Theater Review: One On One (A Rage Production)

I watched “One on One”, a Rage production the day before, and found it to be to quite good.  Given that it’s a collection of 10 short stories, the acts ranged from bad to great, but throughout the 2.5 hour show, I could not find   too many flaws in performances. It probably was the director’s vision of the particular act that did not work for me. And I choose the word “for me”, because there were at least a couple of plays which seemed to be amusing/hilarious for quite a few people in the theater, but not for me.

Act 1- The Bureaucrat –

Written by Anubav Pal, and direted by Kunaal Roy Kapur

Excellent Play/enactment. A bureaucrat’s perspective through three points in his career, enacted by three actors sharing the stage simultaneously.  , the three stages of the bureaucrat’s life were played by Anand Tiwari (Youngest), Neil Bhoopalam (middle aged) and Bugs Bhargava Krishna (Old). All three of them were brilliant. Just as he was in Hamlet-The Clown Prince, Neil was quite brilliant in this one too. Anand is a dude to watch out for.  Bugs I think has been around the circuit for a while, and his mannerisms were probably the closest to a bureaucrat’s. Overall,  great.

Rank – 2^nd

Act 2 – Kachre Ki Hifaazat

Written by Ashok Mishra, Directed by Rajit Kapur, and performed by Yashpal Sharma.

The team was illustrious, the act was not that great. And I blame the story for it. I liked the use of the white kafan as the prop, and Yashpal probably is one of the finest theater actors from the current lot. But overall, beyond a point, the story was too obvious, and there was no spunk in the flow. Made it a little boring after a while. And I think there were at least a couple of occasions, where Yashpal’s character was too loud, which was avoidable.

Rank – 8^th

Act 3 – Bash

Written by Neil La Bute, adapted and directed by Rahul Da Cunha (of Class of 84 fame), and performed by Neil and Preetika Chawla.

This one just did not work for me. Touching on a rather sensitive theme of how homosexuality is perceived as a sickness by many people in the city, and how the inner violent rages take over without us noticing it, there was something terribly amiss with this one. Not the acting for sure. Neil was good. Preetika was quite good as well. But again, barring a couple of moments, rather than portraying the dark side of things, I felt that the play trivialized a lot of the dark sentiments it touched upon.

Rank– 10^th

Act 4 – White on White

Written by Maia Katrak, directed by Pushan Kripalani and Enacted by Shernaz Patel and Imran Adil.

I can’t understand why they put Imran in the play, because he just sat there with his back to the audience throughout. Not a dialogue, not a significant movement. He was a prop, and a  non-human prop could have been as good. Shernaz’s performance started a little shaky, but by the end of the act, you could empathize with all her emotions of a mother. The dialogues were a little overbearing and heavy, but I felt Shernaz did a decent job carrying them through. Overall, I would classify it as an average play.

Rank – 6^th.

Act 5 – Load-Shedding.

Written by Farhad Sorabjee, directed by Nadir Khan and performed by Anand Tiwari.

Now, this one was hilarious, and executed brilliantly. Anand’s performance as the lamp-post was the finest performance of the evening, his gags were relevant and hilarious, and his closing act with little dialogues and a lot of facial expressions was a clincher. Rather than talk a lot more, I would encourage everyone to go for the inauguration of XYZ International Pedestrian Crossing aani Lamp-post. This one

Rank – 1^st, and by  a good margin.

Act 6- Aabodana

Written by Purva Naresh, directed by Akash Khurana, and performed by Preetika and Anand.

Very light, very involved and very flowing. It was a pretty good performance by the leads, and the stories of outsiders struggling to become insiders and losing a lot of their small-townness in the process was very touching. I am sure the connect is stronger for those who are small towners in their heart. Chote se hi Chote shehar me pale-badhe chote log jo bade shehro mein apni pehchaan dhoondh rahe hain (that’s an old campus dialogue between me and a couple of friends). Aab is water and Dana is food, btw.

Rank – 5^th

Act 7 – Hello Check.

