I recently had the pleasure of watching “Black and White” a collection of 8 short plays at Rangashankara. The plays performed by Cult Entertainment included classics from Monty Python, Anton Chekhov and Rowan Atkinson.

There have been a lot of theater groups that have time and again performed some of these sketches but what set this performance apart was how differently each of the sketches were handled.

The evening started with a rendition of “The Warm Welcome” by Venky. The hilarious monologue of Satan welcoming the latest occupants of hell had the audience in splits. That was followed by “The Interview” with Animesh playing the role of the interviewee who has the interview he will never forget. Danny played the Interviewer convincingly but the evening was just starting for him as he performed in as many as three different plays.

Next was another Rowan Atkinson sketch, “The Good Loser”. Anirudh Acharya did a great job playing the role of sore loser who is forced on stage to collect an award for his co-star.

The standout plays of the evening had to be The Seduction, The Arrangement and Fatal Beatings. The Seduction, a Chekhov short play had Danny playing the role of a seducer tying to attract the affections of the wife(Rency Phililp) of his close friend (Ian). This play echoed the beauty of the abstractness of the stage as the three actors masterfully used a single chair and some spectacular body language to keep the audience bound to their seats. Danny was once again on stage for “The Audition” another of Chekhov’s masterful works about an actor seeking a role from a director that he holds in high regard. The final monologue of that play was incredibly moving, a beautiful touch of drama in an evening that was a laugh riot.

The Arrangement, another of Chekhov’s experiment with relationships, had a father taking his son on his nineteenth birthday a special place, where a father would probably never ever take his son. A funny take on coming of age, the play had some lovely moments between a innocent son(Anirudh Acharya) and reluctant father(Ajit Thandur). The lady of the street(Tina) added the sex appeal and the naughty sense of humor that provided the perfect balance to the play.

The Surgery, another of Chekhov’s works had a priest with a terrible toothache having to deal an amateur dentist’s assistant. Fatal Beatings was the final play of the evening. A Rowan Atkinson sketch about a father(Ajit Thandur) meeting the principal(Venky) of his son’s school on the topic of the apparent “inactivity” in the dead boy.

All in all Black and White was a impressive evening of laughs and a wonderful salute to the masters. One of the things that I admired about the whole event was the tickets, printed like American Dollar bills it put a smile on my face before I even entered the theater. Hope to see more from the group that calls itself Cult.

One of my biggest influences from this part of my life was the story of “Chandrahasa”, the mythical south Indian king whose namesake I became. Considering the importance that stories had in my life, I always considered stories as a wonderful way to reach out to people.

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a single day workshop on story telling. The workshop was organized by Hippocampus as a part of the HOO’s Tales – Carnival of Stories. Conducted by professional story tellers, the event was a wonderful reminder about the power of stories.

Conducted by world renowned story tellers Jeeva Raghunath and Craig Jerkins, the workshop was a wonderful mix of learning an ancient art form, learning about how to communicate and reach out to children and taking a walk down memory lane listening to stories again.

With a diverse group which included teachers, parents, grand mothers and IT professionals, the workshop was wonderfully entertaining and enlightening. During its course we were ourselves made to perform and we had short discussions about what worked and why. During the course of the evening we had all woken up that hidden story teller within us and it simply felt great.

I personally believe that events like these are a must for young parents. The amount of experience and insight to be gained is enormous and who knows it might turn you into that cool parent

Ps: The Carnival of Stories continue in Chennai for the next couple of days, If you can attend the workshop. Details: Carnival Of Stories

There are four concerts I have always wanted to attend. Two are artists that I immensly appreciate and two are bands that I have listened to for years. The bands are Euphoria and Strings. The artists are Kailash Kher and KK. At different times in the last couple of years I have missed every single opportunity to attend their concerts but yesterday my luck took a lovely U turn…

