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