It started with Terah-Nau-Pachatar and an original script. Kashmkash with its genre of comedy and an original play took it a few steps further. The faculty play, Half a glass of champagne, showcased the prowess and reach of IIM Calcutta Dramatics Club. Few doubted the fact that the pinnacle had been attained. Few wondered if this could be repeated. Few felt that a genre other than comedy could have greater triumph in exhilarating the audience.

The challenge for the next cast and directors seemed insurmountable. Add to that the difficulty of reaching out to an audience in a social and cultural fest with a genre of drama far removed from the laughter and gaiety associated with the festival. That was till Carpe Diem 2012, when the Dramatics Club presented “The Devil Within” and changed quite a few misconceptions!

With its complicated backdrop of the Indo-Pak partition, the play deftly captured the underlying tensions existing in a society plagued recently by communal strife. The story is centered on the small town of Amargaon and the upheaval that its society faces after unscrupulous elements create disturbance during a religious procession. The ensuing conflict brings to the surface the hidden feelings of the society thereby exposing the past misgivings that each and every character is experiencing.

The characters themselves are well-rounded – from the blood-thirsty mob (Deepan Malik, Rahul Shresth, Aaditya Raut, Abhishek Gupta and Karan Sareen), who are baying for revenge and have been let loose like the proverbial ‘dogs of war’, to the college going Smita (Sneha Mundhra), who is forced to maintain a different stance and ways of life within and outside the confines of her home in order to adhere to familial prescriptions of what is right and wrong and yet exercise the feeling of independence that is commonplace; from the playful Daksha (Geeta Manasa) living in pre-independence India and unaware of the horrors that will be unleashed during partition to the now hunched with age Hardika (Shraddha Mehta), who still harbors deep misgivings and has not been able to come to terms with the reality of her past; from the remorseful dad Ramnik Gandhi (Arnab Ganguly), who wants to set things right and come to terms with his dark secret he has been harboring in his head and has tried unsuccessfully to come to terms with, to his god fearing wife Aruna (Divya Juneja) who believes every word of what “Baa” (Hardika) says and is unwilling to take any risk that might jeopardize her family’s peaceful existence; from the bloodthirsty Javed (Pranay Agarwal), who seeks to avenge every act of harm or disrespect done to his community, to the refined college educated Bobby or Babban (Kanishka Arya), who demonstrates aspects of rationality that many other characters seem to have forgotten during their vocal rantings for revenge.

The cast delivers a mature and a memorable performance in which they take the audience through a journey spanning time and geography and do justice to a script that intends to question the irrationality and fears of morbid hatred that grip sections of our society whenever plagued with an unfavorable situation. The soliloquies, and there are quite a few of these from each of the characters, bring to light the inner turmoil that each character has been facing over time and serve well to increase the depth of the characters. The characters themselves are not mannequins – a little scratch at the surface is sufficient to reveal the patina of guilt and remorse that each of them face – yet even in the most intense moments of their soliloquies, the characters often display their shades, thereby bringing to light that people are hardly ever black and white – most remain in the realm of what can only be described as shades of grey.

The haunting quality of the background score (by Sachit Handa and Chandrashekhar Venugopal), which by the way was another first for “The Devil Within” and accompanied every scene, made its impact most audible in the eerie scenes of the chorus – the music at every stage left the audience on the tip of their seats waiting for some new horror to unfold or be recounted. This intensity was only reinforced by the cast creating a virtuous circle and leaving the audience on tenterhooks as the drama unfolded.

                “The Devil Within” is a masterful display of the tensions plaguing a society still torn by darker aspects of its past. The terse nature of the play, which is itself interspersed by the rabid chorus of a blood thirsty mob, causes the audience to sit up, take notice, and question – even as they are taken through the horrors witnessed by each of the characters and see for themselves how legends turn into myths and myths into stories, how far removed the reality can be from the occurrence of real incidents on the ground, how each perceives the same set of incidents in a manner that suits his beliefs, how a passive acceptance of age old beliefs and views can only serve to reinforce the misgivings of a society that still harbors some feelings of the fracture it witnessed more than half a century back.

