16th August - 1)Kashibai Navale College of Commerce - 'Bhumika' , 2. MMCC - 'Savlya', 3. MITSOM - 'Fulora Foundation'

 )                  Disclaimer : ही संपूर्णपणे माझी वैयक्तिक मते आहेत. नाटकातल्या कलाकारांची आणि प्रेक्षकांची  

                                      मते माझ्यापेक्षा खूप वेगळी असू शकतात. माझी समीक्षणात काही चूक झाल्यास कृपया 

                                      निदर्शनास आणून द्यावी. नाटकांवर चर्चा होणे अपेक्षित आहे - वाद नाही.

                                धन्यवाद !

                  Bhumika – Kashibai Navale College of Commerce 

Writer : Digpal Lanjekar        

Characters : Suraj , Roshani, Bhavana ( renowned actress ) writer , director , kumar etc.

 

Story – The play is about a software engineer - Suraj who wants to be an actor. The play begins with a scene in which Suraj gets introduced to a very popular theatre artist – Bhavana ( please correct me if the names are wrong ). Bhavana is a typical actress who underestimates Suraj. She isn’t ready to accept his talent. But the director is very confident about this new chap. As the play progresses , initially Suraj finds the exact dimensions and depths of the characters that he is going to play in the plays and the reason that he gives (about his clarity about the play) is that – the characters somehow meet him one on one and then they reveal the exactness of themselves. Suraj gets a good amount of success initially but at one point the characters stop coming to meet him and tell him the depth and souls of themselves.  Suraj’s wife, director , writer , various characters come and go in between with not much significance attached to themselves. At last Suraj – when he gets blocked at the character called Kumar – he chooses to use gimmicks to hide his inability of finding the depth in his roles. The traditional conflict between usage of these gimmicks and the real soul of the play and its characters is followed by Suraj’s latest success at high profile award ceremony. The person who strikes this debate with him is supposedly the one whom Suraj can’t identify in his last play – i.e. Kumar.   

Property  : Use of masks ( portraying each character)

Lights : Use of blue light to thematically represent his encounter with the characters that he plays.

Set : stage divided into two halves. One is Suraj’s theatre section and other is his home – to be precise balcony in his home.

Music : sounded very loud.

Things to be improved: acting, dialog clarity, music, set etc.  The character of Suraj is supposedly very promising one in the play but he doesn’t seem so.

Overall Rating : 4/10

                 2)  MMCC College of Engineering  - Savalya

Writer : Nachiket Dhavalikar     Director : Piyush Kulkarni

Characters :  Baba, Sakharaam, Maitrin, Mulaga ( doctor ) 

A good attempt. The best play in today’s session – performance wise. 

Story : The play is about an old man – ‘Baba’ who suffers from multiple personality disorder. The play begins with the scene of Baba and his son who is a doctor who treats Baba. Son scolds Baba for  continuously not talking his medication.  The play is divided into three parts – Baba – Son interaction , Baba’s past experiences – i.e. flashback & again Baba-son interaction continued from first scene. The middle part is catchy. In this particular part the mystery  that Baba suffers from such mental disorder gets revealed through his girl friend. She tells Sangram ( the young Baba ) that there is no one called Sadashiv and while doing damage to the so called powerful woman he has unknowingly murdered his own mother. She tells him that the character of Sadashiv is not the real one but just his imagination rather everything around him is his imagination.  But some time later while listening to her,  Sangram ( young baba ) comes to know that his girl friend is also an imaginary character. This is the so called twist in the play. In the last part – baba tells his son that – “Everything is a matter of choice. I might have created these imaginary characters but they are going to surround me all the time - forever. Your medication is not going to fill-up his emptiness or loneliness.”

Everyone played their characters well.  But still acting can be improved a lot. 

Lights : Use of blue and red light to portray Sadashiv and girl friend was good one. The play started with left section illuminated with complete red light while right section in which baba’s son stands is illuminated with yellow lights which according to me symbolises the imaginary reality created by Baba – and the actual reality. 

Set : Use of two windows used at the end to symbolize Sadashiv and baba’s girl friend. Again two different colours were used here – red on Sadashiv – and blue on her. Baba shutting down red lighted window of Sadashiv at the end goes in hand with his dialog – “Everything is a matter of choice. ”  

Music : Sounds became music – which was a good point in the play.  But the music was very loud. The music operation could have been better. But still – well thought music.

Dialog :  Baba to his Son – प्रकाशाची दिशा बदलते तश्या सावल्या बदलतात. अरे मग बदला ना दिशा प्रकाशाची - बदला.

Points that can be improved :

1)      Acting

2)      Music operation

3)      Throughout the play – the silence could have played a very vital role in the play. The silence was missing throughout. Baba’s brooding could have been brought out through this very haunting silence. The extra usage of music and lots of dialogs killed this silence.

4)      The protagonist’s character could have been portrayed through the set. Only his imaginary characters were portrayed through the set by the use of windows. The incorporation of the name of the play could be brought out of the theatrical wall to the audience by using the set which had the optimum imagery associated with it.   

5)      After first revelation of the mystery – the remaining mystery doesn’t remain a mystery. It becomes very predictable. 

Overall Rating  :  5.5 / 10

 

3) MITSOM - 'Fulora Foundation' 
    Writer - Director --> Devesh Kamat 

Characters : Samir Deshpande , Prachi, the boy and the girl who are twins, Samir's wife.

Story : Samir's life becomes miserable after marriage. He meets Prachi with whom he gets connected so well that he has an affair with her. Prachi conceives and then the real encounter with the responsibilities and the identities occurs. Samir is not ready to get married with Prachi. Prachi wants her right of becoming a wife of Sameer and mother of her children. She need a legal identity. After pregnancy - Prachi leaves her children in the hospital and runs away from her children's existence.

In the later part - both Prachi and Sameer come to "Fulora Anathashram" to see their children. The officer there - first rejects and then admits to bring the twins to them. At the end - the children reject to go with their parents.

Music : Good. But can be improved by using various sounds related to Garbha.

Set : Use of womb / Garbha is innovative. The colour scheme there is all red and the womb is illuminated by the red colored zero-bulbs. The right to left movements of the characters are sometimes unnecessary. The two bean-bags at the center portray the inertial adamant nature of both - Sameer and Prachi. ( Don't know whether these two bean-bags are kept there with the same thought in the director's mind. )

Costumes : Use of white colored dress for twins.    


A subtle play with moderate acting. Silences are worked out to some extent.

नाटकाचा शेवट : पालक असूनही अनाथ असणे ह्यातले दुख्ख परिणामकारकपणे बाहेर आणण्यात दिग्दर्शक काही प्रमाणात यशस्वी झाला आहे .

Overall Rating : 5- 5.5