The annual general meeting of a building society provides enough fodder for a playwright to chew upon.
As the members grin and growl (more of the latter) at each other's shortcomings and non-payment of dues (again more of the latter), by the end of their must-attend Sunday morning pow-wow, there is a script ready to be staged.
| | | Vikram Kapadia in Black With 'Equal' | Why does the water from the plants of the sixth floor member's terrace find its ways to the fifth floor member's Persian rug? Why does the third-floor member have guests (read: PYTs) only post-midnight? And why does the first floor member always park his car in the area not demarcated for him?
Building woes and society squabbles are commonplace in metros. But when they acquire a communal tinge, it could lead to destruction and doom.
Writer-director Vikram Kapadia's Black With 'Equal' which opened at the Prithvi Festival three years ago takes a look at one such AGM. There are shows of it at Prithvi Theatre this weekend.
Black With 'Equal' (that's the choice of cuppa for one of the society members at the meeting) is a satire about a routine meet that takes an ugly turn leading to total anarchy.
The typical pesky neighbours converge to solve their problems but instead end up creating a law and order problem. Besides the customary Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian in the society, there is also a politician with 'connections' and a massage therapist whose 'connections' members are trying to figure out.
Kapadia takes on the daily living squabbles to a new dimension when the members start squabbling over each other's religious identities leading to a bloody battlefield.
Does unity in diversity exist? Or does unity necessarily mean uniformity? The writer-director without being too preachy puts the point across while taking humorous potshots of the assorted members.
The cast includes Kapadia, Meenal Patel, Paresh Ganatra, Lovleen Mishra, Dinyar Trindaz, Sandiip Sikcand, Satyajit Sharma, Shreyas Pandit, Nisha Sareen, Uday Chandra and Chirodeep Mitra.
Black With 'Equal' is highly recommended. If you have seen the drama when it opened, revisit it. Though Kapadia also does television (Kkavyanjali and K Street Pali Hill) his love for theatre remains intact and not something to piggyride on his small screen persona. His theatre troupe Masque plans to stage a musical next.
Yes, he has begun translating his early thoughts — in all the spare time during the shoot at the Balaji studios he is at his laptop keying in his scenes!
IPTA'S inter-college drama contest
This contest has, over the years, served as a platform to nurture tomorrow's theatre talent.
The finals of the Indian People's Theatre Association's (IPTA) 34th Inter-College Drama Contest (ICDC) will be held at the Tejpal hall, Gowalia Tank, on September 22. IPTA, Mumbai along with Mysore Association has organised this competition for colleges affiliated to Mumbai varsity.
The eliminations for the one-act plays in Urdu, Hindi and Hindustani were held last week.
The finalists include Ruparel College (Adwait Dadarkar's Paisa Vasool), Podar College (Prashant Kumar's Sugandhi), Khalsa College (Sunil Harishchandra's Manmaya), Sathaye Collge (Ram S's Bhoomika), Mithibai Collge (Yogesh Pagare's Shubh Deepavali) and Jaihind College (Girish Dhoke's Juloos).
IPTA held its first ICDC in 1972 and was initiated by the late Urdu writer-poet Kaifi Azmi with director Ramesh Talwar making it a reality along with IPTA members.
Familiar names like Deven Bhojani, Harish Patel, J D Majethia, Sharman Joshi, Jayesh Thakkar, Manish Wadhwa all began at the ICDC while directors who have participated include Vipul Shah, Mahendra Joshi, Latesh Shah and Chandraprakash Dwiwedi among others.
Interestingly, Dwiwedi once remarked that ICDC was an acid test. "If you could achieve something here, you could certainly achieve something in the world of performing arts." And if you reflect on the beginnings of several telly, Bollywood and stage actors, it would be no surprise to find that their first brush with acting or direction began here.
What do the ICDC winners bag? There are trophies (in memory of Prithviraj Kapoor, Manmohan Krishna, Balraj Sahni) certificates and cash prizes in various categories that find mention decades later in where it all began sagas of the stars — both small and big.
*sorry changed spelling of ecquality to equality in title😊*
| |
Health and Fitness
Personal Finance
Cryptocurrency
Real Estate
Seher Hone Ko Hai
Financial markets and global economy
Bengali Shows
Naagin 7