All in all, the play is a tumultuous journey of each of the characters – a journey of self-exploration where they are forced to face the devils running amok within their inner selves. The play takes the audience on a journey of self-exploration and forces them to think about that which is the basic tenet of any human society – can civility and rationality ultimately triumph over the feelings of jingoism and xenophobia that still exist in some sections of our society.

Carpe Diem is the annual cultural festival of IIM Calcutta. For more details, log on to http://www.iimc-carpediem.com/

Hi Directors,
I must say the performances in this year’s Remini has been a notch higher: We have attended few earlier alum meets and hence can take this call.Talking about the play, I must say it was one of the best we have seen. And when we came to know that the entire script was written by IIMC students, we felt that we need to personally congratulate them. And hence we decided that we should write to you to congratulate the team. 

Fifteen of us were in the Drams club of our times. And things have moved on tremendously since then. Hence, we could relate to it more closely. Talking about the play itself, expectations were set high by the fact that we finally have some script writers in IIMC. We always thought of doing so during our own tenure but it never reached the vertical limit. The play was well written, dialogues were tight and crispy and performances exhilarating.

The lead actor (Akhil Saraogi) showed great skills in his body language to show transformation from an utter loser to a winner. His expressions and body language stole the show. We, this years Remini Batch, loved the pre interval part. It was satirical and showed what actually happens. The dialogues on Marriage and the trio of father-mother-son were amazing. To carry off the role of an elderly couple (Gaurav Parewa, Parvathy Kailasam) is tough and they did justice to it. The court room scenes were tightly woven and the romance angle was sweetly captured. That reminded us of our days. Despite the huabloh created during the news reporter scenes, the girl (Arya Dey) pulled it off very well. And the last 20 minutes sealed the show. The court room confrontation and the guy’s performance in the witness box(Aakash Bhotika) raised the bar. And trust us, we thought the play was over. And then the 2nd part of climax was a killer concept: And the girl (Harleen Kaur) pulled it off wonderfully well: and even the kittens in the hall were forced to keep quite in the last 20 minutes.

And the last 6 lines relayed the entire story. Awesome direction!

We are writing this to you to communicate the fact that the Remini batch loved the play and the how we desire that the guys should take this forward. One of our members is the South Asia head of a well reputed production firm (Edit: name couldnt be revealed due to confidentiality issues) . And as you all might be aware that they are planning to enter the country through the theatre route. Theatre is big in US/England and we feel that this is an untapped market in India. We were discussing the pointers with the Dean during the dinner: And when we have such good script writers and executers; we should not shy off. Our contact list is with the organizers, you can refer the same if you ideas in this field or even without.

As we move out of Kolkata, I am writing on the behalf of this year’s Remini batch that we enjoyed the play and hope that the trend of originality and creativity continues. Contact us in any case. Pass on this message to other members, as we could not obtain their emails.

Lets keep the C factor intact.

Regards and Blessings, Remini Batch, IIM Calcutta

‘Tera Nau Pachahtar’ was staged during Reminiscence 2011, the alumni meet of IIM Calcutta. The play had an original script written by the Director Duo Vikas Saxena and Adrit Mishra (Batch of 2012).

The full video is uploaded our official Youtube Channel, and can be watched here.

Adarsh has seen the high points of being a successful director, having won many awards, and the lowest points too, where everyone, including his own wife, loses faith in him. Adarsh vows to come back and win the audiences over with his next film “Kashmakash”. He is proud, egoistic and extremely passionate. He needs to make this movie perfect. And when after 32 takes and two and a half years of hard work he cannot get the most important climax scene right and he sees his world crumble around him, the question arises, how far will he go for his passion?

