"Resting in peace" staged at Khar, Mumbai on 4.9.2022

The biggest punishment

 

Love is made to end in infidelity. That's well! But the moot point is what kind of most tortuous punishment should be meted out to the rival who snatched out your love. This play centers upon the crux of issue of infidelity saga. 

The spirit of Savio rises from his coffin and participates in an unstructured symposium on love life. Two other spirits Jimmy and Edward who have also been spurned in their respective love saga are there to participate. All the three storm-beaten souls share their unsuccessful experiences in love-ventures when they were alive. Ultimately, Savio is allowed to fulfil his last wish in this after-life phase. And what can be more cherished for a love-burnt vanquished soul than to devise a prolonged tortuous death of the love-adversary. The question arises here what can be the ways to implement this. Should the rival lover be first amputated mercilessly and then be tortured through the improper medical treatment in the hospital leading to watch himself helplessly to be poisoned forcibly to death? Something like this is one of the ways they ponder upon. They contemplate a lot of methods to give the maximum torture and for the longest duration. What plan they actually work out can be seen in the theatre.

Avirat Parekh has let the actors perform in a no-holds-barred manner and yet come out with a coherent progression of actions. Among three characters Savio maintains a normal degree of acting and between Jimmy and Edward one is calm and other is overly reactive. It means, all the three degrees of acting - positive, comparative and superlative are under operation at a time by the innovative director Avirat Parekh who is also the author of the play. Arjun Tanwar, Vishesh Arora and Kashish Saluja have done their best. To complement the anthology of love there was also a lady actor who too did justice with her character.

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Review by - Hemant Das 'Him'

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"Patna ka Superhero" performed by D for Drama at Versova (Mumbai) on 27.8.2022

 The more unbuilt you are the more it bangs!

Your substance of life does not actually lie in the happenings but around the air surrounding them. A hero is just an other man without an air of being something very very dreadful. D for Drama's play "Patna ka superhero" was performed at Creative Adda, Versova, Mumbai on 27.8.2022.

The story is around the air of dominance swaying deep into the social fabric of an underdeveloped province like Bihar. Radhe, a student of 11th Class is the boss of his school. The students are under his awe. Suddenly a newcomer boy of just 9th Class challenges his 'heroism' by slapping twice in response to one slap he received. Radhe challenges this impudent junior one to face him at the sweet shop outside the school campus and surprisingly his challenge is accepted. How this thin-built boy later sobriqueted as 'Lappd' took the bull by the horns? What was the secret of his invisible force? These are the questions vexing the mind of Manoj a classmate of Lappad. 

Well, all his queries came to end when a superman type "Pintu Bhaiya" appeared at once at the pre-determined spot for war. Everyone including Radhe became meek before him and served him with samosa and cold-drink. Pintu Bhaiya accepted that all condescendingly and warned that Lappad was his protege so no harm should be done to him in future.  The subjugable mind of Manoj now dreams of coming nearer to Pintu Bhaiya so that everyone feels an awe of him. Somehow he succeeds in winning the patronage of Pintu Bhaiya by joining his team of followers. Not much later, on the basis of his sycophancy talent he makes inroads to the innermost coterie circle of Pintu Bhaiya and now feels like becoming a primeminister of some soverign king. 

One day, while taking round of his dominated territory Pintu Bhaiya suddenly came across a damsel in her sweet sixteen and  his heart was blown away at the very first sight. The girl was Swati Sinha, a 11th class student. Now begins the phase of standing below in front of her balcony every now and then. He even helped one of his henchman to open a tea shop just on that spot so to make it a regular hangout. He take to waiting there for hours to get a glance of the beauty of his one-sided beloved girl. Manoj helps Pintu Bhaiya in his love endeavours towards Swati like a Hanuman. whosoever else dares to stand there is beaten up severely by Pintu Bhaiya. The girl has several friends including a number of boys. And no need to mention that ultimately this forcibly pursued one-way love story of Pintu Bhaiya comes to it's logical end. But you will surprise to learn that all the details of love story mentioned so far is not the theme of the play.

