Free fallin’ through love

‘Why bother, she asks, seriously why’ recite the performers to the strumming of the guitar. The first of TM Karthik’s poems, from his newly published book Diary of the Mad Hatter, dives right into the question most people would be hesitant to fiddle with; why love?

Longing, ecstasy, nervousness, uncertainty, regret, and hope are some of the themes Karthik explores in his poems. “Love is tricky. Sometimes, it fools you into feeling that you have it all. It’s hard to find something that will last very long. Most of the time it’s a temporary feeling,” says Ameera D’costa, one of the performers.

The actors, clad in red and white, bring to the audience their interpretations of the poems; some of them double up as guitarists. They make the audience feel as light as a cloud sometimes, only to suddenly bring them back to reality, “I knew why I wrote, to whom I wrote and when I wrote the poems. It’s beautiful to see your life come in front of you in visuals,” says Karthik.

The intimate soiree was put together and directed by Tehzeeb Kattari and The Madras Players at Amethyst. Kattari says, “Karthik sent me his book last year. Then I contacted a few actors and they all said yes.”

She goes on to add, “There’s nothing like dealing with known, good actors. Because they can understand and put together a performance. We’re not just reading these poems; we’re actually performing them. So it was important that we had people who could do that.”

Unlike most poetry readings, the seasoned actors took their audience along on journeys that were comical, cynical, grave and even musical. With the audience’s collective gasps, awws, and giggles ornamenting the performance, it seems like the performers conjur up tiny metaphorical Cupid’s arrows and hit their desired mark.

The theatrical readings bring Karthik’s poems to life. He himself is no stranger to theatre, “As an artiste, when I see fellow actors give life to something they’re just reading, it’s beautiful because it emphasises that art is universal.”

And so is love I thought, as I hum Frank Sinatra’s ‘I’ve got you under my skin’ to myself, looking back at the night full of love, unsure of what I took from it. Then it strikes me, as his first poem ends, ‘Well you care dear girl, you live for that love.’