22 August - MMCC, Pune Jilha Shikshan Mandal, Sinhagad Academy - Kondhwa

1) MMCC - Logging Out 


Writer -  Dharmakirti Sumant

Subject - Internet addiction , subsequent loneliness and final coming out of this phase.

I don't know why MMCC did not perform any new play in this Purushottam. MMCC has performed this one, in Yashwantrao Mahakarandak Spardha - 2010. I guess BMCC had also performed it in PuLa Deshpande Mahakarandak and Sakal Mahakarandak Spardha. I guess that time Nipun Dharmadhikari had directed it.

Story : It's a story of a girl who hates her surroundings and who is addicted to the internet. She hates her neighbor, her CA class co-students and many others. She is also - a so called individualistic person. She always chats with her friend online, who wants to meet her in real - but she feels that - his online presence must be far more acceptable than his real presence. Some time later in the play she finds an online software called - Eliasa - who is an interactive program with whom you can share all your emotions and thoughts and problems and blah blah blah .... Eventually she becomes so addicted to this software that she cuts every contact with the outer world. Finally she comes out of this addiction and isolation/loneliness.

Acting : The girl's character was monotonous - not her fault - but that's a fault in the script. She did a decent job. The boy too did a decent job. The boy's friend's insertion didn't have any motive and it wasn't keeping the pace of the script. I felt that - he was there just to create some comedy in the play.

Direction : Good -  but the script hadn't too much potential in it.

Script :   लेखन खूपच चर्चिल वाटले. सुरुवातीचे मुलगा व मुलगी यांचे संवाद यांना कोणताही मोटिव्ह नव्हता असे मला तरी वाटले. एकुणात - साधारण . 


Set : Good. Use of painting on the wall - that was good. 
Music : Decent. 
Lights : Decent job. 


Overall Rating : 6.5 - 7.0 


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2. Pune Jilha Shikshan Mandal - '1959 salcha picture'


Story : It's a simple and sweet story of a boy coming from England. He has taken the Law education. He falls in love with a village girl. She is a bharatnatyam dancer. Eventually he gets married to her. 


Acting : Above average. 


Direction : Above average. 


Script : Above average. The end was sweet. 


Set : Good 


Music : Use of ( I guess self composed  (correct me if i am wrong ) ) songs. Overall enjoyable. 


Lights : Above average. 


Overall Rating : 5 - 5.5


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3. Sinhagad Academy, Kondhwa - 'Dumla'


Original Story : Aaiina  


I have seen theatre group Jagar's - play named - Aaiina - based on the same story. Sinhagad Academy  did a wonderful job with the performance. Today's best performance indeed. 


Story : It's a story of a tribal family. The father in the family gets a  mirror from Jamindar. It's assumed that the tribal people so far don't know about mirror. When the father sees into mirror - he feels that he is seeing his father in it. But he doesn't want to share this secret with other family members and hence he keeps on talking to a mirror in their absence. But somehow other family members watch him talking to something. His daughter wants to investigate this. Hence she takes his mirror and sees herself in the mirror thinking that her father was talking to a girl of her age and he is in love with her. After sometime - her brother sees her talking to something and hence when he sees into the mirror he thinks that - his sister was talking to the good looking hunter. He asks the hunter to promise him a good job in the Paragana ( city like place ). Finally when the father's wife sees herself in the mirror she thinks that she is talking to her husband's new love. She calls her a bitch. The confusion continues till everybody decides that the father is going to return this gift to Jamindar. But father doesn't return it and keeps the mirror with him as a secret. He continues talking to his father at the end. 


A very nice story with inbuilt drama in it. A well executed performance too. 


Script : Good use of tribal tone and language in the script. 


Acting : All four characters did a great job. The girl was little bit loud. But all others were good. Though the tribal language is difficult to comprehend - sometimes the actors lost their clarity in the dialogues.


Direction : Good. Can be improved a lot.


Music : Sounds of tribal environment were used. The father humming some tune was good. Overall good. Sometimes the background music and sounds were so loud that I couldn't hear the dialogues clearly.


Set : Complementary. 


Lights : Very good. :-) 


मूळ कथासुत्रच खूप सुंदर होते. मानवी मनांच्या असलेल्या सूप्त इच्छा आकांक्षा मधले नाट्य सुंदर होते. प्रत्येक जण स्वताचेच प्रतिबिंब पाहत होता - पण खरं स्वतःच्या छाबिच्या आतील सूप्त मनोराथांशी खरं तर तो बोलत होता. त्यामुळे नाटकात रंगत आली. मानवी मनोव्यापार कलाकारांनीही सुंदरपणे टिपले. 

मी जागर संस्थेने जो प्रयोग केला होता तो बघितला होता - त्यात शेवट असा केला होता - सर्वांच्या भांडणात आरसा फुटतो. आणि त्याचे तुकडे होतात. शेवटी प्रत्येकाच्या हातात एक तुकडा असतो - ज्यात प्रत्येक जण आपल्या मनोरथांशी संवाद करताना दाखवला होता. हा शेवट मला जास्त अर्थपूर्ण वाटतो. 

कथेच्या रूपकाच्या अर्थाचा अजून जास्त विचार केल्यास प्रयोग अजून अर्थपूर्ण होईल यात शंकाच नाही. 

Overall Rating : 7.5

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