Lehry, a theatre personality loves to give back something to the city he grew up.
The young Mohammed wants to be wedded to the theatre all his life.
He had his schooling Mohammed at Vidhya Niketan, a school known for encouraging students to have an all-round exposure.
Mohammed Lehry has just completed his B.A in Theatre Studies, English Studies and Psychology from the Christ University, Bengaluru.
A chat with the creative young man revealed much more than his talent for the subject. Coimbatore is an educity but only a handful among the educationists take up the creative cudgels on behalf of the students and Rajini Krishnamurthy, the Founder of Vidhya Niketan is known for her commitment in this regard.
Mohammed was happy to share the details of his journey from his home at R.R. Layout, “My first experience with theatre began while I was in my seventh standard and it was connected with the thoughts of Subramanya Bharathi. I watched the performance of Yoga Japee of Chennai from the AV Room of our school for the programme was not meant for students of my age. Thereafter the workshops connected with theatre in our school were a big boon for me”.
In fact, prior to my ninth standard, I had plans to become a doctor! I owe a lot to my school Correspondent Rajini Krishnamurthy madam for she was pretty early to identify my skills and gave me the allowance to pursue it even while at school.
Our ' VNS Theatre Club ' participated in the National Level Science Drama Festival during the times when I was in my tenth standard. It was really tough to get to the finals at Kolkata for just 8 teams from across the country came up to the highest level. Our team stood first in the district and in the state. Ours was the only English play and therefore it faced a lot of ridicule then. After beating the teams from 32 districts in Tamilnadu were thrilled on becoming the first in the South Zone while getting evaluated at Bengaluru. The programme at Kolkata was an eye opener for we could interact with the best talent and the workshop for all the participants was an amazing input for each one of us. Later on, we went to New Delhi too and Rajini madam accompanied us to the capital. Thanks to our school infrastructure and the approach of the management, we won all the events connected with theatre at all times."
Mohammed is really lucky to have the support of his father Elias, a table tennis veteran and mother Rashida who was part of the theatre group at Nirmala College.
It was a pleasant surprise to learn that Christ University is the only institution in our country to offer this kind of a course with a triple major.
Mohammed further enriched the chat by sharing some more facts, “Well, it was the place to be for we were offered western classical drama, English literature and psychology. Of course, music and dance were part of the core. I want to pursue my postgraduate programme from the National School of Drama in New Delhi and one should have worked on at least six productions in order to be eligible. However I have worked on much more productions and many thanks are due to my teacher at Christ, Ms. Esther Yates whose guidance was of great help.
“Her expertise opened up many vistas for students like me and Amrith Jayan (another one from Vidhya Niketan, Coimbatore) at Christ. Naseeruddin Shah and his works are of great interest for me and Samuel Beckett's ' Waiting for Godot ' was another great inspiration. The general trend in India is to have an inclination towards western drama which kind of uses English words in a proclaiming manner. The focus is more on the spectacle than the content. Thanks to Christ and its infrastructure for it really has helped us to experience theatre and share it in an appropriate manner. "
The experiences handed over at Vidhya Niketan through progrmmes and the constant training from Yog Japee had given Mohammed a big head start and thanks to all this he had learnt more than 60 % of what others learnt at Christ from Coimbatore itself. He has really scored well in his plus two in spite of his work with the theatre and he thanks the Indian system for giving him the route. Mohammed is sure to do a doctorate in theatre and he wants to set up a theatre company at Coimbatore in the future. “I am keen to have an expansive knowledge of the theatre and want to kick start the theatre culture in a big way in Coimbatore. You see, I should give something back to Coimbatore for its here that I had acquired the interest and skill. Theatre is ultimately the mimicry of real life and if you are good at it, your life will be good too. India is blessed with the oldest theatre tradition, thanks to Bharata Muni's Natya Shastra. Its 6000 verses make it incredibly interesting."
Mohammed. E. Lehry is keeping himself busy at Coimbatore this summer. He is having a theatre workshop, ' Do Theatre ' between the May 7- 13 of May 2018 at the Cosmopolitan Club.
In addition to this programme which will be restricted to about 20 participants, Mohammed is going to be doing a play at the Kasthuri Srinivasan Auditorium on the 3 rd. of May, 2018. “The play is titled ' Man and Dog ', is based on Indra Parthasarathy's English translation of a Tamil work by Pasi. There are just three people in the play and all the three of us are Christ products. Tharun Kapoor will join Amrith Jayan and myself. We will not take the aid of microphones for this show which will last about 50 minutes in all. It’s basically about ideology and how a certain ideology can take over the life of a person. One has to realize the influence and should try not to get taken over. It will have a mix of the theories of Karl Marx and other theorists. While the joiner is political satire, the style of the play is absurd. It’s our production and whatever production I curate, I go by the following principle - The purpose of theatre is to make the comfortable uncomfortable and the uncomfortable comfortable, " stated the determined theatre person - Mohammed.E. Lehry.
The theatre guy has a fancy for the absurd and his list of achievements include awards and certificates connected with karate, art, elocution, basketball, archery among other things and he was also the SPL (School Pupil Leader). He truly believes that works like ' Man and Dog ' came from a need to localize the situation while bringing human mind and nature to the center. Of course, the champion has won the best scriptwriter award. There are a lot more to come out for Mohammed for he has a lot up his sleeve. After a nine-year experience in theatre, with more than 20 productions, designing light for 10 plays, providing vocals for 3 choirs and directing a couple of them in places like Chennai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Madurai, Mohammed. E. Lehry believes that Theatre is all about having fun. Just like life.
