TWO FATHERS
This Republic Day, be privy to a meeting between Mahatma Gandhi and Albert Einstein as they come together to discuss parenting troubles. Staged by a fairly new theatre group of the scene Imaya Shows, Two Fathers focuses on the personal lives of two great minds, Albert Einstein and Mahatma Gandhi, and their troubled relationships with their children
“I was fascinated by a play that my friend Sundar Sarukkai who is also a professor of Philosophy had written about Albert Einstein and his troubled relationship with his daughter. He was a lousy father and very open about it. You can’t be good at everything and this is true for a lot of people in real life,” says Srinivas Bhashyan, the director of the play and co-founder of Imaya Shows. Having always felt deeply about parenting himself, Bhashyan was struck with the idea of combining the story of Einstein and his daugther with a story about Gandhi who also had troubles with his son Harilal. “While one was the Father of Science the other is considered the Father of the Nation but both of them had troubles being fathers to their children and we looked at how we could play on this irony,” says Bhashyan. He and Sheeba Shah, the co-founder of Imaya Shows and producer of the play, spent several months writing and rewriting the script until they were completely happy with what they came up with.
It took them many months to find the right people for the play and they finally chose first time theatre actors from Goa Reggie Goes to play Einstein while the role of Gandhi’s son is played by Valentino Dias. Bhashyan plays Gandhi while Sheeba plays Einstein’s daughter. And although Gandhi and Einstein were parents in a different era, Bhashyan states that they have deliberately stayed away from contemporising the play to today’s time as they decided it wasn’t necessary. “ The fundamentals of parenting haven’t changed in a century. The issues remain the same,” he says.
The play had it’s debut at the Goa Arts and Literature Festival last year and since then has done three shows at different venues, informs Bhashyan, who has worked in the film industry in the past, assisting noted South Indian names like Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam and directing films like Paisa Vasool and Love Khichdi. Apart from the upcoming shows at Kala Academy, Panaji and Museum of Goa, Pilerne, the group will later be taking the show to Bangalore and Delhi.
BAYAN
In Turkish, “bayan” means women. In the Indian subcontinent it means “a statement” or “an expression”. Intrigued by this play of words, Akarsh Khurana and his team at Akvarious Productions put together a collection of short plays featuring an all women cast. “We had been performing one of the pieces Santa’s Little Call Girls for almost eight years now. This used to be an opening piece for another play or part of seperate set and it was well liked. As part of our 16 year anniversay we had a little festival and a fringe festival on the side where we did smaller experimental shows. It was here that we came up with the idea of using the same six women cast to do a few other pieces,” says Khurana.
Akvarious Productions was founded by noted actor (film and theatre), screenwriter and director Akash Khurana in the early 90s. Since 1997, the founder’s son, Akarsh Khurana, has spearheaded the group.
The hour long set of plays consists of five acts. It begins with an introductory monologue where a woman gets her five minutes of fame and how it falls apart. The Tale of Two Typewriters centres around two girls back in the 90’s who enrol for a typwriting class where they meet an attractive man. I Can Tell Your Handbag is Fake is about superficial behaviour and fashion consciousness while Anything For You, revolves around a meeting of two friends where one of them announces that she wants to have an affair outside her marriage. The oldest play of the lot Santa’s Little Call Girls talks about four women trapped in the mundane life of a call centre.
The cast of the film includes theatre veterans like Prerna Chawla, Dilshad Edibam, Tahira Nath, Shriya Pilgaonkar ( who starred in Fan opposite Shah Rukh Khan) , Rohini Ramnathan ( also a noted radio personality) and Shikha Talsania (acted in films like Wake Up Sid, Dil Toh Bacha Hai Ji, My Friend Pinto).
Having done 20 shows in cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi, Bayan is now making its ay to Goa this weekend with three shows across different venues. “What’s interesting now is that theatre is more accessible and there are lot more young people in the field. The content is more youth friendly and topical. A few years ago doing a play in a bar was unheard of. But now people are taking risks and the scene is constantly changing,” says Khurana
CATCH THE FILMS AT:
Two Fathers
January 26, 8.30 pm - Kala Academy Panaji
January 30, 6.45 pm- Museum of Goa, Pilerne
Bayan
January 26, 7 pm - Cube Gallery Moira
January 27, 8 pm- Village Studio, Parra
January 28 - The Mandrem House
