While You were Sleeping

With Marathi play Paatra Nimitta Maatra,city theatre group Dhyaas enters an uncharted territory humour.

Among many other rules that are discussed in any acting workshop,one is that in order to develop a character,the actor must know the answers to five Ws who,when,where,what and why. The five Ws are followed by dwelling upon the how. But when the actors in the latest Marathi play Paatra Nimitta Maatra were briefed about their roles,they realised that getting the answers to the five Ws and developing their characters would not be an easy task. It is because the situations in the play change very rapidly, explains Shrikant Bhide,writer-director of the play which had its maiden show recently and will soon be re-staged on December 6 at Sudarshan Rangmanch,7.30 pm onwards.

Whats interesting about the play which sees its protagonist,a college student struggling to come up with the right script for a theatre competition is its five unique characters. While Chhota Dimag (protagonists small brain) and Bada Dimag (protagonists big brain) play the narrators,his conscious,subconscious and unconscious mind are other three significant characters in the play. Every time,the writer (protagonist) comes up with a script on a piece of paper,he gets reactions from his conscious,subconscious and unconscious mind. Each time the writer is unsatisfied with his ideas written down by him,he throws the paper on the stage in frustration. And with this changes the scene on the stage, explains Bhide,who established Dhyaas Theatre in 2008.

All the previous plays presented by the troupe in the past such as The Last Color,Ek Rikami Baju,Andharach Bet and The Transparent Trap or Mi Paani Ani Savalya,dealt with some or the other social issues. While The Last Color dealt with the diminishing tiger population,Mi Paani Ani Savalya talked about water problems. Ek Rikami Baju dealt with breast cancer. This is the first time that Dhyaas is experimenting with an unexplored genre humour. It is not a comedy but has comic situations throughout the play. In some parts,the play turns into a black comedy too. Due to its theme,the play demanded tremendous hard work from the actors in terms of body language, says Bhide.

Bhide points out,however,that though comical in nature,the 70-minute-long play Paatra Nimitta Maatra brings the audiences attention to an issue. The generation today,according to Bhide,gets to know about all issues only through the internet and not by experience. And hence their knowledge about serious issues is very superficial,he says. That is the problem of the protagonist of this play too; he is full of random ideas. After the first half of the play,the writer gets tired and goes to sleep. Yet his mind is thinking about the script ideas. But now,he is coming up with serious ideas for his script, says Bhide,adding that in order to keep the tone of the play realistic,he doesnt show the protagonist going through drastic changes. In the end,he gets back to his normal self and writes what he wishes to, says the director.

The actors in the play include Rajas Bapat,Vinod Chavan,Kruttika Deo,Chetan Sharma,Mandar Deshpande,Omprakash Shinde and Manasi Sonawane,among others.

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Marathi play

While You were Sleeping

With Marathi play Paatra Nimitta Maatra,city theatre group Dhyaas enters an uncharted territory  humour.

With Marathi play Paatra Nimitta Maatra,city theatre group Dhyaas enters an uncharted territory humour.