Has something bitten him?”- I anxiously arose from my seat. “He is only acting” said someone from the audience firmly, and pulled me back to my seat. I am at a friend’s house watching Anand Sami perform two brilliant Tamil solo plays.

"Private performances such as this one give the artist proximity to the audience and their comments and reactions can boost the energy and talent level”, says the multi talented Anand Sami. Anand hails from Kancheepuram. He arrived in Chennai armed with an MBA -- to work like the rest of his friends, at multinational companies.

He tried working at various companies and did not last more than three months in a single job! “I don’t know how I went blank. May be, I am not geared for that 9 to 5 job, and can’t imagine sitting in front of the computer and receiving commands!” His creative mind always aspired for something more and he went for the audition for a Tamil tele-serial ‘Kavyanjali’, and got selected right away.

In 2002, he joined Koothu-p-Pattrai a Chennai-based street theatre collective, and told the founder N.Muthuswamy that he would be interning only for six months. But then he actually went on to be with the team for eight long years. He later joined theatre collective ‘Perch,’ and is now getting ready to play a villainous role in the film “Living Together”, directed by the acclaimed director AM.Fazil.

Anand is passionate about theatre, and when he does solo performances for private home gatherings, he just uses old furniture discarded sticks and wooden planks for props and indigenous sets. His favorite writer is Sundara Ramasami, who is if fondly known as ‘Su Ra’ in literary circles.

At a recent performance, he acted as the crippled boy in the first play “Jannal (window)” and donned three roles in “Seethai Mark Seekai Thool”. He is the arrogant Kumaravel Panikar who thinks art can be bought with money, Subbiah Aasari who refuses to budge to his demands and his loving wife Subbammal, who stands by her husband though the couple are in dire need of money.

The background tabla, was played by Ramakrishnan, who has trained with the music college, and the duo can guarantee a memorable evening. Inviting Anand to perform in the privacy of your home is like inventing a whole new genre of theater repertory. He will soon be training in Kerala for “Kalari” as he believes that physical health will also enhance his acting skills

By Parveen Sikkandar