BARFF - HINDI

Saurabh Shukla's 'Barff' is about the distinction between truth and faith.

About The Play: Dr. Siddhant Kaul is visiting Srinagar to attend a medical conference. His taxi driver Gulam Rasool, requests him to treat his ailing child. Upon arriving at the village, Doctor gets shocked as there is only one house and the rest of the village is deserted

Language: Hindi
Cast: Sadia Siddiqui, Sunil Palwal, and Saurabh Shukla
Writer & Director: Saurabh Shukla
Length: 90 minutes

VENUE: CHOWDIAH MEMORIAL HALL, BANGALORE
DATE: 13th JANUARY 2019

My Review:

A play that raises epistemological questions of truth, belief, and justification.

Although I watched it 9 months ago, the impact is still lingering on and I am guilty of not writing the review all these days. So today, I decided I must write what I feel about it.

The play is about a doctor who is asked to help his driver in the Kashmir Valley on a Wintry Night. What began as a simple conversation between the Driver and Doctor slowly built-up a lot of drama and ended provocatively raising a lot of philosophical questions. Having said that, the format is neither preachy nor philosophical, it's more drama and thriller. Things are not explicit, they are subtle and layered and that's the best thing about the play.

The writing is impeccable, it's very organic and fluid. Never did I feel that something big is going to happen till it happened. The events were as natural as they can be. It showed the vulnerability of humans, the thought process of a common man, the trepidation within each of the characters.

The set was beautiful, it was a single set with two places shown by shifting focus lights, but the simple setup was enough for this spine-chilling drama. The chills come through the writing and acting and not because of the props or set and that was wonderful again.

"What we see is not truth but what we believe is" - this is the essence. The core of the play is about questioning the faith, the belief of each one of us.

This dialogue summarizes the play

"Duniya ke saare Sach, Yakeen par khade hote hain. Aap Yakeen karke dekho, Sach apne aap ban jaata hai. Varna Sach….apne aap mein kuch hota nahi hai, Janaab!"

It's a fabulous, one of the most intriguing and highly intimate plays I have ever seen. Thanks to Saurabh Shukla for giving us a worthy time. Watch the play to believe it whenever you get a chance.

WHAT'S DONE IS DONE - ENGLISH

Rajat Kapoor's 'What's Done Is Done' is Macbeth without bloodshed and full of laughs

About The Play: This is William Shakespeare's Macbeth set in a world of clowns.

Language: English
Cast: Cast: Ranvir Shorey, Tillotama Shome, Kalki Koechlin, Sheena Khalid, Sujay Saple, Jim Sarbh, Vinay Pathak
Director: Rajat Kapoor
Length: 2 hours
Writer(s): William Shakespeare & Rajat Kapoor

VENUE: SHILPA KALA VEDIKA, HYDERABAD
DATE: 13th FEBRUARY 2017

My Review:

I must say, I had great expectations but this was a bit of a letdown due to technical issues (mainly sound)

Despite having such a great cast, this play had a lot of moments where there are dialogues that are inaudible. It's a technical issue but it took the life of the play itself. This is a black comedy and the comedy mainly came from Julio and

Doesn't do justice to being featured in a 'comedy festival'. Very few comical elements. Poor sound quality in the auditorium. Dialogues were not audible, especially those of the three witches. Ticket counters were badly managed.

Of all the elements, I loved the blasphemy by Vinay Pathak at the end it was hilarious and extremely blasphemous. That's all I can say in this otherwise not so memorable play. It as too dull and dark and basically inaudible for the most part. So, in the 2 hours of play time, 45 minutes was loud and clear and it was mostly for comedy lines and not for the actual play of "Macbeth". 

THE VIRTUOUS BURGLAR (A PLAY) - ENGLISH

Dramanon Presents Dario Fo's 'The Virtuous Burglar'

About The Play: A burglar enters a house that he has been studying from the outside for days. Thinking he knows everything there is to know, he enters with absolute confidence, only to find out how wrong he was! Being on the inside, error-filled encounters with and among strangers unravels so much more than he can handle.

