Pelican Entertainment brought to the city the play, Namaste Jai Shree Krishna on 02.09.17 at the Pearey Lal Bhawan, New Delhi.
The play directed by veteran theatre and movie artist K K Raina who also enacts along with the irrepressible Ila Arun and ably supported by Aditi Sharma, Ashutosh Pandit and Abhishek Pandey is a hilarious take on the conflict between old traditions and the emerging values of the new generation.
It takes you skillfully and humorously through the continuous conflict of the old and the new. It takes you through the journey of the youth not ready to accept old ideologies readily and the old not accepting the progressive view point of the youth.
The play takes you through a gamut of emotions from philosophy to humor to laughter to sadness and nostalgic at times.
The cast deserves a special applaud for bringing on each and every emotion beautifully across. A really rivetting play which makes you laugh and think at the same time. And the best part is that you just can’t stop applauding.
A treat for the theater lover. Not to be missed at any cost.
Aditya Chauhan, CEO, Pelican Entertainment said, “Theatre is that moon in my past which will glitter throughout my life no matter what profession I pursue. It is something that will help you to explore your personality better and I guess this could also be the reason that people after doing theater even for once can never really get detached of it.”
The Mon-Key Shanti Theatre Festival by 3 Bells Productions truly came as something that provided me with a lot of man ki shanti. Spread over two days, it showcased 5 of the top plays of the country. I am glad that I managed to see at least 4 out of those 5. Day 2 on MSTF16 showcased ‘Uproute’(which I missed), ‘Dance Like a Man’ and ‘Massage’.
I cannot describe my experience of both these plays in one post and hence I am dedicating this post to ‘Dance Like a Man’ and would cover ‘Massage’ in the next post.
I am doing so because both these plays were very different from each other and yet similar, as they had a strong message to give out. They rendered me speechless and now that I have found my words, here is a gist of what I saw and what I felt.
We often assume that men aren’t the victims of gender discrimination, it’s only the women who suffer, but it’s not true. Men also go through the agony of proving themselves on the yardstick of masculinity. Mahesh Datani’s ‘Dance Like A Man’ portrays just that.
Mahesh Datani in ‘Dance Like a Man’ has very beautifully shown the Indian culture and the social issues that have been in the society since inception. The theme of the play revolves around ambition, career, relationships, family responsibilities and society, all against the backdrop of dance as an art form.
The play tells the story of three generations; Jairaj and Ratna, their daughter Lata and her finace Vishwas and also using the technique of flashback, Jairaj’s father Amritlal. Jairaj and Ratna have a constant conflict with Amritlal, who doesn’t understand their devotion to dance and more especially of Jairaj. As per him dance is made only for females and no respectable man will ever pursue a dance as his career or profession. He feared his son becoming womanly and hence it was unimaginable for him to see his son dancing.
Dance had different meanings for different characters in the play. For Amritlal it was only a hobby that too for women and men shouldn’t pursue it at all. For Jairaj, it was a form of self-expression, and he wanted to develop a career in it. For Ratna, dance was her ambition, she had these slight shades of grey in her character, like she married Jairaj only because he was a dancer, as husband and wife they didn’t share a very loving relationship. In fact she even joins hands with her father in law in destroying Jairaj’s career as a dancer in order to pursue her own dreams. Ratna not only curbs jairaj’s ambitions and desires by constantly misleading him, but also moulds their daughter lata into becoming a traditional dancer. Lata on the other hand, though passionate about dancing, but did not think of it as a means to earn money or fame. For her dancing was an art form that she loved pursuing as a hobby. She had a balanced mind unlike her parents. She was strong headed too, she wanted to marry Vishwas but did not want to give up on her passion for dance. In the beginning of the play itself she once asks Vishwas if he would allow her to practice dancing after marriage.
It’s indeed a beautiful play that touches hearts and brings in light the plight of our society and poses a question on gender discrimination. Datani has shown that not only women but also men suffer the burnt of gender discrimination and are not allowed to follow their passions if they aren’t accepted by the society. The actors are commendable. Each one of them seemed in the skin of the character. But a special mention for Gunit and Paras who played the roles of Lata and Vishwas and also the younger versions of Jairaj and Ratna. How comfortably they switched themselves from one role to another, it was a delight to watch. Also the director Prof. K.S. Rajendran’s control over the entire play is just amazing.
Prof. Rajendran teaches at the National School of Drama. He is a well known director of plays in various Indian languages.
His directorial work ranges from adaptations of Shakespeare, Brecht, Ionesco and Genet to contemporary playwrights and authors such as Omchery, Shankara Pillai, Shiva Prakash, Tendulkar, Alekar, Kambar, Indira Parthasarathy and Lalit Mohan Thapalyal, besides Sanskrit classics by Kalidasa, Bhavabhuti and Shudraka.
He has conducted workshops and lectured on theatre in India and abroad.
His noted productions include MARAT/SADE, UTTARA RAMA CHARITAM, GirishKarnad’s WEDDING ALBUM, MACBETH, AURANGZEB and VIKRAMORVASHIYAM.
If you have missed out on watching it this time, plus do catch up whenever the show happens next, I am sure you will love it as much as I did. I am thankful to 3 Bells Productions for organising such a great theatre festival and giving us an opportunity to witness something as beautiful and meaningful like this play.
As we are all aware after the hard grind at work during the week we all look forward to the weekend.To meet our friends and party away.
What generally ensues is long conversations between friends to choose a venue which is suitable to all and more so it has to pocket friendly too. Generally speaking all these pubs bars and restaurants today are frightfully expensive. So to find a decent place with reasonable prices is quite a task. Now here is where Myolo comes in with a refreshing concept of House Party.
Members are sent invites through social media and networking for the party which is held in a house.
The entry fee is 300/Rs for which a pint of beer is free.
For every subsequent beer you take it costs you Rs 99/.
They also have a sort of quiz at the bar and if you get the answers right the pint will cost you Rs 50/
They have a game called beer pong for which you can register and play.
The winner is entitled to free beer all through the evening.
The atmosphere is downright casual with some lounge sofas thrown in.
You don’t have to worry about dressing up just the shorts tees and comfy footwear will do.
What I mean is anything will do.
You get the chance to mingle and make new friends.
Now when we go to any restaurant pub or a bar there is no entertainment value available apart from large screen TVs.
Here is where Myolo scores big.
They have an evening spread out with great entertainment value. This as they fondly called was the Teesri Panchayat, the third evening in a live performance series events. The next Saturday will be the Grand Finale between those who have performed in the last three weeks.
You have a stand up comedy act and the one I attended was superbly done by Amar a stand up comedian.The act was specifically youth oriented and enjoyable.
Then they have an open slot for a five minute performance by budding artists.
This time it was another stand up comedy act by a young and upcoming artist Rishabh, which was commendable.
Then came the slot for some Sher-O-Shayari.
This was presented by Honeish Batra and I was quite impressed with the young fellow who had incorporated lot of modern day content into his Shayari.
Last but not the least there was a live musical performance by Prabhjot and he sang some awesome English songs, melodious and foot tapping too.
Lovely performances.
All this while you are lounging on the sofa a bottle of chilled beer in your hands with some chips and peanuts provided on the house.
Really a nice way to party with no hang ups .Just the cool casual atmosphere with friends all around.
For the young its the ideal way to spend your weekend with friends without hurting your pocket with entertainment galore.
About Myolo: Myolo headquarters otherwise houses an office of young team members who are working on a revolutionary dating app. They also hold some specific dating events and are coming up in a big way.
