Bikhre Bimb (Odakalu Bimba)

I've been wanting to see this play for over a year now and finally made it to Rangashankara yesterday. What an AWESOME play it was! I am truly at a loss of words here. For the first time I felt that a play was worth a lot more than what it was priced for (100 bucks). Believe it or not, it runs full house every show even today, years after being created...

Bikhre Bimb, which means Broken Images, is a one-act play written and directed by Girish Karnad originally in Kannada and later translated into Hindi as well as English. Now, if the hindi version itself was so good, I am sure I'll love the Kannada one ("Odakalu Bimba") even more. Original versions always have the maximum impact, dont they? :)

For starters, Arundhati Nag is the sole actor of the play who delivers a spectacular performance leaving the audience mesmerized with her talent! The play is a portrayal of a professor & a kannada short story writer-Manjula Naik who achieves success, wealth and fame overnight with her bestseller novel in English. The script moves on to tap into her inner soul and slowly the story reveals the truth about her book, marriage and her personal life in a very intricate and powerful way. The television image, call it the character's self image, alter-ego, conscience or the inner soul, is like a co-actor on stage whose job is to interroagate the character to reveal her true self. At the end of the play, there is a blur created between the real and the self-image and you are unclear on where one starts and the other ends. The story by itself is not unique but the way technology is used (multiple TV sets on stage) to unveil the true story bit by bit and the PERFECT timing & co-ordination between the actor and her image on TV will just leave you speechless!! It was truly a wonderful experience watching Arundhati Nag's effortless yet brilliant performance on stage...

I was surprised to learn that this play was Girish Karnad's first directorial venture in the theater space. His understanding of the character and the plot is extremly intuitive and the language of the script is pure and marvelling. It's a true reflection of what a gifted playwriter he is.

If you are a theater person and you still haven't watched it, then what are you waiting for??? Make sure you dont miss out on the next show!!

You can book tickets online for the play at http://www.indianstage.in/

100th post...

This marks my 100th post since I created my blog! When I started writing, I had never thought I would continue to write for so long.. but am glad I did and hope to keep it more frequent in the future :)

I had a lot of things in mind to blog about, over the past 2 weeks but the lack of internet access at home kept me out of the blogging world. (Yeah, my office blocks even blogger sites!) Yet another instance which made me realize how dependent I have become, on technology..... Cell phone and internet - two things which I feel I cannot live without :)

I watched this movie 'Ratatouille' over the weekend. Felt good watching an animation movie after a long time. A fun movie, which keeps you entertained thru out. The movie is all about a rat named Remy which dreams of becoming a great chef despite being a "Rat" and also his family's disapproval. But fate does give him a chance... at one of the finest restaurants in Paris... and thats where the story is all about... Overall a very hilarious movie.. but I felt it could have been cut short by at least 20-30 mins.. the last bit seemed to be very dragging and I lost interest in the story at some point... It was the animation part that kept me hooked on till the end...

Another good part about the weekend was this english play that i watched at Rangashankara, called 'Flame of the Forest', directed by Gowri Ramanarayan. It was something totally different from all the plays that I had seen so far.... it was a combination of dance, music and drama. The carnatic music and bharatnatyam were the best part of the play.. it suited the context really well. The story is adapted from Kalki's immortal classic 'Sivakamiyin Shapatam' and set in the medieval period.. during the time of Pallavas and Chalukyas. One of the drawbacks according to me was the length of the play. I felt it could have been cut short by half an hour and it would still remain equally impactful. The story started off by focusing on 'Paranjyoti', the general in the Pallava army.. but only at the end I realized that it was all about the court dancer Sivakami, in Mahendra Pallava's kingdom, Kanchi. This was another confusing aspect. That apart, the acting was brilliant, well carried out by the dancer and the vocalist..

Overall a really good play and I would highly recommend it...