The first half of the play is carried forward by light, witty and at times downright hilarious dialogues between the in love cheerful Mumbaiya spot boy Ali (Avisheke Barua) and the adorable Bihari hairstylist Shalini (Shalini Verma). Most people who have done plays realize the difficulty in transforming into a different person, to let go of oneself and be someone completely different. If you think that is difficult, imagine the plight of hero, heroine and villain of the movie who played two different characters on the stage! Ujjwal Singh, the romantic, sappy, straightforward hero Akash and off screen the arrogant Aftab Khan. Nikita Barmecha, the sweet and simple Simran and off screen the bollywood family heiress, Sweety. Nitin Aggarwal, the villainous Vikram and the budding actor Puneet Deshmukh off screen.

The story is helped along at various stages by level headed Sameer (Ishwar Saxena) the assistant director who manages everything behind the scenes, the hot-shot producer Roma (Neha Singhal) who must keep the budget under check and keep tabs on the director, Sweety’s mummyji, Dimpyji (Arpita Patra) who is fussy, annoying and highly animated and who needs everything in the movie geared towards making her daughter a superstar and Ajay (Saurabh Sinha) who plays the assistant to Vikram in the movie.

As the story develops, we see different parts of the movie being shot. However, the story gets stuck on this one scene, the climax. The villainous Vikram who has brought people’s lives in danger in trying to make money is confronted by his best friend and business partner Akash who cannot believe Vikram’s betrayal. As the scene grows, so does the anger and the frustration of both parties involved. Eventually, as the scene escalates and as Vikram is shouting and cursing Akash, Akash shoots Vikram. The scene seems to be an amazing one.. but.. CUT. And Adarsh Bhandari cuts the scene.. but why? Because the scene isn’t perfect. The emotions by Aftab just aren’t right. Re-shoot the scene. Take 5.. Take 6….. Take 31…

This goes on for a while and after the 32^nd take Adarsh just can’t take it anymore. He explodes on stage. Aftab retaliates, who does Adarsh think he is? Roma cuts in, what is wrong with Adarsh? Dimpy shouts, finish the movie now… Adarsh leaves frustrated..no one understands him. And then the question lingers in the air… What does Adarsh do now? He’s at wits end. The next day the police inspector (Rahul Shresth) walks in accusing Aftab of killing Puneet. Then Adarsh takes over and reveals that he had killed Puneet and will kill Aftab too if he doesn’t complete the scene. Adarsh goes psychotic while Aftab nears breaking down. Adarsh sets the scene up in the exact same manner that the climax scene is… The scene ends with Aftab shooting Adarsh and his reaction being caught on tape to complete the perfect scene. But the question remains.. is Adarsh alive? Did he play a trick on Aftab to get him to shoot the scene? Or did he actually sacrifice his life to fulfil his passion?

The writing implies that Adarsh wins the award for best director.. but is he even alive to collect it? Regardless, the film is a success and Adarsh’s Kashmakash is over and his dream is fulfilled. He is redeemed in the eyes of the world.

This play was a play that everyone would enjoy. It wasn’t an easy thing to do considering that this was an original script. Written by Asif Rizwi, Avantika Tomar and Rahul Shresth the script had all the elements needed to entertain a crowd that consisted of B school students from around the country and professors of IIM Calcutta. The script had inspiring dialogues (anyone who saw the play cannot forget “Baap ka kutta”), some very enjoying light funny moments (by Avisheke and Shalini), a full-on bollywood romantic scene (played out beautifully amidst the hooting and cheering by the hero and heroine of the movie), another full-on bollywood sagai scene (with some brilliant dancing by Namrata and Geeta) and a high intensity show down that showed the audience a range of emotions (played outstandingly by Ujjwal and Nitin).