I was informed about the concert by Chaithra thru this tweet announcing that she had won VIP passes to the concert. I was simply excited about the concert and replied to her asking when and where it was happening… I was hoping to get tickets online if they were available(they werent ). Anyway she replied back a while later asking if I wanted the tickets. And jumped at the opportunity…

The time to the concert went away in a breeze and before I knew it I was at the entrance waiting for sunith  to join me. What amazed me the most was the crowd that was walking into the concert, we had teenagers, young couples, families with kids and aged people. I think everyone from 5 to 70 were there…

The evening started with the stand up comedy of Sunil Pal, the comedian is famous for his record breaking movie Bhavnao Ko Samjho. Sunil was great in entertaining us before the main event started. The crowd seemed to really enjoy the performance, something that was very nice considering that most concerts I hv been to the crowd usually boos off the fill in performers.

Then KK was on stage… He started with the beautiful title song of Bas Ek Pal, his rendition of the lines:

Sunaah hain Mohabbath ki Thakdeer mein, Likhein hain andherein Ghanee,
Thabi aaj Shayad Sitare Sabi zara saahi roshan hue…

Mere haath ki in Lakeeron mein likhe abhi aur kithne… sitam,
Khafaa Ho gayein hain kushi waqt sey ho rahein hain meherbaan Gam,

was even more beautiful when he sang it in live. The crowd was now in a tizzy. Song after song the screams and the sing alongs got louder and louder, his stage presence was overwhelming and the evening was just starting…

There was a short break at the hour mark. By then KK had sung almost a dozen songs and it was time for some comic relief for the audience who had by this time lost their voice(I sure did) thanks to screaming all the time.

KK was back on stage after Sunil Pal and went on to sing some of his chart topping numbers. In the whole evening he had sung some of his best numbers, these incuded Aap Ki Dua, Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar, Yaaron, Pal, Aankon mein teri Ajab Si, Zara sa, Dil Ibadath, Hai Junoon, Tadap Tadap, Khuda Jaane, Kya Mujhe Pyaar Hai, Koi Kahen and Its the time to Disco. I was half hoping for him to sing Awaarapan Banjaarpan, which was my all time favourite song sung by him… but that was probably for another day…

As the evening ended there was the sense of awe all around, KK had truly conquered the hearts of everyone there thru his amazing showmanship. This was one evening that will be very hard for me to forget

But multiplexes have slowly killed off the movie experience that I love and cherish so much. The feeling of being in a theater with 350 other people, the screams and the whistles, the hooting and the jeering… You know the whole feeling of “going to a movie”.

Thats why I cherish the few theaters that still have that magic. Rex, Urvashi and (to some extent) Fame Shankarnag (all in Bangalore) still have that feeling in them. All the other beautiful theaters are now malls with Multiplexes in them. I understand the competition is hard to keep up with and the population exploding movie going is a very popular thing… In a way, I am still happy that despite the rat race there are still a few real theaters out there.

Last evening when I went to watch Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, that feeling came back and boy did it come back with a revenge. The crowd was the most awesome crowd I have watched a movie with. They were screaming for every joke and actually singing along with a few songs. The cheering when a guest star came was amazing and the laughter was addictive. Forget the movie, the crowd made my day

All that brought back memories of a long time back, before all the black tie multiplexes took over. I know its futile to live in the past but for one evening it felt nice to be back there

MISF!T is revealing its brand new play “Pancake Helen” to the public this weekend. The Satirical whodunit will truly leave you in splits…

This is one of the plays I have been looking forward to watch for a while now. Ever since I first read the play I have wanted to be a part of it but unforeseen circumstances kept me away from the play… But now the play is here! I am thrilled that it is going to be performed this weekend and the fact that a very dear friend of mine, Venky is directing it, is truly a bonus. The ensemble is some of the best actors I have seen and shared the stage with.

Trust me this is one play you wouldn’t want to miss…

Dates and Time
SATURDAY 24th OCTOBER – 7.30 PM
SUNDAY 25th OCTOBER – 4 PM & 7.30 PM

For details about how to get the tickets and Directions to the Venue Click Here.