Written and Directed by Rahul Da Cunha, and performed by Anu Menon (Lola Kutty of Channel V).

This one was the second worst of the lot. And I tried to like it this way or the other, because there were a whole bunch of people around me who were in splits, I just could not get myself to connect with the party of a socialite inventing acronyms for all kinds of societies that she had joined.  The only funny part of the play was MNS – Murder Navjot Sidhu.

Rank – 9^th, and I don’t want to talk about this one!

Act 8 – Dear Richard –

Written by Oliver Beale, adapted by Nadir Khan and Akarsh Khurana, Directed by Nadir, and performed by Rajit Kapur.

Its an open letter to Richard Branson about the quality of inflight services aboard a virgin flight, and uses a whole lot of pictures to talk about the plight of a loyal passenger. The play was trivial, the acting was top-notch. The adaptation to Indian context was equally hilarious. A little over the top, but Rajit pulled it off with his performance.

Rank  – 6^th

Act 9 – Creado, Constance

Written by Joanna Murray-Smith, adapted and directed by Arghya Lahiri, and performed by Shernaz Patel.

I found it to be a very interesting and moving play, about the life of a widow coming to terms with life by being involved in too many things to kill her loneliness, and then finding liberation in a different relationship. Shernaz was brilliant, a lot more brilliant than the WoW act earlier.

Rank – 4^th

Act 10 – Instant Behosh

Written and directed by Rahul Da Cunha, and performed by Amit Mistry.

I completely recommend Amit Mistry to anyone (from the time I saw his acting in Shubh Mangal Savadhaan), and feel that he is a talent who’s not been used much by the industry. This guy has elevated almost any play that I have seen him be a part of, including some really ridiculous ones.

This play is about a terrorist who does not want to be a terrorist, and is a funny take on terror, terrorism and Pakistan. There is a bit on the Indian media as well, where thinks that Kasab after the trial and everything, will soon be invited to Big Boss and will be the next winner too.

Ranked – 3^rd. This one worked very well for me, though  it depended a whole lot on Mistry’s performance. Otherwise, it could have been a Rank2 for me as well.

In short, I think One on One is definitely a good investment for your evening. Many small acts that you will relate to (not necessarily the ones that I liked), and if you go on a weekday, the tickets are for 80 bucks only.  I guess the play is on till the weekend as well. So, go ahead, enjoy…. It’s a fun ride.

Afterthought – Is this only me who cannot relate with my fellow audience when they start laughing everytime an actor utters an expletive on stage, and more so if it’s in hindi. All the “teri maa..”, “behan..”, “C…” etc. are apparently very hilarious. How so? What joke did I miss?

उसकी खामोशी: Uski Khaamoshi

वो जब उदास होती है
खामोश हो जाती है

जैसे एक तालाब के पानी में
महीनो से किसी ने पत्थर नही मारा
ना कभी हवा चली हो
और ना ही उस तालाब में कोइ मछली हो
ऐसा मरघट जिसमें न किसी कि आहट आयी हो
न किसी की आवाज़

ऐसी खामोशी
दो पल तो खूबसूरत लगती है
फिर चार पल को डरावनी..

मगर फिर मेरी आहट से
जो हलचल होती है
पानी के गोल घेरे पडते हैं
एक छन से टूटे गिलास के टुकडे की आवाज़ की मानिन्द
खामोशी को और भी खूबसूरत कर देती है

और ये लुक छिपी का खेल
सूरज और चांद की तरह
आगे पीछे चलता रहता है
क्योंकि जिस वक्त ये दोनो मिलते हैं
चाहे वो शाम हो या सुबह कि लाली
वो वक्त
बहोत खूबसूरत होता है

wo jab udaas hoti hai
khamosh ho jaati hai

aur ye luka chipi ka khel
suraj aur chaand ki tarah
aage peeche chalta rehta hai
kyonki jis waqt ye dono milte hain
chahe wo shaam ho ya subah ki laali
wo waqt
bahut khoobsurat hota hai

Short True(?) Story FW: Worth Reading!