However, there were a few moments in the play that went beyond entertaining. They were scenes that took one’s breath away. So as to not get the audience bored, the climax scene was played once in fast forward mime. For the first 5 seconds the audience couldn’t comprehend why Aftab and Puneet suddenly went silent.. But when they fully understood what was going on, there was a collective gasp through the audience and applause that just didn’t seem to end. Another scene was when Adarsh gets frustrated and gets drunk and Sameer tries to handle him. Oh by the way, if it isn’t apparent till now.. I played Adarsh Bhandari and I really hope I did justice to this scene. Because when I first read the scene I just went, “F*** this is brilliant.”

Under the superb direction of Asif Rizwi, Avantika Tomar and Kerishma Malik and the brilliant lights and production of Vivek Bijlwan, Tania Benjamin and Zubin Ray, these words written on paper were brought to life to be one of the best plays ever produced at IIM Calcutta. And I’m extremely grateful and proud to be able to be part of it!

Photo Credits: Vaibhav Gulati

John's hands ?

I have seen the banner and the posters and now, I’m curious (as I’m sure you all are). So I did a little finding-out. The 25 phone calls from the Drams Cell demanding that I turn up might have also helped.

“Who the hell is John?” is the Dramatics Cell’s latest presentation, and is probably their biggest to date. For the first time ever, the IIMC Drams Cell is going to stage a play in the city of Kolkata. “This is going to be a full-fledged event,” says Anirudh, one of the 3 Production Heads. They have worked for months to put this together – starting with sponsorship to setting up distribution deals for the tickets. I must say, I’m impressed.

The cast will be performing for an audience that is used to watching professional theatre groups. “We have very high expectations to meet”, says Paromita, one of the 2 directors. (I wonder why all their plays aren’t made to meet these expectations though).

I expected the cast to be on edge, petrified even. Acting is always a risky thing, but it’s one thing to be potentially laughed off the stage at IIMC and quite another to do so in front of the whole city. But I am pleasantly surprised to see them laughing and joking around. Clearly, they are having a lot of fun. It is possibly the only play in IIMC history to have three “generations” of students, they helpfully point out. Avantika Tomar, the veteran with 3 plays under her belt, says that this is her most challenging role ever. They are a little nervous about being part of the first ever commercial play by IIMC, but then, it is an honour as well and they are determined to do a great job. It has been hard work for over 6 weeks – memorising lines, being reprimanded by contradicting directors and sleeping a lot less. Inquiries about any flaming romances between cast members draw a blank (disappointing considering the time they have spent together) but there are allegations of a casting couch, stories about  late-night 1-on-1 sessions with male cast members by one director (*wink* *wink*) and lots of name-calling (“Ekta Kapoor soap star”).

The cast hard at work

The lights come on, the cast is on stage. A sharp word from their director and suddenly, everything changes. The banter stops and the mood becomes sombre – I’m now at the farewell party of Prof. John Oldman.

I know you still have unanswered questions. Will there be a love scene? Will someone be gay again? Who the hell is this John anyway? Well, my dahlings, you are just going to have to find out for yourself this weekend.

Who the hell is John?

Directed by: Paromita Chakravarty, Sunil Chandrasekhar

Cast: Avantika Tomar, Harsh Mishra, Jhankar Basu, Kanupriya Sharda, Mrunmoy Panigrahi, Shourya Ahuja, Zubin Ray

Production team: Anirudh Vijayaraghavan, Deeksha Vasudevan, Vrinda Mishra

Venue:  Vidya Mandir Auditorium, Birla High School, Off Camac Street

Dates: 12^th and 13^th February, at 7:30 PM

For tickets, contact: Anirudh: +91 91636 56690 (or any other Drams Cell member)

-Sruti

What a lovely evening” says the impeccably dressed Brandon to his friend and room-mate Philip, as he draws back the curtains to reveal the magnificent Manhattan skyline. “Pity we couldn’t have done it with the curtains open, in bright sunlight”. The “it” that Brandon describes is the cold, emotionless murder of their classmate David Kentley in their apartment. They choke the life out of David for apparently no reason, but for the thrill of getting away with the perfect murder. Thus opened the 3rd production of the Dramatics Cell of IIM Calcutta, an adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s psychological thriller “Rope“.