The essence of the play comes in the climax which is in fact a severest anti-climax that can be thought over by any layman like Manoj. And to the surprise of viewers this anti-climax does not come from the side of Swati Sinha, it is from Pintu Bhaiya from where comes the greatest anathema of Manoj's fancy imaginations. It was really horrific! Can a superhero turn in such a persona and still the whole world is moving like the other day! Gosh! What a travesty! What in fact is surprising is the end scene and deliberately we are not going to divulge that here.

The whole play is a cocktail of script and acting. More than half of acting has already been done in the script itself and the actor had just to take it to a grand finesse! The colloquial dialogues take you to the innermost street of a far-flung stretch in Bihar. The storyline was just a Bihari' mode of the fairytale that lies on all's mouths while they are in their sweet 'teens' - a hero and a lovely youthful girl. What was stunning was the chasteness of 'Bihari-pana'! The more unbuilt you are the more it bangs!

Ghanshyam Lalsa made it possible to live all the characters  himself changing intermittently the whole gamut of body-language and voice-modulation! I already mentioned that the writer had already done half of the acting with his colloquialism and mohallewala storyline. This was Nihal Parasar who penned all the stuff and also directed the play. Kunal Sharma was on lights and music was by Harpreet. The other guys and gals behind the stage were Divyendu Saurabh, Sumitraj Yadav, Padmaja, Robin Patel, Kuldeep, Prerana and Mithil.

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Review by - Hemant Das 'Him'

Send your response to - editorbejodindia@gmail.com OR hemantdas2001@gmail.com

"Realistic Theatre & Academy" presented plays "Shadi ka dhamaka" and "Aarushi ko ek mauka to do" in Mumbai on 07.08.2022

She can handle more than just homemaking

Two small plays titled as "Shaadi Ka Dhamaka" and "Aarushi Ko Ek Mauka To Do!" were staged on 7 August, 2022 (Sunday) at 6 pm at Piroja Studio, Vile Parle,  Mumbai.

The storyline of the first play is like this. Tinku and Bulbul love each other, and things go smoothly for their marriage till Bulbul's wish to create a 'dhamaka' in their marriage. This wish makes the world upside down for them. Will they be able to get married? This can be watched in their hilarious play "Shaadi Ka Dhamaka".

Their second play was a social drama named "Aarushi Ko Ek Mauka To Do!". It is a story of a newly wedded homemaker lady who is determined to do something more than mere homemaking. She faces a lot of challenges and ultimately all discomfitures give way to her determination and courage and she wins. Both the presentations were written and directed by Vipul Patel and the actors were Harry, Snehal Kharat, Pramod Gohil, Nishanthi Evani, Bhavesh Yadav and Vipul Patel.

The audience enjoyed both the plays. They laughed loudly in comedy scenes of the first story "Shaadi Ka Dhamaka". The different characters played by the respective actors as "Tinku" by the artist Harry were liked. They could relate to the current social milieu as faced by a newly married lady in second story "Aarushi Ko Ek Mauka To Do!". There were certainly some scope of improvements at certain points in terms of acting and other forms of presentations.

Call/ Whatsapp: +91 9967309604
Realistic Theatre and Acting Academy
Venue: Piroja Studio, Vile Parle East, Mumbai, India.
Website: www.realisticacting.com
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Article - bejodindia.in team

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Craftsman performed the Hindi play "Sone ki chidiya" in Mumbai (Versova) on 21.8.2022

 Love-story of thieves 

"How was the taste of the mutton yesterday?" 

"So yummy!"

"O yeh! The persons staying in your adjacent room had also not paid the room rent for last three days  and we were able to provide you the meat ..."

"Kindly tell me how many kilograms you people weigh to that we may add that much of meat in our menu for the next day"

And everybody was rolling on the floor laughing.

Though the Azadpur village of this play is totally aloof from any of the grand democratic countries, it had not succeeded in saving itself from the most rampant feature of 'azadi' that is corruption. The whole lot of working class living in the precincts is fully immersed in corruption. Here "under the table" system rules the roost. All of the policemen, journalists, judges, doctors and businessmen are deeply involved in corruption.

