Month: October 2019

Dance Like a Man

“Dance Like a Man” highlights the conflicts across three generations through the protagonist couple Jairaj and Ratna. Jairaj and Ratna are two aspiring passionate Bharatnatyam dancers. Jairaj’s father, the patriarch, is against a career in dance. Their conflicts, thoughts, aspirations form the core of the play. Darker secrets unfold as the story evolves, jumping back and forth between present and past.

What make this play great are the plethora of topics it touches and the justice with which the play treats each of these topics. The gender-biases are captured through the play, and specially how a man can be a victim. The protagonists are financially dependent on the patriarch shows the monetary realities of a love affair. The characters are very strong, well-written and Lillete’s direction is impeccable. The live dancing performances is the cherry on the top.

AglaPlay Verdict: A very good play, excellent direction
AglaPlay Rating: 4.0/5
Language: English
Duration: 2 hours

Below are a few relevant links. The web links to other reviews are also provided for easy reference. Do note however that this play written by Mahesh Dattani is has more than a few shocking revelations, which must be experienced to really enjoy the performance. The reviews below (particularly medium.com) sadly have gone to the extent of summarizing the complete story. 

Other Links
Dance Like a Man Trailer
Lillete Dubey Wikipedia
Suchitra Pillai Wikipedia
Dance Like a Man Review on medium.com [spoilers]
Dance Like a Man Review on FII [spoilers]

Dopehri

Dopehri is a novella, written and performed by Pankaj Kapur. This is a story-telling session. The story takes the audience to Lucknow where an old Amma bi lives in solitude with only her house-help Jumman and an old family friend Dr. Saxena as limited company. On the suggestion of the family friend she gets a paying guest in her Haveli. What happens next is a story of transformation for Amma Bi.

The writing and the rendering both are touching and impressive. The characters are very well-developed. Pankaj takes the audience to the old-era Lucknow with his words, helped by music alone. As an audience, you will feel engrossed as if you yourself are there in the haveli, walking on its stairs, experiencing the weather and noise of streets. 

AglaPlay Verdict: Must Experience
AglaPlay Rating: 4.5/5
Language: Hindi
Duration:

Below are a few relevant links. The web links to other reviews are also provided for easy reference. Do note however that the novella is a simple story but has its own twists and turns which should be experienced first-hand. The reviews below (particularly culture bowl) sadly have gone to the extent of summarizing the complete story. 

Other Links:
Dopehri Review on The Quint  [spoilers] 
Dopehri Review on Culture Bowl [spoilers]
Dopehri Review on BookMyShow [spoilers]
Dopehri Press Conference Lucknow
Dopehri Novella Buy on Amazon
Pankaj Kapur Wikipedia

Agla Play: Your guide to your next play!

Hello World from Agla Play.

I am a theatre enthusiast and have watched more than 50 theatrical performances in last three years alone. 

Having watched so many actors, directors, scripts and theater groups, the challenge of choosing next play still bewilders me. Unlike movies and books,

  1. NO IMDb/RT or GoodReads: Unlike movies, there are no IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes for us which provide us with some normalized rating.
  2. Subjectivity: The art is always subjective. In the plays, the subjectivity difference takes on a whole new level. Even in those plays liked by the whole group, favorite scene is different for each individual.
  3. SAY NO BAD: Third but the biggest challenge is that the very few review sites which are there do not write anything bad about any play. Sometimes this is about their conservative approach due to (2) above. That is horse-shit in my opinion because then NOTHING in this world should be written bad about.
  4. Courtesy: Many a times, reviewers simply do not write bad things out of courtesy. [They will use all the boring, f****, absurd, long, over-stretched, pathetic and other adjectives when you ask in person]. It is tough, too. You see the performers in person. The actors are working so hard towards the play and the human element comes up. This again does not make sense to me because then no movie should be rated bad, too! A play may be involves 20 people, working on say, 4 months? A movie may involve 200+ people and the post-production itself may take double the amount of time. For the sake of the performers, it is important that they get true feedback so that they can work on it!
  5. Reviews with spoilers: The few reviews out there end up summarizing the whole  story, killing the awe and shock of a first-hand experience of twists and turns.

The idea of aglaplay.com is to fill this gap, particularly for Mumbai residents who are interested in plays and live performances. I will try my best to grow this platform as a source of short, unbiased, spoiler-free reviews.

I welcome the readers to share your valuable feedback / comment with me through contact me link or through comments below.