Language : English
Cast : Saurabh Sensharma, Vaishali Bisht, Rahul Premchander, Richa Jain, Shayontoni Ghosh, Adnan Hararwala, RK Shenoy
Director : Harika Vedula
Length : 1 hour
Writer : Dario Fo

VENUE : RTTC AUDITORIUM, HYDERABAD
DATE : 28th AUGUST 2016

My Review:

The play is about a burglar who comes to steal and is entangled in a cat and mouse game of husband and wives. Infidelity took the centre-stage and all others played their part.The first 15 minutes of dialogues were missed out by noise. I could not hear what was being spoken on stage properly. I owe this to the bad sound arrangement. Also, one of the lights was directly onto my face and I could not take that. So it was tough for me to sit through the play.

Of all, Saurabh Sensharma as Burglar impressed me. Others did their bit. I would be cautious going forward in going with hype and friends words. My friend hyped the play as if it is one of their best plays. To be fair, I have seen much better plays than this. I would rather forget this play. An average one. I could take nothing back.

The best part of everything about the play is the sketch of The Virtuous Burglar (as shown in the poster above) by RK Shenoy.

DEAR LIAR (A PLAY) - ENGLISH

The Hindu Theatre Fest present Dear Liar. Produced by Motley and Samuel French Productions.

About the Play: It's a play written by Jerome Kitty based on correspondence shared between George Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell between 1899 and 1939.


Language : English
Cast : Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah
Director : Late Satyadev Dubey
Length : 2 hours
Writer : Jerome Kitty

VENUE : RAVINDRA BHARATI, HYDERABAD
DATE : 21st AUGUST 2016

My Review:


Dear Liar, the play by Jerome Kitty dramatises the written correspondence between George Bernard Shaw (referred as Joey) and Patrick Campbell (referred as Stella). This is an excellent adaptation by two incredibly talented actors Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah who seem to have mastered the theatre in India. The dialogues, “Not Shah, Mr. Shaw.” by Naseer or “I am not older than 39 even though I have a daughter of 28, it happens in India all the time.”  by Ratna Pathak, were timely and brought in the native touch of Indianness. The performances were spellbound and sublime. I was wondering how they can remember each line correctly and enact with such precision. The exploration of characters and their relationship is memorable. There is not even one dull moment in the 2-hour play. Although, most of the credit goes to the writing of the play, yet to get under the skin of the characters and make them alive is a supreme achievement. I am thankful for these actors to choose a historical play and bring it to my city. Directed by Late Satyadev Dubey, the props are well placed; the usage is appropriate, and the improvisation is commendable.

I am grateful to Hindu, a newspaper which strives to keep our art and culture alive. I am a fan of the November Music Festival as well and now the theatre festival will be a part of my calendar

3 SHORT HUMOROUS PLAYS

It was a night where three humorous plays were played, here is the date time and venue.

Date - 29th (Friday) & 30th (Saturday) November 2013

Time  - 07:30pm

Venue -  Lamakaan

It was a night where three humorous plays were played, here is the date time and venue. Before I review each play, I would just give a briefing, which I received in my mail. 

"Yamdude"

About The Play - This play captures the unique trip of Yamraj (The Lord of death) to earth in order to collect the soul of his next candidate on the list, which leads to a `Hell` lot of confusion, miscommunication and global entertainment

Review : 

This was an interesting play, but I might have missed the interesting part, I got to know this, after a briefing with my actor-friend Rutwik. (Rutwik, played the role of Yamraaj in this play). The interesting part is that at one point Yam asks the guy who is considered as thief "Telangana Aayega Kya" and the guy responds "Baigan, mere ko kya pata". Now, these guys in English and is African, but only this line he utters in Hindi. So I wanted to know if it was impromptu or deliberate and got to know it was a deliberation. The timing of this was just immaculate. Overall, I liked a few parts of the play, and while others were there as if to fill time. I liked it, but cannot say I loved it. 

"Tamilian mismatch and marital twist"

About The Play- Tamilian Mismatch and the Marital Twist takes you along a story, which will show you the stark realities of female foeticide in our country and the after-effects. A Tamilian family where Maniyachi and his parents are worried about their Romba son`s marriage, while girl`s family has the privilege to demand orthodoxically, as per their whims and fancies.

