Sanhiti's Cinema Cinema

I heard about Sanhiti and their annual shows last year from one of the blog's readers who was part of the troupe and the show. I couldn't make it to last year's show but managed to attend their show Cinema Cinema - Rhythm on Reels yesterday in Redwood City. The program was conducted in association with the Association for India Development(AID) and was a fundraiser for the Eureka Child project A skit interspersed with song and dance, it was a fun show that offered a different experience.

The program started off a bit slow. It started with a Bharatanatyam performance by 2 dancers and then a traditional Malayalam group dance. The costumes were colorful and the dancers were good but I was a little restless since this wasn't what I was expecting from a show called Cinema Cinema! The skit kicked off with a director Manimantar announcing a scripting contest for his next film but here too, the jokes - mostly about Manirathnam, starting off with the play of words on his name - fell flat. But once the dances started, the show found its groove. The dance sequences were all good and the skit, which split into two tracks following two teams as they developed stories for the contest, also got better with some clever and funny jokes.

The songs selected were a good mix of fast and slow; modern and folksy. All of them featured impressive props and lighting and were very well choreographed. The dancers were not all in perfect sync and some of then could've used a little more practice but overall, all the productions were quite professional. Though I'm not a big fan of kuthu numbers, I have found time and again that they end up being the most energetic and exciting in live dance shows. That was the case here too as Kumbida Pona Dheivam...(from Tiruppaachi) was rousingly staged with some spirited dancing by all the participants and ended up as the best number by far. Sei Edhaavadhu Sei... (Billa), the Engeyum Eppodhum... remix(Pollaadhavan) and October Kaatru...(Idhaya Thirudan), which was staged as a salsa dance, also caught the eye with their costumes and choreography.

The songs were definitely the highpoints of the show but the skit did its job of keeping us entertained between the numbers. There were some clever jokes(using a kiLi is 'kiLi'ched :) and the two tracks were brought together cleverly - even if predictably - at the end. There were a number of topical jokes about films and potshots at a lot of actors but these didn't work as well as the more general jokes though.

Overall, it was a fun and entertaining show and it was for a good cause. So, an evening well-spent...