The play revolves around an evening of intrigue and drama that follows, as Brandon throws a party, literally over David’s dead body, almost challenging the attendees to discover their “work of art”. The party opens with casual pleasantries among the guests ““ Mr. Kentley and Mrs. Atwater, the victim’s father and aunt, Ms. Janet Walker, the victim’s fiancée, Kenneth, a classmate and their former teacher, Rupert Cadell. However, when the conversation veers towards the art of murder and Nietzsche’s theory of the superman, Brandon’s sense of intellectual superiority becomes bolder. Philip, clearly the remorseful of the two perpetrators, starts acting cocky and out of character under the weight of alcohol and guilt. The plot thickens when David’s absence becomes increasingly mysterious, leaving Rupert wondering as to what exactly the two friends had done.

If the script was intriguing, the execution was simply superb. The cast, Mihir Rathod as the cold blooded Brandon, Nihansh Bhat as Philip, Himanshu Bagchi as the flippant Rupert Cadell played their roles to near perfection as they kept the audience captivated till the very end. Nihansh did justice to the role, his countenance contorted with nervousness, words dripping with remorse. Mansha Tandon was impeccable as Mrs. Atwater., delivering her lines with pompous elegance. Swati Baheti was charming as Ms. Walker, Sunil Chandrasekhar (Mr. Kentley), Mandawi Verma (Mrs. Wilson, the housekeeper) and Naresh as Kenneth, all gave the setting a touch of class.

The acting complemented with the perfect blend of lighting and the intricate care that was taken in designing the set, made it a night to remember. The selection of music was delectable and lent the occasion an air of poignant suspense. Himanshu and Mihir went about it like two thespians, one sharp yet subtle, the other, manipulative and composed. However, critical acclaim must be given to those that deserve it most”“ directors Naresh Krishnaswamy and Shehzad Kazi, whose efforts culminated in perhaps one of the most brilliant plays that IIM Calcutta has seen.

For Jokatimes,

Gregory Ipe

PS – Alfred Hitchcock (who directed the screen version of Rope) called it ‘an experiment that didn’t work out’. The experimental ending worked out by Naresh and Kazi, combined with the hours of practice the Dramatics Cell puts into each of its productions, gave Intaglio’09 the perfect start.

(An observation from “Where there’s a will”)

The Dramatics Cell at IIM Calcutta staged its showcase play “Where there is a Will“, its third of the season. Following the success of the first two plays “Udhaar ka Pati” and “The Importance of being Earnest”, the audience had huge expectations from this play. It would be apt to say that they were met and in style. This play, which also happens to be the first play penned down by noted playwright Mahesh Dattani, was about Hansmukh Mehta – rags-to-riches businessman and patriarch, his wife Sonal, son Ajit, daughter-in-law Preeti and mistress Kiran Jhaveri!

The play turned out to be a dark comedy with deep undercurrents of humour which kept the audience bound to their seats till the end. Set in a typical Indian setting of a joint family, the play was based on the promise of a will that kept a business tycoon and his family together. As it turned out, the cleverly designed contents of the will brought his wife and his mistress together after his death and held the troubled family close. The presence of the ghost of the dead Mr. Hansmukh Mehta added moments of brilliant humour and subtle observations to the play which expertly dealt with the shades of the relationships that he had forged with his late father, son, wife and mistress.

Akhil Mohan Gupta excelled in his role as the patriarch and had the audience in splits with his comic timing. Portraying the role of a confused son, trying to carve out a way of living for himself Aayush Shrivastav did dramatic justice both to the shades of black and white in his character. The initial part of the play was livened up by the father-son interactions and the chemistry in-between them. However the second half of the play saw the arrival of the mistress to the traditional Mehta house. It was here that Vaishali Aggarwal and Radha Ladkani, as the wife and the mistress added an in-depth understanding of relations to the story. While Vaishali displayed fine nuances of her acting both in comedy and in tragedy, Radha added dazzle and grit to the story. The sly, conniving couple of Hansmukh Mehta’s daughter-in-law Preeti and her old friend Deepak was aptly played by Shikha Tomar and Naresh Krishnaswamy.

