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I went to watch this play for the sole reason being - it was a thriller/suspence play. Been sometime since I opted for anything but comedy. The story in brief is like this: There is a couple who plan in detail to cheat the law and become rich, by ( perhaps very common in the stories) cheating the insurance company. There is an inspector who sees through their plot and tries to take advantage of the situation. And then there is a final twist.

The set and lighting arrangements were detailed and good. The performances were okay but for one or two scenes in which they manage to excel. I could never approve of the third person’s acting - probably it was meant to be like that !  The lady often said wrong numbers - like she mentioned 8 months since marriage once and next time 6 months and like 50 thousand for 50 lakh - when the audience loudly murmured in a way of correcting her that it was Lakhs and not thousands. Lack of preparation or nervousness might have caused which was strange because she did some scenes convincingly - the one where she explains her interview with Inspector. 

The final “twists” have become quite predictable nowadays and I always look for the inconsistency it causes with the whole previous happenings. And whenever I find some I disprove/dislike the final twists. In particular in this play, if the final twist was true, many things looked like redundant. ( There is a small justification though - the entire play was played out for the third person - I know this is not explaining correctly, but those who’d seen would get it).

The play is originally of Marathi by Yogesh Soman, translated to Hindi by Prashant Kirwadkar , which is translated to Kannada by Dr Tippeswamy. Directed by Anoop Joshi and the group was Rangayana. 

# This is a play of classic story of mistaken identities. There are two pairs of twins and they mix up.

# Good name of the play!

# In brief - 1.1 (one set’s one of the twins) and 2.1 are initially friends. They come to a city which also had was inhabited by 1.2 and 2.2 who had run away from their houses many years ago. In the event they mix up and 1.1 confuses 2.2 to be 2.1. And so on.

# It is sometimes surprising to note how many plays pay a remote tribute to Shakespeare. This too is one of them “Comedy of Errors”  and a tribute to Shakespeare was announced before the start.

# The title and the poster - which lists the cast like this Sihi Kahi Chandru, Sihi Kahi Chandru, Srinivas Prabhu, Srinivas Prabhu - is a small give-away which I noted randomly while standing in the queue outside.

# Few minutes into play, it’s too evident - Ulta pulta the famous Kannada feature film starring Ramesh and terrific Kashi. And Ulta pulta itself was inspired by an old Hindi movie.

# This Ulta-pulta kept coming back to mind, and the mind compares - even if I tell it not to! And as usual, comparison spoils it, sometimes. I am convinced, seen independently, this play is quite good.

# Comedy play it was and had good moments. Like

• 1.1 is a novel-worm - that too a fan of investigative novels. He cooked up various imaginative names of the novels and I almost cracked up every time.
• There is a sub-plot which explains these two guys running away from home. Since this was relatively new, was quite funny !
• Sihi Kahi Chandru whom I have become a good fan after his terrific performance in Sankramana. His role is not as full-fledged as it is in Sankramana but he is as good as possible. [ However Kashi was superlative ]. Also Chandru impresses in timing and delivery of dialogues.
• Srinivas Prabhu’s facial expressions were note worthy.
• Last mad run of mayhem seemed a bit longer - it continued even after we stopped laughing !

# Verdict: If you have not seen Ulta-Pulta, watch and enjoy. If you have, check out some other play from the same team - for eg Sankramana.

# My previous reviews of plays seen in RS could be found here.

This is a musical play using quite heavily the poems of “prema kavi” B R Lakshmana Rao to the music of C R Ashwath.

One part of the story is oft-repeated love story - the birth of the story, a third angle which was actually a misunderstanding, happy ending - in marriage. If there was any freshness it should be attributed to the natural performance of the lead pair. The story is intercepted with songs and dances - typical of a feature film - probably a reason story stretched with not much happening otherwise.

Second part is about the love leaving the couple after marriage and the minor fights that happen - probably due to lack of co-operation and the need to adjust. The fights lead to the point of separation but they realize and make up.

In between there are lots of digs about many social issues and many were cliched or already-heard-of.

C R Simha was quite jovial considering his age. He mimics a famous swamiji and his blessings is reserved for lovers Except for the lead pair - who gave natural good performance and a loud Ritwik Simha, others were passable. The other girls looked very happy and seemed to enjoy their role thoroughly. Sometimes it was little over-acting but better than average lazy acts by the boys. They looked out of place at times and looked inflexible.

Of course it is not possible to get Ashwath to sing for every show, but this recorded music was a huge put-off for me, given that I have enjoyed the plays for their direct interaction which includes the music playing at the side stage. Recorded music’s quality was also not good.

Overall, though touted as comical drama, did not make the audience laugh many times (unlike the ones where I really laughed till it ached). Probably also because it all looked either repetitive or cliched. But it did manage to make us smile few times - few dialogues and mannerisms by lead pair - and several messages were put across quite fine.

This was, again, a collection of three short stories by Vaidehi. Given the inclination/theme her stories has, the play too was an attempt to dive into woman’s mind.

There were three protagonists, the first one was most interesting for me. She was Shakuntala, the famous character of Kalidasa’s play. The director/playwright here takes few wonderful deviations (was reminded of the deviations by Farhan Akthar in Don) from the original. The play suggests that temporary memory loss was infact a lie told to the world and that the king just did not keep up his word. This challenges the self-respect of Shakuntala and she takes revenge - if she had wanted she could have shown the ring as proof, but she instead lies that it was lost in the river. And finally, when king tries to apologise, she doesn’t give in.

I liked the deviations because they were convincing and more practical than the original. And of course they are so consistent with the theme - self-respect and independence of woman is at the core.