He had his schooling Mohammed at Vidhya Niketan, a school known for encouraging students to have an all-round exposure.
Mohammed Lehry has just completed his B.A in Theatre Studies, English Studies and Psychology from the Christ University, Bengaluru.
A chat with the creative young man revealed much more than his talent for the subject. Coimbatore is an educity but only a handful among the educationists take up the creative cudgels on behalf of the students and Rajini Krishnamurthy, the Founder of Vidhya Niketan is known for her commitment in this regard.
Mohammed was happy to share the details of his journey from his home at R.R. Layout, “My first experience with theatre began while I was in my seventh standard and it was connected with the thoughts of Subramanya Bharathi. I watched the performance of Yoga Japee of Chennai from the AV Room of our school for the programme was not meant for students of my age. Thereafter the workshops connected with theatre in our school were a big boon for me”.
In fact, prior to my ninth standard, I had plans to become a doctor! I owe a lot to my school Correspondent Rajini Krishnamurthy madam for she was pretty early to identify my skills and gave me the allowance to pursue it even while at school.
Our ' VNS Theatre Club ' participated in the National Level Science Drama Festival during the times when I was in my tenth standard. It was really tough to get to the finals at Kolkata for just 8 teams from across the country came up to the highest level. Our team stood first in the district and in the state. Ours was the only English play and therefore it faced a lot of ridicule then. After beating the teams from 32 districts in Tamilnadu were thrilled on becoming the first in the South Zone while getting evaluated at Bengaluru. The programme at Kolkata was an eye opener for we could interact with the best talent and the workshop for all the participants was an amazing input for each one of us. Later on, we went to New Delhi too and Rajini madam accompanied us to the capital. Thanks to our school infrastructure and the approach of the management, we won all the events connected with theatre at all times."
Mohammed is really lucky to have the support of his father Elias, a table tennis veteran and mother Rashida who was part of the theatre group at Nirmala College.
It was a pleasant surprise to learn that Christ University is the only institution in our country to offer this kind of a course with a triple major.
Mohammed further enriched the chat by sharing some more facts, “Well, it was the place to be for we were offered western classical drama, English literature and psychology. Of course, music and dance were part of the core. I want to pursue my postgraduate programme from the National School of Drama in New Delhi and one should have worked on at least six productions in order to be eligible. However I have worked on much more productions and many thanks are due to my teacher at Christ, Ms. Esther Yates whose guidance was of great help.
“Her expertise opened up many vistas for students like me and Amrith Jayan (another one from Vidhya Niketan, Coimbatore) at Christ. Naseeruddin Shah and his works are of great interest for me and Samuel Beckett's ' Waiting for Godot ' was another great inspiration. The general trend in India is to have an inclination towards western drama which kind of uses English words in a proclaiming manner. The focus is more on the spectacle than the content. Thanks to Christ and its infrastructure for it really has helped us to experience theatre and share it in an appropriate manner. "
The experiences handed over at Vidhya Niketan through progrmmes and the constant training from Yog Japee had given Mohammed a big head start and thanks to all this he had learnt more than 60 % of what others learnt at Christ from Coimbatore itself. He has really scored well in his plus two in spite of his work with the theatre and he thanks the Indian system for giving him the route. Mohammed is sure to do a doctorate in theatre and he wants to set up a theatre company at Coimbatore in the future. “I am keen to have an expansive knowledge of the theatre and want to kick start the theatre culture in a big way in Coimbatore. You see, I should give something back to Coimbatore for its here that I had acquired the interest and skill. Theatre is ultimately the mimicry of real life and if you are good at it, your life will be good too. India is blessed with the oldest theatre tradition, thanks to Bharata Muni's Natya Shastra. Its 6000 verses make it incredibly interesting."
Mohammed. E. Lehry is keeping himself busy at Coimbatore this summer. He is having a theatre workshop, ' Do Theatre ' between the May 7- 13 of May 2018 at the Cosmopolitan Club.
In addition to this programme which will be restricted to about 20 participants, Mohammed is going to be doing a play at the Kasthuri Srinivasan Auditorium on the 3 rd. of May, 2018. “The play is titled ' Man and Dog ', is based on Indra Parthasarathy's English translation of a Tamil work by Pasi. There are just three people in the play and all the three of us are Christ products. Tharun Kapoor will join Amrith Jayan and myself. We will not take the aid of microphones for this show which will last about 50 minutes in all. It’s basically about ideology and how a certain ideology can take over the life of a person. One has to realize the influence and should try not to get taken over. It will have a mix of the theories of Karl Marx and other theorists. While the joiner is political satire, the style of the play is absurd. It’s our production and whatever production I curate, I go by the following principle - The purpose of theatre is to make the comfortable uncomfortable and the uncomfortable comfortable, " stated the determined theatre person - Mohammed.E. Lehry.
The theatre guy has a fancy for the absurd and his list of achievements include awards and certificates connected with karate, art, elocution, basketball, archery among other things and he was also the SPL (School Pupil Leader). He truly believes that works like ' Man and Dog ' came from a need to localize the situation while bringing human mind and nature to the center. Of course, the champion has won the best scriptwriter award. There are a lot more to come out for Mohammed for he has a lot up his sleeve. After a nine-year experience in theatre, with more than 20 productions, designing light for 10 plays, providing vocals for 3 choirs and directing a couple of them in places like Chennai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Madurai, Mohammed. E. Lehry believes that Theatre is all about having fun. Just like life.