On a Sunday every month, Theatrekaran stages street plays and Madras Film Screening Club, films based on world cinema

Besides ticketed shows, this drama troupe stages street plays on social causes. The street plays are offered free-of-cost. Welcome to Theatrekaran, founded by three friends from school — V. K. Sabariwas, Sriram Jeevan and Raghavendr Shiva — on 2 October 2017. The troupe, based out of West Mambalam, presents street plays at Dr. Visveswaraya Tower Park in Anna Nagar, and once in a month at Car-Free Sundays at Elliot's Beach in Besant Nagar. In their early twenties, the three are alumni of Chettinad Vidhyashram at MRC Nagar.

"Our school's annual theatre event ‘Chettinad Players’ helped us develop an interest in plays. We consider J. Jeyakumar of Koothu-p-Patrai our guru. During our school days, Jeyakumar taught us the fundamentals of theatre. We seek his guidance even now," says V.K. Sabariwas, who works for an event management company.

Theatrekaran has tied up with non-governmental organisations – Thozhan, Food Bank India and Aval —and present shows based on the causes represented by them.

“We present plays both in English and Tamil. Hence, the name of our troupe had borrowed words from both languages. For plays dealing with social causes, we prefer Tamil. Only through the mother-tongue can we expect to put across a message effectively and evoke the desired response. Moreover, plays in Tamil will have a wider reach,” says Raghavendr Shiva, who is self-employed.

For street plays, Theatrekaran seeks the support of volunteers.

"We post a request on many social media platforms, seeking volunteers. The social cause will also be mentioned in the post. Now, we have around 40 such volunteers. Our dress code for street plays is blue jeans, black shirt and a turban," says Sriram Jeevan, a theatre artist. Contact 9884966613.

Club on world cinema

A year ago, a group of ten friends who share a passion for world cinema formed Madras Film Screening Club, which meets every first Sunday at Panuval Book Store in Thiruvanmiyur.

“None of us is in the film industry, but we love to watch films and discuss them at length. Our Club holds screenings of full-length feature films with the aim of helping people cultivate a taste for good cinema,” says Senthil Kumar, one of the founding members.

The Club also screens short-films and documentaries. In the last one year, people from various parts of Chennai and different walks of life, including expatriates, aspiring film-makers and celebrities, have attending the screenings.

“Chennai has many film-based societies, but most of them are meant for those in the film fraternity and are therefore closed in nature. So, we decided to start a forum that is open to all. We also found that Kolkata, Mumbai and Hyderabad have many forums for movie-buffs, but not Chennai. Here, anybody can come and watch films, free of cost,” adds Senthil Balaji.

The films screened so far include Spellbound, A Short Film About Love, The Terrorist, The Third Man, The Fall, Battle of Algiers (French), Cache (French), Les Diaboliques (French), Le Trou (French), Your Name (Japanese), Close-Up (Iranian) and M (German). Contact: 9840814575.