An affair with theatre

The brilliant scripts and performances of four short plays performed recently were a treat to watch. With dual-natured characters, hypocrisy, gender and other topics gently woven into the scripts, it was a perfect night

To make it ‘a night to remember,’ Kaalpnik Arts put up a quartet of short plays which were earlier a part of the recently concluded Skits competition. And a night to remember it was! Each of the plays, besides being brilliantly written, was performed with just as much energy and brilliance.

The first play was called ‘A Costly Affair.’ It was a story of an elderly man, played by Vikram Vepa, who is having an affair with a much younger girl played by Vanita. The play starts with a suave couple meeting in a hotel room to consummate their illegitimate affair.

The man is obviously rich and is about to divorce his wife for his young and beautiful girlfriend. In the middle of their love making, the man suffers a heart attack and along with his body, slumps the entire sophistication of his girlfriend.

She takes no time to shed her garb of sophistication and turn into an abusing and Hyderabadi speaking gold digger. She reveals all her plans - of making some quick money through her aged boyfriend - to her accomplice over the phone,

which is heard by her boyfriend who is actually not dead but is listening to the conversation. He awakes to both the reality of her girlfriend and of his life, and goes back to his wife. Vanita stole the show in this play with her brilliant performance.

The dual side of her character of being a crass, abusing Hyderabadi and a sophisticated lady was portrayed beautifully and hilariously by her.

The second play ‘Proposal’ portrays the life of a theatre artist. Raviraj, writer and lead of the play, is a theatre artist who is looking to get married but faces rejection everywhere as he does not make good money. The playwright also brings out the hypocrisy of gender equality through his story.

Every girl that he meets, irrespective of what she makes, wants a husband who makes good money so that she can pursue her hobbies and have a good life. Frustrated by rejections, Raviraj leaves his passion and goes back to a job.

The other characters of the play portrayed by Sunjit, Monica and Honey Singh supported the play well.

The third play, ‘Pechchaan Kaun’ had the best script of all. A story of a retired school master, played by Surender, comes to collect his pension after a gap of three months.

The pension officer, played by Sunjit, refuses to recognise him without a documented proof which has a picture of Gandhiji on it. Just when you start to feel sorry about the old timer when you realise, through Sunjit’s monologue,

that everybody in the system is corrupt including the aam aadmi in this case who was collecting the pension of a post which was higher than the one from which he had retired. The satire on Kejriwal and Modi in this play was so smooth that one barely sees them as a message.

The final play, ‘Aaj Ki Taaza Khabar,’ which won multiple awards at Skits, was also written by Surender. The story of two neighbours, Pandu and Sharma, fighting over the morning newspaper is hilarious and witty at the same time. Starring Naren, Sangya and Avkaash, the play was a perfect ending to a perfect night.

The two ladies, Vanita and Sangya were undoubtedly the stars of the evening. Both of them were a treat to watch on stage and became the darlings of the audiences.

The other star was Surender, who penned two beautiful plays. We would definitely like to see what this brilliant playwright comes up with next; and whenever he does, do not forget to make that a night to remember as well.

By:Saharssh