The fine blend of music and lights made it a delightful evening for the connoisseurs as well as the commoners and much of it could be attributed to the brilliant pair of directors, Shehzad Kazi and S. Srinath and the music director Archish. The sets were innovative and the unusual setting of rooms without any physically visible walls was displayed to perfection. The Dramatics cell at IIM Calcutta has a long history of staging world class plays and with a legacy of successful plays like Sartre’s “Keane” and Shankar Shesh’s “Ek Aur Dronacharya”, this evening added more glory to Dramatics cell’s history.

Shashank Kumar
~Yet Another Drams Cell Member

- Popular quip in Dramatics Cell

- A Passionate DramCell Member
- Rucha Naik

The play will be staged as a prelude to IIM C’s flagship B-school festival, Intaglio, in the auditorium on the 8th of January. Proceedings will begin at 9 pm.

After the light-hearted comedies that we saw earlier, “Where There’s a Will” promises to be a dark affair reflecting contemporary themes. We expect the play to be packed with some strong, hard hitting performances and stellar dialogue, something we have come to expect from the Dramatics Cell so far.

Be there at the Auditorium on the 8th to find out for yourself if “Where There’s a Will” deserves to go into folklore as one of the best plays to come out of Drams @ IIM Calcutta.

Directors: S. Srinath and Shehzad Kazi

Cast: Shikha Tomar, Aayush Srivastava, Akhil Mohan Gupta, Vaishali Agarwal, Naresh K, Radha Ladkani

Production Head: Archish S.

This play was in sharp contrast to the first one in several aspects. Being an Oscar Wilde play, it demanded a fine eye-for-detail and emphasis on the subtlest of expressions. The story begins with a conversation between Algernon Moncrieff (Jayant Yadav) and Jack Worthing (Rohan Pewekar), where they discuss about their pseudo brothers “˜Bunbury’ and “˜Earnest’ respectively. The pseudo brothers are helpful in excusing themselves from dull engagements by citing reasons such as “˜my brother is sick’.

When Algernon’s aunt Lady Bracknell (Pranjali Chanchani) visits Algernon with her beautiful daughter Gwendolen Fairfax (Avantika Tomar), Jack Worthing discloses his love for her. However, Gwendolen knows Jack by the name “˜Earnest’ only. In the meantime, Algernon notes Jack’s country residence address and plans to visit Cecily Cardew (Bhavna Gaule), Jacks’ 18 year old ward who resides in his countryhouse. When Lady Bracknell learns about Jack and Gwendolen’s love for each other, she tries to verify whether his status and lineage is worthy of her daughter. Just when she was satisfied with Jack’s wealth, she learns about his status as an abandoned infant at Victoria railway station. She warns Jack that if he cannot establish the identity of his parents, he may never marry Gwendolen. Pranjali’s stern looks and subtle change of “˜tone’ (after learning Jack’s wealth) were a connoisseur’s delight.

The biggest twist in the tale is when Algernon visits Jack’s country house and introduces himself as “˜Earnest’. He wins Cecily’s heart and is surprised to find her in love with him even before they met! However, Cecily knows Algernon only by the name “˜Earnest’. It must be said at this point that Jayant Yadav’s  naughty smile went really well for Algernon. To turn their fake alibi “˜Earnest’ as real, both Algernon and Jack independently fix an appointment with Reverend Canon Chasuble (Abhay Kesharwani) to get ‘christened’.