Review : 

A short play that had a message. It's about getting a guy engaged to a girl. But here, the guy must listen to all the girl's parents and girl specifically say. Coz, it's a girl ruled land now. Acted well, specifically by the guy who played the groom, this play is good till the last minute. Only at the end, guy's father comes up with a speech to preach to the audience about the hazards of female foeticide. Except for that speech, which has already been said so many times in various forms, all the rest was good. Yet, I liked this one too just could not love it. 

"Ammi Bane Mother-in-law"

About The Play - Ammi Bane Mother-in-Law is a fast-paced comedy about a young man and his extremely loud-mouthed, Hyderabadi mother. She gives him a surprise visit as he tries hard to keep a dirty secret under wraps.

Review : 

This was the best play among the three and it was superbly written and acted. Naren Yadav stole the show in his role, as the son. And the actor who played Ammi is superb. Written by Naren himself, this play had some great lines. The setup was fun, the dialogues were funnier. To top that, the comic timing was perfect. It seemed, everything fell into place for this play. It went well. Yes, I loved this one. Also, credit to the girl who plays Naren's wife. She did her part well too. 

I apologize as I do not remember the character names. I can say this, it was an enjoyable night for me. Love being part of such plays. Wish to attend more interesting plays.

LOVE LETTERS (PLAY) - A REVIEW

Ballantine's in association with Dramanon presents Rage Production's "Love Letters " Starring Rajit Kapur & Shernaz Patel

VENUE : NOVOTEL, HYDERABAD 

DATE : SEPT 8th 2013

An engaging and enthralling play and I was very happy to have watched this.

It was like I witnessed lives of two people and indeed interesting journey. Love Letters written by A.R. Gurney is a play about the letters exchanged between Andy Ladd III and Melissa Gardner, over 50 years., The content of letters comprises of communication about their school, their relationships, marriage, children, divorce, art, politics and some of their missed opportunities and more importantly how they miss each other.

Directed by Rahul Da Cunha, the play uses music lighting and the setup intelligently and its a sight to watch. One can't put in words how intelligently they have used the boxes, that have become benched, beds, and even a cross. About the use of music, each song marked a decade from ues of 1940s to pop of 1990s it was wonderfully blended with the emotions of the characters.

Shernaz Patel plays Melissa Gardener who seems to be an artist on the losing side. The conviction she has brought to the role. It was just stupendous and deserved more than a special standing ovation.

Rajit Kapur play Andrew Ladd III and the way he got into the role like a chameleon changing hairstyles, makeup and becoming a kid, a sailor and an old senator in a performance that it's tough to be put in mere words. The play got a standing ovation and it deserved it. Now, I know got a reason why this play is successful and is being played for over 21 years and its a flagship play for RAGE productions. I hope many more performances by these two shall be done for this play. 

Coming to the writing of the play, this is a play in two acts and while I felt the first act was boring as it had too much information and less emotion, the second act was something that covered up the whole play and lead to an emotional climax. Now every life has to end with death, and as I always keep myself saying it's how you end up makes all the difference. I want to end up living a life, where I have enjoyed all I wanted, from food to home to car to relationships and same shall be the case with most. Melissa, due to her own choices ends up in a way we do not want anyone to and Andrew in a way which most of us aspire to. This contrast is what makes this an outstanding one. 

Also. I was very happy to see a nearly house-full crowd for this. Way to go Hyderabad and I wish there shall be more crowd pulling plays like these. A 4/5 for this. Liked it.

UNCOMMON DIALOGUES (SHORT PLAYS) - ENGLISH

DRAMANON Presents UNCOMMON DIALOGUES
VENUE : NIFT Auditorium
Date : 10th March 2013

An extract from the brochure provided with the ticket

About the Play : 

Two best friends talk about seeing the thing while two strangers want to end their lives on a ledge. He and She talk about it while a boss discusses outsourcing "it" altogether A businessman finds out what lemonade is worth, another man makes business out of death while a teenager wants to absolved.

MY REVIEW

In brief, UNCOMMON DIALOGUES is a collection of 6 short plays which have nothing in common and yet there is one thing that is similar in each, each one is witty in its own way. You can't say that they are comical or ironical but while a few of the 6 plays are, a few are not now let me detail each play and review it as I understood them.

ABSOLUTION

Written by William Reynolds and performed by Saurabh Sensharma as "The Father" and Abhishek Krishnan as "Robert D'souza", this play brings about a question as to what is a sin, what does absolution in true sense means. Can one be absolved of a crime by confessing in front a priest. Is murder a sin, or lying to priest for the fun is a sin. Now, Robert comes to Father and confesses he has killed someone. The Father who has not got any interesting confession in the recent past gets involved in the details of the murder so much that he confesses, his life is a big bore and there is nothing much to do. And then he learns that the kid Robert was just making it up and it was a lie, infuriated by this, he says lying to him is like lying to god and thus it goes forward.

Performed superbly by both the actors, this is one interesting play, that takes its time to get us engaged and then is resolved by the absolution. I loved it and it was a wonderful way to begin the evening

OUTSOURCED

Written by Gary Stowe and performed by Harika Vedula Stephen as "Katherine Landy" and Priyanka Dasgupta as "Paula", this is one of the most funniest plays of the evening I must say, as it made me laugh more than the above play did and never did I laugh so much in later plays. Now this play is about outsourcing rather, arranging someone to go for the 10th Anniversary date with Katherine's husband. Paula takes care of all the details in a typical corporate manner, right from what kind of lady she wants to what to do about the "night" after the dinner. So arranging an escort for a dinner is fine but to give room for someone else to even sleep, hmm, something to think about. I can divulge more details of this, but keeping it as a surprise, coz I wat to see it again and make others see this too.

It was detailed and intense, from the pen sound that is made when Katherine says "After foreplay, it's all": and the pen sound starts to symbolize what it is all about. So without speaking much, so much was conveyed and just to end by making us know that the husband had also arranged someone for our "Katherine"

The diction and the expressions of Harika were top notch and was superbly supported by Priyanka.

THE ARRANGEMENT

Here we have a kid persuaded by Father into an Arrangement of becoming a man and again a afunny piece of writing this. I am so absorbed to divulge the details but I am restraining myself from doing that.

Wonderfully performed by R.K.Shenoy as Father and Saurabh Sensharma as son and Harika, this one by Neil Simon has an irony of sorts, where the Father too is wooed in doing something he would have done when young and yet holds back. Now, before I say too much. I am shutting myself up and leaving the readers to please see it.

THE DROWNING MAN

This was a less interesting act, compared to all the above acts. This one written by Neil Simon again, who indeed is a master in writing irony superbly. Here too, the irony is revealed, or the double mindedness which leads to something uncalled for is known only after the final act of each play. Though it generally takes by surprise at the end, I was predicting the end as it seemed to be a school time parable stuff than a witty act of play. 

Saurabh Sensharma and Rohit Kumar came to the party and RK Shenoys brief appearance took audience into splits. It's tough to resist laughs when such humour is sprawled by such a fine actor in Shenoy. It was indeed good, but a tad below other acts.

HE/SHE/IT

A marriage is falling apart between He and She. The reason is simple difference of opinion. Two people talk and again as audience we are compelled to hear and indeed indulge and here have an opinion too. Such is the power of writing combined with compelling performances. This one by Jan Baross is one well written act. It's an issue that most of us can relate to, though many would not seek to do, what the couple here sought. Yet, it looks interesting to be trying to do something like this. Now what is interesting and what was done, go find it.

Thanks to Harika yet again for doing a wonderful job as She and she was complemented well by Prashant Yerramalli

SEEING THE THING

This came in and made me question as to how really things are, are they how we look at them or are they completely different and it's our perception after all. The above 5 plays were all that, and could have been interpreted in many more ways having deeper meanings, yet our narrowed view gives us a one dimensional look and that may not be the right thing. This was elaborated by John Cariani (from Almost Maine).

Performed by Priyanka Dasgupta and Saurabh Sensharma, this was the only act which seemed a bit longer than it really was.

Finally, thanks to the whole crew of DRAMANON for having come up with such simplistic backdrops and 2 character acts and proving yet again that if content is right, presentation and performances fall in place making it a must watch rather than a passable watch. Thanks to RK Shenoy, the Dramanon head for giving me such a wonderful evening.

It was night where I saw two bright stars shining high above and they were Harika Vedula and Saurabh Sensharma. 


A 4/5 for the acts put together and I would definitely make a point to watch this few more times and indeed with few more friends. 

DOMINIC WESLEY - PLAY REVIEW

About The Play:

Dominic Wesley is back on popular demand! One of Hyderabad`s most beloved plays, the crazy team of Dominic-Wesley-Wesley-Wesley is back to entertain with their tomfoolery and goofiness, engage you with their thrilling repartee and enlighten you with the answers to life`s great questions. Or maybe make you ask yourself some questions. The conflict between the right and the left brained and the great and the half-brained comes to life in this surreal drama.

Language : English
Genre :    Play
Cast & Crew : Rathna Shekar Reddy, Pankhi Gakhar, Dwij Vasavada
Director :Rathna Shekar Reddy
Length : 1 hr
Writer : Anjali Parvati Koda
Note : 10 years and above

VENUE : NIFT AUDITORIUM, HYDERABAD
DATE : 28th DECEMBER 2012

My Review:

So we are in the world of Dominic and he creates Wesley, his own secret a creation that is mechanical. Dominic is an artist who does the "Artistic" things. The Artist is in double quotes. It evoked a true expression where artists are succumbed to reality and to live as an artist is just not possible. Girlfriend needs money, Parents need their kid to be working and friends need parties from him. Life has become so very demanding that it is becoming tougher and tougher to merely survive. Now, in such reality, we have DOMWES, a surreal world that is so very fragrant of stark realities. Such realities that we mostly are not even bothered about.

How many times have we heard, "I want to be a musician" and it is followed by, "come on man, be real, take up a job, you are good but it will be great if you have a one at hand"

Dominic played by Rathnashekar Reddy is just a well-written character and Shekhar indeed has performed well. The Wesley 1 by Dwij Vasavada is again done well in character it's a contrast and the diction by this man is so very fine that we shall mostly fall in love with him and his enunciation.

I loved Wesley's line "It's not a cellphone, it's a smartphone" even such simple lines brought laughter and that is good.

Wesley 2 and 3 played by Pankhi Gakhar and Rutwik Upadhyayula have supported well.

This indeed is an entertaining 1 hour and I really wished it was longer with more elements. I appreciate Anjali completely who has written such a wonderful and a smart play that's surreal, symbolic and superb. Yes, it is original and that's the best thing, a good original play written by an Indian and I hope this play makes waves even abroad. Thanks Anjali for giving us such a gift this year end.

This is really entertaining and engaging and in it's own way humorous and fun. Go see it, if you want to see how our very own secret creation may destroy us. Rather how reality can destroy an artist. A 4/5 for this.

MIYA BIWI (A PLAY) - HINDI

About the Play :

Adapted from the original Marathi Play ``Shri Tashi Sau`` written by Yogesh Soman into Hindustani by Saurabh Gharipurikar. This is a story about a Hyderabadi couple going to court to nullify their nuptials by divorcing each other for the final time. During the course of funny incidents, they realize that after so many fights they cannot live without each other.

My Review :

One of the most hilarious plays I had seen, it rocked right from the word go with laughter. It had the audience in splits in each scenario. How does a wife cooks for husband, calling Maggi noodles as Chinese? How does a wife learn driving, getting off the scooter seeing her mother? How does the husband love, giving flowers to another woman? How does a husband take a wife to movie, forgetting the movie tickets? Does such things really happen.

I was perplexed with such scenes interlaced with an awesome writing and that too the hyderbadi dialect helped in many matters

Wife : Aji Sunte?
Husband : Sunaate?

The lingo just helped boost the already highly comical play to a higher level. I was told that it was directed by Krishna Shukla and am so very happy that this guy had done a great job.

I would recommend this play and if given a chance may be I will go for it again. Just loved it. A 5/5 for this

APRIL FOOL (A PLAY) - HINDI

About the Play:

April Fool pranks can be notorious... but truth can be uglier! How many of us have dealt with imprisonment of all sorts inside our own homes, where freedom of speech, freedom of thought & freedom as such is a rare entity. Hasn’t the world seen the most disturbing parental relationships, yet? The impact of a disturbed childhood is grave, not even close to what a non-victim can imagine! The story of four roommates (Anil, Ajay, Sirish & Rakesh) in a college hostel who plan to play a prank with their friend to pull his leg. The four boys have been together for a while now, they know each other pretty well. Three of them plan to tell Ajay that his father is here & waiting for him in the room. He is shocked, because his father never came to see him in three years. He rushes to the room to meet his father & finds out that there is nobody in the room except for his three prankster friends. He is irritated because they used a wrong topic to pull his leg. But the three friends do not back off and cause their friend to get angrier at his friends. 

My Review:

I wish it had a simpler climax than a dramatic one and it was a bit shorter than it actually is.

Actually acted well except for Rakesh who felt a bit out of place as he was too lean to be considered an athletic body, the others fit well. Ajay as Krishna Shukla, our protagonist was the show stealer as he brought out the whole play together by his acting. Be it humor or drama he went with the flow and at times, I as an audience was perplexed at his sheer execution of the drama. 

It was not as if it was for the first time, someone is doing some kind of this act and we had seen such acts before too, be it in films or otherwise. But the act still works as it engrosses the audience each time by belief and then fooling around with the belief. The audience knows it very well, that there is no character as his father, yet we are succumbed to know if there was any and is he seen by Ajay. It leaves us with a question at the end as to who is real April fool? Are we as audience or is Ajay as the protagonist or those friends of Ajay, who made a joke of April fool at Ajay. So it is commendable to hold that grip yet the play as a whole did not rise above the script and was just shown as written. 

I wish the writer directs the play well too or rather helps the director in getting more hilarious moments and placing them together. Please tone down the drama part and this would for sure make a good play to watch. As of today, it was more of passing time than a serious must watch.

FOOLS (A PLAY) - ENGLISH

About the play:

When young and earnest schoolmaster Leon Tolchinsky arrives to teach the people of Kulyenchikov, little does he know about the different sensibilities of the villagers (or the lack of it). A vendor who sells flowers for fish, a shepherd in search of sheep, a butcher sweeping dust back into his shop. The russian abode sure lies low on common sense. That the villagers are bunch of fools is certain.

Leon takes it upon himself to educate them and add some logic to their lives. But a special student awaits to be tutored before Leon can cater to the rest. To add to his worries he has limited time to do so. Else the consequences could be devastating. Will Leon have to do more than just a schoolmaster to the village? Will the shepherd find his sheep? Who is this 'special' student? Will the fools be foolish forever? 

My Review :

All those who are proud of watching this play, I am with you . This is great in terms of acting and as the writing of Neil Simon goes, few things can be improved. the Dramanon team has done a great job in getting things together and executing in a hilarious way. Rahul Ghosh was simply the star and the gorgeous Harika was his perfect heroine. Others chipped and I liked (Nikolai Zubritsky) RK Shenoy the most among others. All did their part well, and I just found Slovitch's accent a bit out of place. The acting is just perfect for all.

The dialogues are well done and so did the production, set design and costumes team, kudos to all. Technically too this was great, but a door was found missing for which the sound had to pitch in, good job guys in managing this too. It was surely hilarious and the best part was timing and spacing of dialogues, the tempo of the play was never lost though it had a break. It was like a feature film break and it would have been better off without any break. 

Good job RK Shenoy and all others who made this a fun watch. Kudos and am waiting for more such plays from Dramanon.

Yeah, surely  Stupidity brings life coz it brings fun and what a way to celebrate the Fools Day, thanks all for the gift you gave me.

THE CARETAKER ( A PLAY) - ENGLISH

An extract from the brochure, before I proceed with the review

On an autumn evening in London, Aston returns to his dilapidated apartment. With him, he has brought Davies, a homeless man who was involved in a fight on the streets. This unlikely pair struggles to understand each other, and as Davies gradually settles in and starts treating the place like his own house, tensions begin to rise. Mick, Aston's aggressive younger brother, initially sees this intruder as nothing more than a common thief. However, after both brothers offer Davies the job of caretaker, the situation becomes more and more intriguing.

The bottom line is "The Caretaker did not take care of the play well".

The caretaker played by Krishna Shukla did not seem to have deliver dialogues but just seemed to blabber. At times while shaking his legs and not knowing what to say and at times trying very hard to light a cigar pipe. I only wish he spoke well to convey what he wanted to the audience.

Directed by the UK based, Stu Denison his affinity and appreciation of language of UK and the way he wanted the whole accent to be UK English was very apparent and the actors tried too hard to stick with it. Specially by Krishna Shukla who was not so comfortable as I made out. Having said that, Tavish Bhattacharya as Aston performed exceedingly well and so did Rahul Premchander as Mick (Aston's younger brother).

Critiquing Shukla more, his body language seemed to have been trying to emulate the Charlie Chaplin's tramp and thus did not present an original Caretaker for me. Credit for extracting the way the actor performed must be given to the director, so I criticize Stu here.

Also, the sound design was not as good as yesterday's play "Being Eunuch". There were brief disturbances for good number of times and when the lights went off for a brief changeover, a music came which was not actually needed.

Having criticized Krishna Shukla and Stu, let me also appreciate Rahul and Tavish for their near spell binding performances. They were so very good each time they said a dialogue. Be it a lengthy monologue of Aston of how he became what he is now, or the kind of description and details that Mick shares, these two are seriously the best parts of the play.

As for the play, it's an absurd play or rather I will say, one that does not have a proper start or a finish. It's  characters too are extremely eccentric and so rare that most would never even encounter. But, the whole backdrop, the set in which the play takes place is very real. The set design was in fact very extravagant than needed, this could have been done by two beds and few things around instead of having a typical room is what I felt (but only after it got completed).

For nearly 2 hours, I did not even wink to see what I can make out of this play and trying to decipher what this play exactly meant, I could not take out a point. There were good things for sure but they were far too far for my comfort to call this even as a watchable. There were glimpses of the genius, like when Mick as Davies (rather Jenkins) his name and where he slept on repeatedly, but never a complete vision or sight of it.

I have no problem or inhibition about plays or movies that do not have a point as a whole, but to convey what each character wants to convey, let the dialogues be completely clear, to at least understand a few points. Specifically, dialogues by Caretaker have to be much clearer.

If other plays ended in a whiff, this seemed too long which I must confess is a reflection of how uninteresting the whole act was.

The most distracting thing was people popping out their SLR cameras to capture everything that went on stage. I hope the audience had better manners. Though cell phones were switched off for most part of this theatre festival, I could hear in this very play many ringtones, and even the crumbling of chairs, a real distraction.

Am happy to have watched these 3 plays and have learnt new things. Now, will make it a point to watch interesting or reputed plays.

BEING EUNUCH (A PLAY) - HINDI

Before I begin reviewing what I witnessed today, let me write a brief extract from the brochure I got about this play.

Eunuchs (HIJRAS) are castrated males or transsexuals or hermaphrodites who have been rejected by their families. The existence of Hijra's can be dated back to the 9th Century BC. The word derived from the greek meaning "keeper of the bed". Hijras often live in close communities, setting up their own "family" networks of motherhood, daughterhood and sisterhood. All identify themselves as females. India is the only country where the tradition is prevalent today.


Nishumbita presents a play that tries to highlight the plight and agony of being a eunuch and tries to answer few of these questions.

Coming to the play, it's driven purely by acting. Shanno Nayak (played by Keshav Deepak) simply rules the roost and is one of the best reasons to go and see the play. Terrific acting and terrific carry of emotion and great variations, you have to control and then immediately blast out on stage, that is in front of a live audience which is a real tough thing.

It's a concept that most would shy away from watching, because sadly we are still under preconceived notion of being accosted even when Hijras come on stage. It's a sad notion but what makes this a very emphatic play is it's script written by Late Krishna Madhav and superbly acted by all the actors.

Beginning with the Hijra's history then their daily life, it's a story of how Bansi becomes Mona, a guy becoming a eunuch. The reasons of why he becomes one are not shown or spoken about. He just tells that he wants to become one. The life of a eunuch, what happens when they get on road and how people try to get rid them as quickly as possible.