Everyone gets very scared by the news that some  from a grand democratic country are scheduled to visit to their village. They know very well that politicians who have higher corruption capability can pose big problems to them. Now the question arises who will bell the cat. After a lot of deliberation it is decided that a journalist and a businessman can be sent to negotiate with the incumbent political leaders who were staying in a hotel. When these two men go to the hotel they think the two thieves as the politicians and try to gratify them by any means. Someone let his wife and other let his daughter meet these thieves.  The thieves enjoy the flirts of young women. Ultimately it is open that the two merry-making two men are just thieves and not politicians. And then what happens can best be learnt while watching the play.

The Hindi adaptation by Nirmal Roy is excellent and you can hardly guess that it is just an adaptation of a play by a foreign writer. The director Majee Ashok has put it on the stage deftly. All the actors were young but were able to show their mettle. One of the thieves who was trying to hide his face from the havildar who with his "aapko pahle bhi dekha hai kahin" dialogue had been troubling him consistently each time he came across. That thief gave superb delivery in terms of facial expressions and dialogues.  His girlfriend also charmed everyone with her flirts. The other theif also did justice with his role but the scene in which he is genuinely trying to save his (manly) modesty was superb. And there was her girlfriend who was adamant with her coquetry to outrage the modesty of the man in an all-out approach. She put it well.  The dancer man with lady's garments stunned everyone with his springiness in body but also with the presentation of feminine finicality in the body-movements. The bearded men in Muslim attire also gave a fantastic performance. All other male and female actors did justice to their characters. The names of the actors were Abhishek, Akhilesh, Aman, Ansh, Arpita, Bhavesh, Deepak, Jayam, Nisha, Pankaj, Vikash and Vinay.

So, it was really a meaningful and interesting performance.
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Review by- Hemant Das 'Him'
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"Ek room rasodu"- Gujarati play staged in Mumbai (Chowpaty) on 14.8.2022

The significance of a dying old man

"Ek room Rasodu" means One Rook Kitchen aka 1RK was the title of the Gujarati play which had been directed by "102 Not Out" and "O My God" fame movie director Umesh Shukla. Nobody among your near or dear ones is worthless. And the guardians who raised you to your present stage can not be discounted upon or treated as unwarranted one? Even though being replete with tickling scenes the script has actually touched the raw nerve of the whole middle-class society. 

Let me talk about one of it's show that was performed in Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan, Chowpaty in Mumbai. 

Because the whole play was in Gujarati I could not follow the story fully but am trying to present a synopsis. The headman in the family is old, sick, bed-ridden and living on the support of catheter. Surely, his persistent illness might have been a financial drain for this indigent family. All the members are fed up and even while taking full care of the old man are also waiting him to die. They think that it's only possible after the departure of that old man that they would be able to buy a flat for themselves.

The young man goes to the temple. There are pieces of fantastic sequences with a priest, a debonair lady, some goon-type person. He is also seen frequenting a tea-shop. He also seeks advice of a fortune-teller who predicts the date of death of the old sickly family head. Interestingly, on the predicted date of death, the TV journalists stomp into his house with all tantrums of a showbiz. You wonder whether happening a death of a person is a gala event for others! Though you will surely burst into laughter in this scene, actually the underlying tragedy of devalued sensitivity is unfathomable. Ultimately, it becomes crystal clear that it is only because of the sickly old man that the young couple and others are able to sail though the storms successfully before owing a flat. How, this I am not going to reveal here, to let you keep your interest in watching the play aflame.

The most wonderful thing about this play is that it is based on a true story. Moreover the melody used in it is live music only. The acting of the whole cast was immaculate. To cite one of such, the young wife playing hysterical scene was unparalleled. The characters of young man, his wife, the flat-seller couple, the old sick man, his wife, children, the goon-man, the priest, the debonair all did full justice with their respective character to make the whole presentation a memorable one.  

The frequently changing set-designs were nimble and impressive that created the accurate atmosphere of the different scenes. The actors Jayesh More, Riddhi Nayak Shukla, Pravin Nayak, Neha Pakai, Ved Shah, Kamlesh Oza showed their mettle in natural comedy. It was produced by Sparsh productions. It was by the virtue of a tight script of Jayesh Mehta that every spectator remained alert throughout the show. Apart from giving the supreme credit of the presentation to the director Umesh Shukla he should also be praised for using the advanced version of changeable solid background screens.

After watching the play it can be said that a poetic justice has been done in the script and monetary justice with the audience.
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Review by - Hemant Das 'Him'

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