The Man in a Case

Rati, who goes by the Twitter handle @punditcomment, had asked me around 15 days ago if I could go with my camera to attend the play she directed and is the star of, The Man in a Case, at India Habitat Centre. Unfortunately, I was travelling then and missed the show. Luckily for me, there was a repeat show on 19 April 2012 and I requested my younger brother to accompany me and take the driving wheel for the evening.

Organized by the Yatrik Theatre Group, this short play had props which you could count on one hand, modest but well done lighting, and two talented actors who ensured that the audience was involved in the stories of the characters and rooting for them. There was music, love, dance, laughter (from the audience), action (the hero falls trying to manage a bicycle), and intensity of expressions. The ambiance of the Amphitheatre at the India Habitat Centre added to the magic.

If you are on Twitter, follow the actors: Rati @punditcomments and Gaurav @mildlyclassic. Catch there play and it will be a pleasant, beautiful evening, I promise! For now, I hope my captures will do justice to the magic these two created on stage.

I have deliberately decided to post the pictures in an incorrect order. Try sequencing them and see if you can make a picture story :-)

The intense look

Love in the eyes

The fall

Eyes filled with a thousand questions

Best foot forward

Dancing

Red is the colour of my love

Look, can you see our future?

The beautiful bride to be

A man who captures moments lest he forgets to celebrate them later

A basket of fresh apricots

The bicycle and the red wall

Talking to the flowers

The stage

Hmmm

The end

The venue

30 Din

I went to see a Bengali play yesterday. Though, I don't understand the language, this one had me crying like a baby. A very sad story dealing with the serious issue of child molestation by a family member, the actors were able to convey the emotions to even the significant non-Bengali viewers, who had come to see the play.

Just a four-character play, the acting of the girl, my namesake Priyanka, had me reaching for the tissues. The lady who played her mother was exceptional. The exchanges between these two was heart wrenching. I was so engrossed in the play that in the end when all of us went to the stage to congratulate the actors, I could not muster up the courage to talk to the man who played the role of the Mama, maternal uncle who rapes his sister and her daughter as well. My friend, Kaushik, essayed the role of the girl's boyfriend. He helps her confront her uncle and deal with the trauma. He was very convincing as a person who could be trusted in a situation like this. Exceptional performances by the four will be remembered by the viewers who came to the show for a long time to come.

Emotions won over language.

I really wish more of my friends had come to see the play. 30 DIN was brilliant to say the least.

The Blue Mug

I was lucky enough to catch the play - The Blue Mug, at Kamani auditorium, yesterday. The brilliant ensemble of Ranvir Shorey, Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Sheeba Chadha, Munish Bhardwaj and Konkona Sen Sharma, portrayed six characters, who go down the memory-lane and re-collect incidents of their lives - some important and some irreverent. It was an evening well spent.


Tickets coutsey Charu. Hope your cousin gets well soon.

Special Treat

I have a special treat for Delhi Photo Diary visitors today. The slogan calling on people to light a lamp and fight the darkness in the world greeted the audience, who had come to see the opening play 'Friends' by the Breathing Space group at the International Children's Theater Festival. Below are videos of some portions of the play. The play was special as my younger brother, Akshat was also performing.



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India Islamic Cultural Centre

This, as you can read, is the India Islamic Cultural Centre. I had gone there to see a play titled Mahim Junction. A creation of celebrated director, Sohila Kapoor, the play revolved around over the top characters based on the Indian cinema of the 70s. They had two common links - Mahim Railway station and Hindi film industry. Though the performances were good, I was not too happy with the content. The gathering constituted mostly of the Delhi's socially conscious elite or the people I like to call pseudos. :-)

Nevertheless, the place was worth a visit.

P.S: Tomorrow I will post the 300th photo of the blog :-)