Chat masala Guest Episode with Suhita Thatte

 She's a an actress with substance. We chat about Suhita Thatte's entry into theatre, then films, serials and so on.. the link here-

https://youtu.be/4149WlsrnHM

Female Characters in Marathi Theatre

 Saw a program that had excerpts from 4 plays on the theme of Women in Marathi Theatre, called Tee (She in Marathi). Plays written by the likes of Vijay Tendulkar, Sai Paranjpye and Ratnakar Matkari. Pic from one of them, below. Starred Suhita Thatte-

There was also a lively performance of Mulgi Jhaali Ho, a freestyle street play about why the girl child is important, intended to spread awareness in a society that favoured the Male Child, written many years ago, and performed in all corners of Maharashtra, and translated as well. The highlight was the writer, 75 or so, performing on stage!

Here's are 2 pics from their act- 

The author of Mulgi Jhaali Ho is in green, with her troupe.

Actresses Live on Stage

 Spruha Joshi, Shweta Pendse, Amruta Subhash, Purnima Talwalkar, Supriya Pathare, and Rohini Hattangadi and Suhita Thatte.. what's common to these names? 

They are all actresses on the Marathi stage, some of whom are actresses in other media too.

Marathi theatre has a lot of talent, and some of them have been extremely successful.

I was lucky to have watched some of them in action over the last few years, during my Pune stay or visits.

38 Krushna Villa, Sankarshan via Spruha, Asen mi, nasen mi, and Purush are some recently staged ones. Mother's Day, is another that I saw a few years ago, motivated by my cousin Suhita Thatte being a part of the cast. 

Long live theatre, in all languages. 

Baaghi Albele - Play by WOPA in Pune

 A fun, satirical play about a clampdown on Art and Theatre by a state in India. Great cast, farcical comedy and good acting made it a great experience. Third play by World of Performing Arts in Pune.

A takeoff on Shakespeare's Hamlet was the highlight for me.. the actor uttering "To be, or not to be.."

Some action.. Kilmadi was the name of the inspector!

TOIT, Pune, before the event.

Movies in a Theatre

 Our generation is not a self-service generation, in general. We had people serving us, in most industries. Now, the customer has to do most of the work. Online services included. Only after you do the work, including assorted passwords and OTPs, does their machinery start to move.

So, going to the theatre versus Netflix type movie-watching. You only had to go to a theatre and part with money after which you enjoyed your three hours. Barring the five hundred rupee popcorn combo (I am not kidding!), you can still enjoy it in a theatre, but after booking tickets yourself, online. And carrying the damn phone to show them that you did your job! They pat you on the back (not literally) and let you in. 

Luckily, the guys who fill the petrol in your car or scooter are still doing it, unlike in the U.S., where you had to do it, even in the eighties. 

Where will this self-service pandemic end, I wonder. I fear, not at all. So get ready to give your OTP to all and sundry! You are lucky if they don't ask you to fly your own plane, I suppose.

Waiting for Lefty: The Inside Story of a Play

These are reminiscences of how a play called Waiting for Lefty (by Clifford Odets) was staged by a band of wannabe stage actors at IIMB, circa 1983. I was one of them. Directed by Harish Chaudhary.

1. You should have seen the first day’s audition. It was hilarious, with voices reading the dialogues out in a flat monotone. I’m sure not a single one of us understood what was going on-if anyone did, he "done himself" full credit. Now that it’s all culminated fairly successfully, I think it’s only in the fitness of things that the inside story, the SCOOP, must come out. About what happened while we worked at it- it was all WORK, and for a PLAY.
2. There was this old disease-malignant, tumescent (sorry, Doc Barnes- a character from the play)- of non-attendance. We never really found an anti-toxin for it till the end. One does understand if you bunk classes, but a play rehearsal? What’s the world coming to? Of course, those of us who came gulped down chai and paushtik bondas at Uncle’s.
3.  The fight for the good voice: There were a few voices in the script- a voice, another voice, and a good voice. Now, everyone wanted to be the GOOD voice. We never reached a consensus on the issue (HR guys please note). Finally, the diro (Harish Chaudhary) pulled a fast one by mouthing it himself. The really good voice, Banny, withdrew due to commitments (academic? Not sure).
4. If one man could play two roles, Nandu Jr. would have been the Gunman- “Sit down, punk!” was written by Odets with him in mind. But Banny had to be replaced by someone equally good, and Jr. filled the breach admirably. Luckily for us, Chakki was lurking in the shadows, and could be hauled up for this role fast.
5. The comedy: I haven’t laughed as heartily ever before or since-

1.       Dash saying “But Fatt is right, our officers is right” with a nasal twang-the first time he did it, we all rolled over in our chairs.

2.       Dilip Gadkari jumping all over the place trying to sound convincing with “Boys, they just found Lefty.” Instead of looking shocked, we hit the ceiling laughing.

            The relatively smaller travails we endured were-

-          Getting Ali and Navneeta to step on the floor instead of stepping on each other’s toes during the dance sequence.

-          Getting Yours Truly to emote- my inexperience in the area showed, and with Rose (my heroine) looking as if she meant every word of what she said, the only emotion I registered was FEAR.

-          Getting Sunil (Kandlikar) to look less like a gangster and more like a brother (here we succeeded).

-          Getting Robin to stop laughing. He just sat there and laughed. Finally, we had to stuff his mouth with accurately aimed chalk pieces.

-          Getting Corporate Man (Manglik) to bend (in lieu of a fall) when Sarat punched him. I’m sure I noticed a 5 degree deviation from the vertical once in rehearsals.

-          Getting Sivaram to look less less frightened of old Doc Barnes (ROI).

Just one more point. The censorship. The original script contained a couple of kisses. But we decided that you dirty old guys didn’t deserve the vicarious pleasure. Feel cheated? Well, bad luck.

(this first appeared on our wall mag. I had preserved the original)

A Class Act

This is about some typical students in a typical class of MBA students. They could be from any place or Pradesh. (Cluster analysis was not used and no students were hurt during writing of this post).

Sugar and Spice: Sweet when it suits them, and hot and spicy when it doesn't.

The Advisors: Full of advice (for you), not knowing it's a vice.

The Budweisers: Well, you get the picture. No advice.

The jargon-throwers: Flame-throwers are passe. They know the latest.

The Mobile Set: They think being on the mobile makes them upwardly-mobile even before the first job.

The Hands-up Fraternity: As if there's a mugger in a dark alley trying to mug them, their hands are always up, for anything and nothing.

The Performance-watchers. Passive audience, as if in a play or a movie. Might applaud a good piece of theatrics, but won't talk.

The Questioning, the hurt, the sleepy, the eager-to-get-out and do more interesting stuff-the look says it all. The worst of all-the Killer Look!

In Praise of Pankaj Kapur

I find him one of the most under-rated and under-utilised actors in films. Most films in which he appears, he leaves an indelible mark. Even the not-so-successful ones. He is a trained theatre actor, and continues to act there.

A cult movie which was successful, and first drew my attention to him, was Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. Along with Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani and Satish Shah, it was a laugh riot. Then came TV serial Karamchand Jasoos in 1985 or so, which was a big hit among kids in particular. He played the title role. We as an M.R. agency had done some research on the show in Mumbai. He dubbed for Ben Kingsley in Attenborough's Gandhi.

Recent films of histhat I have seen were Matroo ki Bijli ka Mandola and Finding Fanny. In both, the film has gone a few notches higher because of his acting. I don't remember many of his serious roles, like Ek Ruka Hua Faisla, and others, but in comic roles, his dialogue delivery, expression, and timing are superb.