A scene from the drama Photo courtesy: M. Srinath
in dummies drama ThanimAI (Story: Nithya Kaushik; Direction: Nithya Kaushik and Srivathsan), staged at Krishna Gana Sabha Aditya, a computer science graduate from IIT, and a fellow IITian Vivek (Karthik Bhatt) run a company that is about to launch an app that will help introverts find friends. On the eve of launch, an AI agent detects a bug in the app but doesn’t reveal what it is. Aditya has less than 24 hours to find and fix it.
He decided to work from home. The stakes are high for Aditya, as foreign investors express their displeasure over the last-minute glitch. Unfortunately, Aditya has difficulty concentrating on his work. His father Vishwanathan, a compulsive talker, arrives unannounced. Then a man comes looking for his wife Lakshmi, who takes care of the house, followed by a cable TV technician. And then there is a steady stream of visitors.
The play ironically highlights a paradox: a man creating an app to overcome loneliness is troubled by human presence in his own home. | Photo courtesy: M. Srinath
The drama depicted the paradox of the digital age, where everyone is connected through the Net, and yet many people experience loneliness. It is ironic that Aditya, who is passionate about providing digital solutions for human connection, is troubled by the very presence of people in his home.
The dialogues were sharp and kept the audience engaged with the technical details. Sridhar’s portrayal of Vishwanathan was so natural that it did not seem like a stage performance. You got a supernatural feeling peeking into Aditya’s apartment and seeing Sridhar solving the problems of the youth around him. He expressed well the anxiety about the work and the frustration at being repeatedly interrupted by visitors. Although Aditya’s app may have glitched, the play was executed flawlessly.
published – May 25, 2026 12:31 PM IST