Second story was of a lady who longs for love and marriage. I would not go into details but I felt it was treated a little over the top. Or may be because, I could not accept those reactions/feelings coming from a girl - we are very much used to see that from a boy just like many dialogues that she mouthed.

Two credits to this second story - one it had varied dimensions and density in the character. And while the former story invoked heavy dose emotions and was serious by nature - despite a romantic backdrop - this one evoked few smiles, so what if it combined pity with it.

Third story was a complex one. That, coming from me is saying a lot ! This character is a wife of a rich man, a poet herself but suffering by some complex. Probably an inferiority complex, or an identity crisis –somewhat similar in theme to other two- or even lack-of-attention syndrome. She indirectly questions the patriarchal society and walks out of her marriage and settles with someone who she thinks would love her.

While one lady performed other two ladies played supporting and it was interesting to watch a supporting cast don the main role in the next part, well & differently. Music support was quite simple - by the same person traditional harmonium for Shakuntala and modern keyboard for other two.

The play overall was quite low on entertainment value, but I appreciate the effort that went into it. However I guess it was quite interesting to art lovers like Dr.URA whom I spotted in the audience.

Posts of other few events I attended would follow.

Heegadre hege - A play.:
This is a funny play formed after putting together 3 different stories of T. Sunandamma. One talks about the Kannada vs English, one dream about winning the lottery, another about the life of writers, life after retirement. All make us look at the situation in light fashion. Lakshmi Chandrashekar and Sundar performed.
Since the play was sponsored by Kannada station on WorldSpace “Sparsha” , there was half an hour long introduction about the shows being aired in that station. It sounded pretty impressive.
A good review is found here.

This was an awesome play, one of the best ones I have seen. This is a Hindi play translated to Kannada and directed by S.Surendranath - director of “Nodi swami navirode heege” movie. The play also marks the return (or debut ??) of Girija Lokesh to stage after many years.

Its quite easy to see why I like this very much because it was so easy for me to identify with it. The stage setting is white everywhere¹ - one white painted stool, a white painted chair and table, one white cloth on the floor. There is a table fan sitting idle at the corner of the stool and there is only one time it is ever used - and what a stunning impact it leaves. There is a light bulb hung and just like the fan, this is lit up only once.

My intepretation about the usage of white so prominently - other than to depict widow’s saree for a cultural reason or to show simplicity in the father’s character - is that, it suggests how only one sided their views are. No black and white - no two possibilities, no two explanations - just one -and one’s own - belief.

There are three characters in the stage - but they never come on stage at once (except for a second, mother and son come together) and I can easily call it a collection of three mono-acts and monologues. But the acts are tightly coupled.

The intent is actually to show how one’s actions are in this family, why according to him his actions are like the way they are and how another person in the family views it differently. Some views and counter-views like that, slightly highlighting generation gap.

The first scene is that of a widow, cleaning the cotton, describes how her husband has been admitted to hospital, how he died. In next few scenes with the mother, she recalls how her husband had reacted at his retirement and going a little back how he had dreamt and built his house and few other smaller details. She also narrates how her son behaved earlier and how he reacted in hospital.

In between her many appearances are present one stellar performance by SihiKahiChandru in the role of the father. It was the longest monologue - almost an hour and one should see to believe it. There were plenty of opportunities to go out of sequence, or to use our own lines as long as it made sense (but I doubt he did that !), but still it was one superb show.

Then comes that of son’s, acted by Manjunath Hegde, another class act. During his part is the success of the play, for the very same audience who had accepted and clapped to every action of father as right, claps and agrees again to that of son’s. At this point director had clearly succeded in making the audience realize how different the viewpoint is and how both can be right.

Both father and son, though rant and talk seriously, have audience in split, or rather in crack. Yes, even the issue is not fun, it is shown in the lighter vein giving the audience great comic relief.

Mother’s is not very strong character for the drama. She appears few times but with shorter durations compared to other two. Also I failed to understand why her part is set in the present while the son’s and father’s are actually set in the past. Though the mother’s role adds sorrow, sympathy and also it shows her as a strong person. She keeps calm when her husband dies and she was calm earlier too - somehow managing both polarities in son and husband. This is so very typical.

Many incidents like the collection-repair of locks, lazy-irresponsible son, wearing pant only after reaching college, house repair issues and various various other things are so very common in normal household - which is the reason audience too enjoyed it! Keeping the door open, not switching off the lights, lock , returning home early etc were some of the very very real life scenarios. Nicely captured and presented. One of the superb funny lines is when son is questioning his father’s direction to return home because of the increasing crimes in the city. Son ponders “If I return home earlier, will the crime outside reduce? “ So tongue-in-cheek !

Even though the son’s views are totally opposite to that of father’s, once his father expires he follows his father’s actions in a hyper-active or maniac fashion. There is the irony, there is the highest point for the play and there is so much untold meaning in those small actions and thats where the play ends. (Audience expected more but it made perfect sense to end!)

No music (except water dropping sound in the background), no lighting effects, no changes in the sets, it is the most simplest arrangement for a play I have seen!

Overall it is a combination of vyangya, tarka, vidambane and haasya.

After having told all this, I still haven’t told you anything. This play is a must watch according to me and you can watch it at Rangashankara on 26th May 7:30.

27th May 7:30

27th May 3:30

Misc:
1. One old couple talking was loud enough to hear to entire audi and of course to observation of artists too. Even continued stares from the neighbours did not discourage them from talking loud. Another lady, yawned making audible sound, which was too another irritant.
2. In another play too, there were two ladies who laughed almost hysterically and sometimes when not needed. RS people take enough care to silence/switch off the mobile phones, what could be done to these throats ?

1. Tide could utilize the oppurtunity (just like they did to few movies) and sponsor the play so that more people could watch it! [back]