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The problem with a lot of our Indian actors is that they tend to follow whatever they watch in the Tamil movies from India , says local artist figure Sabera Shaik.

The problem with most Malaysian actors? They don’t train.

TRAINING is like bread-and-butter for an actor. Without it, he is simply a fool who “struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more”. The Bard could not have put it any better.

Unfortunately, training, as crucial as it is, is something that suffers the worst blow in the life of an actor. It is often forgotten, sometimes morphing into an afterthought or worse still, it is abandoned and neglected, like that milk in the refrigerator, which curdles and turns sour in the passage of time.

This scenario is nowhere else more true than in our very own country. It is not like Malaysia is suffering a talent-drain. We have very capable and fantastic actors, both on stage and the silver screen. However, many of them lack the theoretical and practical grounding of the enterprise of acting.

Oscar Wilde once said that theatre is the greatest of all art forms. But how can any art form thrive and reach the heights of greatness and inspire awe if it is not trained and girded with knowledge? Does not the knife lose its usefulness if it is not flinted?

All you have to do is turn on the idiot box and watch a Malaysian drama or visit any of the theatres and you will see the uninspired decisions some of the actors make, often resulting in a gut-wrenching experience for the audience.

This situation is no more prevalent than in the local Indian scene, where more and more fledgling actors grow up with the influence of Kollywood. Their performances are mere copycats, where melodrama and exaggeration of emotions are a norm.

The cure for this “disease” is undoubtedly training … earnest training. Veteran director, scriptwriter, actor and activist of Indian theatre and films, S.T.Bala organised a three-day acting workshop for theatre, television and film, targeted at Malaysian Indians.

The workshop focused on acting theories, physicality and vocalisation, to name a few. With a total of five sessions, the workshop, which was held at the Ancasa Express Hotel from May 31 to June 2, was a collaboration between Persatuan Seni Pentas India Kuala Lumpur and Finas (National Film Development Corporation Malaysia).

The workshop saw 13 enthusiastic Indian thespians-to-be gathered with one goal in mind: To gain as much insight as possible about acting and enhance their skills. After all, some of Malaysia’s theatre world’s biggest names facilitated the sessions. What gems and rubies they gathered from the likes of Mano Maniam and Sabera Shaik, whose latest musical Chow Kit Road! Chow Kit Road! performed to rave reviews.

Thomas Anand George, 28, one of the eager participants of the workshop enthused that acting has always been a passion of his but held a myopic view of it before attending the workshop.

“But after attending it and listening to Mano and Sabera, I realised that the basic, intricate details of acting are often overlooked by our actors and these are the most important elements to make a movie or performance good,” Thomas shared.

And these are the bane of our performers: Complacency and the I-know-everything mentality. Sabera, who helmed the physical element of acting in Day Two of the workshop, lamented on this scenario and claimed that Malaysian actors just do not train.

“This is the problem with Malaysian actors. They don’t train. You have to keep training. This can save a lot of time in rehearsals. A lot of our actors go into rehearsals and wait for the director to tell them what to do. That is the wrong attitude. You must be prepared with something to offer to the director,” Sabera told the participants, who were listening attentively.

Sabera, of course, walks the talk, having been in the industry, locally and internationally for nearly four decades! She shared that she trains three times a week, two hours per day, at her friend’s studio to keep her body fit and physically prepared.

Another participant, Punnagai Krishnan, 25, echoed Sabera and said for an actor, the learning process does not and must never stop.

“There is no limit for learning. You need to learn everyday. So, I wish more workshops like this are organised for us, to better ourselves and enhance our skills,” Punnagai, a planning executive, asserted.

In fact, some of the participants were architects, engineers and even a school clerk!

But the burning question that begged to be answered was this: What are the shortcomings of Indian actors in our country?

Bala spoke with the zeal of a crusader and did not shy away from the truth.

“The problem with a lot of our Indian actors is that they tend to follow whatever they watch in the Tamil movies from India. That is their point of reference. But what they fail to see is that some of the actions, emotions and most importantly the lingo of those actors cannot be subscribed here. Malaysian Indians have their own culture, specific to this country.

“So sometimes when there is a scene where an actor is required to cry after their character’s mother or father died, they end up adopting the over-the-top way of crying, rampant in these Tamil movies. Our actors need to understand how their character would react to the news of a death and bring in their own personality into it and not just wail like in the movies,” Bala opined.

Sabera agreed with Bala and warned Malaysian actors to move away from the over-the-top way of acting.

“When you are true to yourself, that is when you find your character. That is to say, you have to be true to what the character is, within what you have, within your own experiences and your own emotions. And then you will look at some of the Tamil actors and realise that he is actually overacting. So, I say it again, you have to be true to yourself, if not you are overacting,” Sabera articulated.

Both Punnagai and Thomas, who sells furniture, reiterated the importance of learning and training. They said no matter how good an actor is, he or she is never good enough and there are always “windows of learning and opportunities to gain”. Unfortunately, they said, the awareness of education is lacking and actors need to buck up and shed their arrogance.

“What can be done is get a group of actors together, form an ensemble and get them trained. Often times, actors join a production and once they are done with it, they are left alone until another opportunity rises. So, it’s important to have an ensemble and to keep training the actors.

“They (the participants) have an edge over the other actors in the industry. They can speak three languages, Malay, English and Tamil. Who has that kind of advantage? But they need proper and continuous training,” Sabera advocated.

The three-day workshop, now in its fourth year, ended on June 2, where each participant received a certificate from Finas.

The fledgling actors may have come with an empty chest but they definitely left the workshop with that chest brimming with treasures.

Acting requires passion and dedication but it cannot grow with just those. The only way to keep the flame ablaze is to constantly and earnestly engage in practice and training, never underestimating the power of learning.

And most importantly, an actor should never let complacency and arrogance to seep into their veins. That will be the greatest blunder they can commit.