Absolutely worth reading once. Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. It takes very little to make someone happy… and sometime, that’s worth more than a million achievements.

Subject: FW: Worth Reading!

A True Story……worth spending few minutes to read……

"My wife called, ‘How long will you be with that newspaper? Will you come here and make your darling daughter eat her food?

I tossed the paper away and rushed to the scene. My only daughter, Sindu, looked frightened; tears were welling up in her eyes. In front of her was a bowl filled to its brim with curd rice. Sindu is a nice child, quite intelligent for her age.

I cleared my throat and picked up the bowl. ‘Sindu, darling, why don’t you take a few mouthful of this curd rice? Just for Dad’s sake, dear’.

Sindu softened a bit and wiped her tears with the back of her hands. ‘Ok, Dad. I will eat – not just a few mouthfuls, but the whole lot of this. But, you should…’ Sindu hesitated. ‘Dad, if I eat this entire curd Rice, will you give me whatever I ask for?’

‘Promise’. I covered the pink soft hand extended by my daughter with mine, and clinched the deal. Now I became a bit anxious. ‘Sindu, dear, you shouldn’t insist on getting a computer or any such expensive items. Dad does not have that kind of money right now. Ok?’

‘No, Dad. I do not want anything expensive’. Slowly and painfully, she finished eating the whole quantity. I was silently angry with my wife and my mother for forcing my child to eat something that she detested.

After the ordeal was through, Sindu came to me with her eyes wide with expectation. All our attention was on her.
‘Dad, I want to have my head shaved off, this Sunday!’ was her demand.
‘Atrocious!’ shouted my wife, ‘A girl child having her head shaved off? Impossible!’
‘Never in our family!’ My mother rasped.. ‘She has been watching too much of television. Our culture is getting totally spoiled with these TV programs!’

‘Sindu, darling, why don’t you ask for something else? We will be sad seeing you with a clean-shaven head.’

‘Please, Sindu, why don’t you try to understand our feelings?’ I tried to plead with her.

‘Dad, you saw how difficult it was for me to eat that Curd Rice’. Sindu was in tears. ‘And you promised to grant me whatever I ask for. Now, you are going back on your words. Was it not you who told me the story of King Harishchandra, and its moral that we should honor our promises no matter what?’

It was time for me to call the shots. ‘Our promise must be kept.’

‘Are you out of your mind?’ chorused my mother and wife.

‘No. If we go back on our promises, she will never learn to honor her own. Sindu, your wish will be fulfilled.’

With her head clean-shaven, Sindu had a round-face, and her eyes looked big and beautiful.

On Monday morning, I dropped her at her school. It was a sight to watch my hairless Sindu walking towards her classroom. She turned around and waved. I waved back with a smile. Just then, a boy alighted from a car, and shouted, ‘Sinduja, please wait for me!’ What struck me was the hairless head of that boy. ‘May be, that is the in-stuff’, I thought.

‘Sir, your daughter Sinduja is great indeed!’ Without introducing herself, a lady got out of the car, and continued, ‘that boy who is walking along with your daughter is my son Harish. He is suffering from… leukemia’. She paused to muffle her sobs. ‘Harish could not attend the school for the whole of the last month. He lost all his hair due to the side effects of the chemotherapy. He refused to come back to school fearing the unintentional but cruel teasing of the schoolmates. Sinduja visited him last week, and promised him that she will take care of the teasing issue. But, I never imagined she would sacrifice her lovely hair for the sake of my son! Sir, you and your wife are blessed to have such a noble soul as your daughter.’

I stood transfixed and then, I wept. ‘My little Angel, you are teaching me how selfless real love is!"

Why r Indians Re-born ? GOOD ONE !!!