This is when Gwendolen also visits the country house. In an exciting turn of events, Gwendolen and Cecily turn hostile, assuming that “˜Earnest’ was a single man who duped both of them with the promise to marry. The dust settles when both Jack and Algernon enter the scene. Somehow, both Algernon and Jack manage to woo their lady love.  Both Bhavna and Avantika play their parts well to bring the house down with laughter.

The story has a surprise ending when Lady Bracknell and Miss Prism (Richa Meshram) enter the scene. It turns out that the missing child of Lady Bracknell’s sister, was none other than Jack Worthing. Miss Prism was responsible for losing Jack in a railway station. The best part is when Jack tries to find out his actual name. His actual name turns out to be “˜Earnest’ and he is thrilled by the prospect of having spoken the truth so far. Indeed, the play showcased “˜the importance of being Earnest’!

Even the Butlers, Lane (Sujash Biswas) and Merriman (Rohan Moitra), were played to perfection. The music and the background went really well with the story and the theme. Even costumes were perfect for the occasion. In fact, it is an even bigger challenge for the Drams cell to impress us in their third play of the season, which comes up during Intaglio, IIM Calcutta flagship B-school festival.

For Jokatimes
Guhan M

Then as the D-Day approached everyone’s gtalk status messages began to change into “Everyone’s invited to Udhaar ka Pati, 9pm Friday IIM C auditorium!”. A week of in-house word of mouth publicity later, the famous Dramatics Cell of IIM Calcutta presented before us fortunate many who filled the auditorium choc a bloc that night, their adaptation of Vanmala Bhawalkar’s well known Hindi comedy of errors Udhaar ka Pati. Let me assure you right at the outset that the play could not but have been a grand success, given the formidable amount of hard work that goes into every Drams Cell production. The audience lustily cheered and laughed throughout the 90 odd minutes of this wonderfully directed laughathon.

The story revolved around the hare-brained schemes of Sheila Sharma (Rucha Naik), and her gossipy neighbor Shobha (Shruti Bhatnagar in an excellent cameo). It seems Sheila has been bragging about her simple Professor husband to a gossip in her village, who has promptly tattled to Sheila’s Grandpa (Shashank Kumar) So what’s the problem? Well, Sheila had eloped with the poor Professor Ashok Sharma (Salil Patil) much against her grandfather’s wishes, and he hasn’t spoken to them since. After hearing the stories of grandeur, Grandpa suddenly decided that its time to pay his “rich and handsome” Grandson-in-law a little visit. Thus begins the comedy of errors which finally leads Sheila to designate Ashok as the Maharaj (cook) while she gets Shobha’s Brother Naresh (Prashant Pareek) to play her husband for 2 hours. However, the best laid plans of mice, men and Sheila often go awry, and so 2 hours turns into a day, Ashok is mistaken for a Daaku and the Udhaar ka Pati seems to be pretty interested in Shiela herself!

Add to this a talkative servant (Raman Thakral), old-fashioned and kharoos Dadaji, and the most hare-brained Inspector(Ankit Katiyal) ever and we have a grand concoction. To add to the twists in the tale/ tail, we had the Director of the play Pranjali Agarwal herself in a short cameo playing hot Rita.

The performances were good, with Rucha Naik as Shiela not having to act much as she simply played herself. Ditto for Salil as Ashok and Shruti as Shobha. Raman Thakral put in a performance worthy of a thespian, switching from bumbling servant to …. well, that would reveal the plot. Shashank Kumar was unrecognizably perfect as Dadaji and Ankit Katiyal provided the laughs as Inspector. Prashant Pareek hammed it up more than a notch or two, but made up for it with his laments for “Ritaaaaaaaaaaaaa.” And Pranjali Agarwal was of course pretty much the “cry-baby” of the show.

The Production team put in a grand effort, with every thing going off without a hitch. Every detail was taken care of including the intermission music!

All in all a wonderful effort by the Dramatics Cell of IIM Calcutta. And now we know why they are THE Dramatics Cell.

Chandrima Das