A Journey on Time Machine – Five Point Someone

What if you were made to walk down the memory lane? Am I sounding that old or am I making you feel old? What if you were reminded about your college days? The eleventh hour exam preparations, absconding from class and taking refuge in cinema halls, smoking pot on the hostel terrace, falling in love with your HOD’s daughter and showing up for class half intoxicated, stealing exam papers. These were a few sequences in the play staged by Madras Players an adapted from Chetan Bhagat’s “Five Point Someone”. Nostalgia crept in after along time and it really made me crave for the halcyon days.

Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but life is a comedy when seen in long shot. Those were the words of the famous comedian Charlie Chaplin.

The play made me sit back, reminiscent and enjoy my college days. Call it chewing the cud or laugh at the comedy in retrospect, it only made my heart lighter at the end of the day filled with deadlines at work.

The story is about the three Musketeers – Infectious Ryan, the infection Harish, and nincompoop Alok – the three room mates’ journey at IIT Delhi. Ryan is the care free type who doesn’t give a shit about exams, and professors, Alok the over weight kid who sweats from eyebrow to groin with the mere utterance of the words exam and assignment, and the Harish is the pendulum who swings from between Alok and Ryan. Their personality traits are brought out in the very scene before and after their semester through out the story. Since I had not read the book till the end of the first semester I was not sure why the book was named “Five point someone”, but then it all became evident when the trio trying to beat/cope up with the grading system.

The script brings out clearly the fear inculcated in our education system. The fear from failure in semester exams and fear of not getting a decent job apart from financial and emotional responsibility at a very young age pushes students like Alok over the edge from the Hostel terrace. This makes us curse our exam system and society for its undue pressure and over expectations from the student community. Why does success in life have to be measured based on academic degrees?

What can bring spice to monotonous college routine, sadistic professors and pedagogical lectures? Well, Neha, the HoD’s daughter brings a whiff of fresh air to the story when our eyes just became cloudy. For once there is a romance scene in Indian play without a song. Harish and Neha’s love interesting develops a few more knots in the story and makes you move to the front of the seat. The plot becomes more tearful when the letter Neha holds from her brother Samir springs up in the middle of the play.

The tirade waged against Commerce graduates was hilarious. The dialogues and conversation with Harish’s alter ego brings out best in men and women when it comes to commitment. There is enough humor to keep us in our seats for two hours without wiggling.

All play no work policy of Ryan, Harish trying to impress the HoD for his daughter and Alok trying to care more for his family forces the trio to adopt unfair means in the examination. Professor Veera’s patronage was like the rain shower on a toasty summer evening. He brings back the lives of the three students on track and springs some hope in the story.


All in 5 lines: Promising Youngsters on the horizon
Ryan – the cool cat, Alok- the stress ball, Harish – the sweaty socks must be given a big round of applause. The 3 youngsters definitely made the audience relive and experience their college days once again. Rest of the crew was good, nothing exemplary. Props by Mahesh need a special mention. I have not read the book and hence I don’t know how much of justice was done to the original script, but as a stand alone theatre play FPS is definitely a must watch.


More about the novel: