"Circuit House"- a Marathi play staged in Navi Mumbai on 15.6.2024

 A rally of frenzied excuses

( हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए -   यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 52 देखिए )

A Minister is hanging out in a circuit house with a lady PA of the Opposition leader for a revelry. Just the moment they begin to enjoy their good time, a spoiler comes. A spy sneaked into the house with the sinister intention of exposing it all. The things worsens when the spy in an attempt to hide himself, completely gets strangled in the window pane and dies. When the minister finds the dead body under his window he is too scared so he calls his PA and asks him to come and solve the tricky situation. When the Minister's PA comes to the circuit house, his (PA's) wife makes a call to the circuit house which is picked by the minister. Till now the nosy waiter of the circuit house has smelled some rat in the relationship of the lady and the minister so to give him a plausible reply the minster tells him that the lady (PA of the Opposition Leader) is the wife of his friend (his PA). So now when some lady asks the minster over phone why a lady's voice is coming, he says the same thing that she is the wife of his PA. But then he suddenly discovers that the caller on that side was the real wife of his PA. So after a while PA's real wife also enters the circuit house to take revenge on her so-called co-wife. 

In the meanwhile, the lady PA's husband also reaches the circuit house searching his better half. And as it be an icing on the cake, the minister's wife also reaches the spot when like an alert wife she comes to know that her husband did not turn up to a meeting and has gone to the circuit house for some other purpose. Now it is not only the minister but all the three present there namely the minister, his PA, the opposition leader's lady PA are all at their wits end. What ensues is a series of prompt improvisation of excuses and false stories. The Marathi knowing audience can have fun here up to the brim.

So, the audience relished the travel through the mess of doubts and excuses. As it reached towards the climax, the cobweb of purposes of presence on the spot left everyone bemused. 

It was primarily the wonder of the playwright Gautam joglekar. The adept director Vijay Kenkare succeeded in taking it out fully. Those who proved their mettle in acting were Sanjay Narvekar, Ganesh Pandit, Ankur Wadhave, Pramod Kada, Namantar Kamble, Krisch Chaturbhuj, Madhuri Joshi, Savitri Medhatu and Sushma Bhosale. The actor who played the Minister gave the incredible performance in terms of his lithe body language and mimics. The spy remained mostly like a dead body as required but whenever he acted he succeeded in stealing his share of the show. The set-design was pragmatic and marvelous.

The height of nonsense humour was really a thrilling experience for me who witnessed it's class.

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Review by- Hemant Das 'Him'

Send your feedback to- hemantdas2001@gmail.com / editorbejodindia@gmail.com

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"Tax Free"- Hindi play performed in Pune on 9.6.2024

 Relishing every bit of life

( हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए -   यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 51 देखिए )

If you are already bearing the toughest pain of life then it's much easier for you to experience happiness in trifles. But is it so easy? Of course, if you are inclined to relish every bit and every twist and turn of your life.

An advertisement is floated  by a Blind Men's Club for inducting other members. Kale choses to join. Just he enters the club he falls down because the further part of the platform is steep 5 ft deep. And mind it, it is deliberate. There are three hosts in the blind club one of them is the manager of the club. All have become blind in some later stage of life. They smoke, they dine, sip tea, tease and dine together. The laugh, they ogle and suddenly there is a ghastly scene of murder. 

The play has been scripted by Chandrashekhar Phanasalkar and was directed by Megh varn Pant under the banner of Natyalay, Pune. The actors did well especially ones who played the roles of Manager, Kale and the body builder. The fourth actor performed well in terms of body movement but dialogue delivery part should improved more.

Enjoyed this famous play with my elder brother and Bhabhi.

...

Report by- Hemant Das ' Him'
Send your feedback to - hemantdas2001@gmail.com / editorbejodindia@gmail.com

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"Pakitmar Rangmandal" - Hindi play performed in Versova (Mumbai) on 19.5.2024

 Who is the real pakitmaar?

( हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए -   यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 50 देखिए )

"The real pakitmaar is not who picks pocket but one who lacks sensitivity for the deprived class." The playwright Asghar Wajahat has depicted the fact in his play "Pakitmaar Rangmandal". The way it was presented by the Third Wing Theatre at Veda Factory was a perfect blend of melodrama and realism. 

A young man is a pickpocket and is pursuing his profession religiously and picks the pocket of a vendor by diverting his attention to a beautiful lady. This man is on cloud nine and comes across a man who threatens him that he has noticed his mischief and would get him caught by the police. The young man is scared and surrenders before him. That threatener assures him to forgive subject to the condition that he would join his theatre group and quit pickpocketing. The young man agrees for it but discovers that his own pocket had been pickpocketed by the same presumptuous guy who had threatened him to take to police. Later he learns that his group is made with all such persons only and the name of the group is "Pakitmaar Rangmandal". In his group all the members were either from poor class or were some sort of destitute earlier. So they joined the theatre group to earn their livelihood in a socially acceptable manner.

But members of "Pakitmaar Rangmandal" who were mostly from a criminal background did not know that the bigger crimes are committed only by the so-called white-collared class. And this is the reason when their play is ready after 3 months of rigorous rehearsals, they are denied the auditorium just because the name of their group does not sound well. The so-called civilised auditorium managers would allow to use their hall only to the group who ostensively look good. But the founder owner of "Pakitmaar Rangmandar" would not concede to change the name for a better one as it is related to their earlier past and they love they love every part of their life. After a lot of extra effort one hall manager agrees to allow their hall for this group but on double charge. So, here Asghar Wajahat has shown the duplicity in the character of so-called civilised class. How can extra charge remove the stain of bad name? Half amount is paid and the hall is booked.

Just before the day of performance the hall-manager asks for full payment and the theatre group is in short of Rs.5000. And the niggling hall-manager is adamant on canceling the booking. As large number of tickets had been sold the group director has no way but to go for pickpocketing his old profession for one night. He is caught by the police this time. What happens after this, this should be watched in the real performance of the play.

The script moves in a very realistic scenario but in between it takes help of some melodramatic effects as in the flash-back of real life scenes of goons attacking the girl and saved by a protagonist member of the group. In another scenes, there are some romance between the a young male and a female member of the group. To enthrall the audience there are scenes of popular songs and dances too. As a whole the whole play is mix bag of full entertainment and a natural comment of morality.

The music of Durgesh Atwal did a real music with the director Gaurav taking good dancing steps from the actors. The old woman, the founder of Pakitmaar Rangmandal, the young pakitmaar made a noticeable dent through their acting. The young lady and other actors were also up to the mark.

Watching this play was a satisfying experience for me and even the more satisfying thing was meeting with the renowned national playwright Asghar Wajahat.
...

Review by- Hemant Das 'Him'
Send your feedback to- hemantdas2001@gmail.com / editorbejodindia@gmail.com

(Note: The group is requested to send the names of the artists to the above personal email ID so that they may be added in the review.)

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