Quite funny (Via Deepti)

Found: Long Lost Post on Tambrahms by Bee

Not sure if some of you have ever read it.. but this one was just brilliant.. Bee’s occasional blog then (bee.theblog.net) seems to have died a domain death since then, and so the article is lost to the internet generation. But after some link-digging, I found the article, and bring it to you for your reading pleasure ..

http://bee.theblog.net/sachin/2006/02/10/the_species_semi_autobiographical_sadly
(Its a dead link, btw)

*************************************************************************************************

Have you met someone who is reasonably tall, fair, with a reasonable build (sometimes frail, but never well-built), a tikka on the forehead, and a self-righteous expression on their faces in your college premises? If you still haven’t placed this species called Tambrahmo Sapien, I will describe further characteristics of this species.

The members of this species perform well academically, are generally religious, are sought after for their views, have an opinion on most things under the sun while simultaneously being non-judgmental, and frequently wear an "I have not been given my due by this world" expression on their faces. They are also consciously self-effacing (aka painfully modest) about their achievements (generally academic)

The members of this species have a strong desire to be with fellow species’ members though they are socially ‘accepted’ in other groups as well. When 2 Tam Brahms meet, they discuss a third, when 3 meet they discuss other species’ members, when more than 3 meet, they discuss topics like ‘Changes in socio-cultural patterns of urban India fuelling prosperity in rural India’ or ‘the inherent fallacies in the parliamentary democracy system’ with their collective decibel levels of discussion varying in direct proportion to the proximity of non-tam-Brahms, especially those possessing XY chromosome. A lone tambrahm has this brooding intellectual look about him giving an impression that he is trying to mentally divide 233 by 17 while he is actually benchmarking himself vis-à-vis other tambrahms and later on with other homo sapiens as well. This is a favorite pastime of the Tam Brahms.

They are fiercely competitive but are repulsed by the notion of relative benchmarking and frequently proclaim (with a sigh of relief) that they are glad that they didn’t get sucked into this rat race. That the tam-brahm knows the re-evaluated score in the second cycle test of the little known character with whom he has spoken to exactly twice before in his life is pure coincidence.

When tambrahms are locked in conversation, they laugh at jokes like ‘Even if you win the rat race you are still a rat’ and ‘statistics are like Bikini, they show a lot but not what you want to see’ but only so much a smile politely at sardar jokes or gujju accent jokes. Not that they mean ill to surds or gujjus, it is just that they have a far more refined taste than that.

They also revel in the knowledge of their own refined taste in art or literary forms and consciously move towards ‘better’ books rather than wasting time in mundane ‘pulp’ fiction. They are wont to make statements like ‘yeah, I used to read Sidney Sheldon when I was in class IX and X. I don’t know why but I used to like them a lot. Sheldon is pure pulp. You read 3 and you can write the 4th. Now, I am glad that I have graduated to Ayn Rand, PG Wodehouse and The Economist’. All this to a poor soul who has just told him that he liked a Sheldon novel that he had read the previous night. After a pause, the tambrahm follows his speech up with "yeah, I read that book and liked it too. Typical, but ok. If you are a Sheldon fan, it’s a great book". The well-kept secret of Tam Brahms is the fact the Tam brahm himself struggled his way through 985 pages of ‘Atlas Shrugged’ precisely for deriving the satisfaction of making the above statements.

Now, where is the catch? What is it that this species lacks? They are academically good (some are ‘gifted’), socially accepted everywhere, well-sought after for their views on everything, adored by even the girls, are considered smart and sincere, are on the right side of ethics and teacher’s favorites.

Wait a second; God isn’t all that kind to anybody. These guys have their share of problems too. In most cases, they are too good for themselves. When it comes to academics, their parochial attitude keeps them on the edge; in sports, upbringing and dietary constraints kill them; in social life, their pseudo-intellectualism does them in, but their biggest problem lies with their performance with girls. They generally get slotted into ‘Oh, he is a deeeeeaaaar friend’ or ‘I can always count on him for a chat after I have had a tough day with my boyfriend(s)’, or in really rare and sad cases ‘If only I had met him earlier’.

There is also a bunch of lads who slot into the between n and n+1 category, but more on that later.