Bansi, a guy comes to Shanno Naik's territory and her own Lanka where Shanno is the Raavan and confesses that he wants to become a eunuch, she has a background and a promise to help her friend Laccho, accpets his appeal after deliberations by her own girls and then makes Bansi as Rani.
Meanwhile, the life of Shanno's girls is shown in glimpses as to how they are treated when they go to beg, what they generally talk about when together. Now, rani gets a match and before the wedding she has to go thru Nirvaan (cut the male thing out) and then become a complete eunuch. She is named Mona, a complete eunuch. After her marriage, she is betrayed by the man, but nevertheless, persuades Shanno's eunuchs to seek other things in life and stop begging and that changes their life. (this is just a briefing of the play)

Acting by Ravi Raj as Govindraju, who claims to marry Rani (the hijra turned Bansi) was something that was out of place  and in fact the only point where it was not apt in terms of acting.

And the monologue by Preeti (Krishna Chaitanya) was a terrific one that demanded applause.

A note about the sound design, it was very well done, from a song at beginning to the climax, it was all very well constructed. And yes, it was Warriors of Heaven and Earth for the climax and an interlude, but it was all well made up and was sync with the scene. So thanks for making me delve into my past.

A word of appreciation for the director for getting all these together.

Few questions, that I would like to know answers are

1) Preeti vows to Yellamma (the God of Hijras) that she will destroy the whole clan that Shanno Nayak has brought. But though the clan almost collapses, never was Preeti shown as a reason behind it. If it was not to be done that way, the why let Preeti take a very strong vow?

2) As I have said, there was no reason shown as to why Bansi wants to become a woman and rather a Eunuch but Mona (as Bansi has become Mona) comes all guns blazing at the society and blaming society for the sole reason for her becoming a eunuch. Mona calling the society as a "Fucking Society" was completely uncalled for. Was she telling that society was the reason for eunuchs becoming beggars (of a different kind) as society has disowned them, or is that society was being blamed for becoming the reason for a man becoming eunuch, some clarification please. There was no justification shown for "how has society turned an evil into making eunuchs out of men". In fact, I must state, that when Bansi was asked if she was turning a Hijra by her own free will (at the time of Nirvaan) she says an emphatic yes which means that she has become one by her own choice and not by any other reason. So why was the society blamed?

Despite the shortcomings, it's a play that has completely enthralled me and I would recommend a watch simply for Shanno Nayak's portrayal.

Now, coming to the writer, Krishna Madhav Holagundi (I heard of this name only today), of whom I got to know that he passed away on April 18th 2011. Though I had no idea of him earlier, he seemed so very close to me. My eyes just became moist and there were tear drops once I heard that he was no more. This is unreal, a feeling for a man, whom you knew just today and that too posthumously. He made a play that did not move me but surely made me happy. After watching, I just came out with a feeling of having watched a movie that I would remember for long.

BUSINESS IS WAR (A PLAY) - ENGLISH

I wish I had a snap to put here.

It's my first play I saw in my life. Can you believe it, I never saw a professional play till date. At least I can't believe this.

Now, Business is war is a comedy play about an Advertising Agency called Cut N Paste and how the leader of it, George wins over clients. Acted very well by George (don't remember who played it), this is a good play for sure but it has moments of sluggishness.  It's comical but not satirical, it's imitable and in fact a few scenes are inspired from our very own Bollywood film scenes. Like women falling to give a tiffin box each to George. Even a few dialogs are typically filmy.

Writing is good by Deepak Morris and so is the direction by Riyaz Usman. But if acted well and had a few scenes taken care this play would have a real wonderful treat.

Coming to the name "Business is War" only one symbolism was shown in a dialog but there is no interpretation of the play like a Business being shown explicitly and how it is made as a war. The conflict here is not between one company and the other but how to win over a client by doing anything.

Few things are not in scope of a Play like Cinematography or Dubbing or even there is no cut and a retake. It's all spontaneous and the more you rehearse, the better it turns out generally. I knew these things earlier but got to see them just today.

So it was a happy one hour but I felt it could have been so much better. Most importantly, it was done by Infosys, an Indian Software Company and I hope something like this comes out in my organization too.