience could have been more informed of what's coming on the show maybe in the form a prelude via something as simple as a handout while they walked in, so that they can be a little aware of what's in store for them because what's been performed on stage was something which they have  to relate and assimilate without a blink and stay engrossed. On top of all these expecting the audience to catch the connect on what's the message being told in the end all by themselves is a bit too much to expect out of them.
• The length of the monologue each time and the switches between monologue and mime transitions could have been crispier.
• The Director
• Last but definitely not the least, it was a fabulous and well orchestrated show and you can pat yourself and your team for such a brave and daring attempt at a showcase on something that was as different as this.
• As a follower of MacTrics performances I would expect the next direction to be totally different and most importantly not involve any of the formations or representations that I've seen already.
• Probably that's a huge challenge and well that is what MacTrics is all about, in my opinion.

      Definitely living to true spirits of what MacTrics believed this production of VIDHURAN to be, it made justice by being a show that was never seen or attempted before in the theatrical arena. Congratulations to the team MacTrics, yet again...!!!

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