Bus Tum aur Hum

This is a collection of many individual stand-alone situations (around 17 scenes as per AnkTheatreGroup). The scenes are from day-to-day common interactions between a coupe who have been married for two decades now. Trips, food, children, career etc for the points of discussions.

This low key play features Preeta Mathur and Aman Gupta, who share amazing on-stage chemistry. They had provided us the memorable couple of ‘Hai Mera Dil’ and short-lived yet memorable affair in ‘Jaat Hi Poocho Sadhu Ki’. The chemistry is still there, but the overall package is mediocre at its best. The performance suffers from the very weak script, which even the duo fail to lift up.

This is very average and mediocre presentation. The energy and talent of the actors are wasted in enacting this script. Even the shows of this play is rare, perhaps respecting the audience’s feedback.

I will still recommend the play if it is being performed next door to yours and, you have to kill a few hours with nothing better to do.

AglaPlay Verdict: Avoid
AglaPlay Rating: 1/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: 1 Hour+ 
Writer: Veena Bakshi
Director: Veena Bakshi
Cast: Preeta Mathur Thakur,
Aman Gupta.

Below are a few relevant links.

Other Links
Ank Theatre Group Shows

The Truth

This hilarious, captivating play on extra-marital affairs is originally written by award-winning playwright Florian Zeller. The protagonist, KC, is having an extra-marital affair. He is in habit of lying to (mostly) unsuspecting wife. With little inhibitions, KC authors new lies every second, and then lies more, to support the previous lie. As if the life was not pretty complicated for our hero already, his affair is with his best friend Zed’s wife Lovelin! The play explores the attempts of KC to hide the truth from everyone, and more…

Naseeruddin Shah is an amazing actor. But the perfection with which he embodies KC, is beyond anything I have seen from Mr Shah. He is spontaneous, he is funny and even in the darkest of his acts, audience can’t help but sympathize with the character. Ratna and other characters also are very relatable. The dialogues and the screenplay are crisp.

It is a great fun and one of the most enjoyable plays. The topic is a bit, you know, adult(er)y, hence not recommending it for teens and children, otherwise this is a great play which will be enjoyed by everyone. However, Motley has self-rated it (A), for 18+ years audience only. 

AglaPlay Verdict: A must watch with your partner
AglaPlay Rating: 4/5
Language: English
Duration: 1 Hours 30 Minutes 
Writer: Florian Zeller
Director: Ratna Pathak Shah
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah (KC),
Meher Mistry / Shruti Vyas (Lovelin),
Ratna Pathak / Avantiak Akrekar (KC's Wife),
Arghya Lahiri / Gaurav Sharma (Zed)

Below are a few relevant links. This is a popular, great play with many reviews on internet – all positive. But please do not read other online reviews as few of these unknowingly have gone in too much detail on the story-line and may spoil your fun. Do note that even the official trailer for this play mutes the dialogues.

Other Links
Official Trailer
Naseeruddin Shah Wiki
Ratna Pathak Wikipedia

The Father

Originally a French play written by Florian Zeller, The Father explores the challenges of Andre, the central character who is suffering from amnesia. Andre’s nurses repeatedly quit job due to his tantrums. His caring daughter, Ann, then takes Andre to her home where she lives with her husband, Pierre. Told from Andre’s perspective, different scenes flow through the times, jumping in the past and back as Andre remembers and forgets his life events. The play culminates to a shocking end.

The Stage setup is very innovative. The design of an apartment / hospital is marked on the ground with white paper tapes on which the actors perform. The audiences are very close to the performance and sitting is done in 360º view. The sync of the sound of taps etc is done very well. The experience of watching the play in such a setup is a novelty and done very nicely. Naseeruddin shah plays the central character with perfection and such energy that moves the audience. The rest of the cast matches his vigor.

It is a play well-done on all fronts. Strongly recommend for all audience.

AglaPlay Verdict: Strongly recommended for all
AglaPlay Rating: 4/5
Language: English
Duration: 2 Hours 
Writer: Florian Zeller
Director: Naseeruddin Shah
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah (Andre, The Father),
Ratna Pathak Shah, 
Heeba Shah & Others.

Below are a few relevant links.

Other Links
Naseeruddin Shah Wiki
Ratna Pathak Wikipedia

Gauhar

The biographical musical play is about the life of Gauhar Jaan, one of the first Indian performers to record music on Gramophone. Her life was adorned with professional achievements, and also scarred with repeated deceits by the people she trusted. The play answers many questions which may seem confounding to the TikTok/YouTube generation where recording and streaming is the norm. What was so special in being the first recorded female singer? The play not only takes the audience to the street of Calcutta where she was celebrated, but also inside her heart which was repeatedly cheated by everyone she trusted.

It is a great play and talks volumes of the capabilities of the director Lillette Dubey. The live performances – live singing by Zila Khan and the dance by Rajeshwari Sachdev, the music – themselves are worth of the ticket prices. The amazing portrayal by Rajeshwari (young Gauhar) and Zila Khan (old Gauhar) are powerful and memorable. Rajeshwari, who also gets the most opportunity among all the actors, shines in her role. The setup is also done well.

Talking of biographies, Bollywood styled masala-added bio-portrayals mutate the original lives so much that the end-product is pure fiction. This play steers clear of that crime, and suffers partly because of it. You see, like any other true biography and anyone’s life, the play has its dull moments. After all, in our like also we don’t achieve one milestone after another every year or every month!

The slow-paced, honest portrayal with great live performances is a must-watch for connoisseurs and theater enthusiasts. For others, please take note of the last paragraph.

AglaPlay Verdict: A must-watch for  connoisseurs and theater enthusiasts
AglaPlay Rating: 3.5/5
Language: Hindi / Urdu
Duration: 2 Hours+ 
Writer: Mahesh Dattani 
Director: Lillete Dubey
Cast: Zila Khan (Old Gauhar),
Rajeshwari Sachdev (Gauhar)
& Others

Below are a few relevant links.

Other Links
Trailer at YouTube 
Gauhar Jaan Wikipedia
Review at IndiaWest

Shabd Leela

An experimental venture, this presentation is part biography, part tribute to award winning novelist, poet and playwright Dr. Dharamvir Bharti. First half is an impactful reading of the extracts from ‘Ek Sahityik Ke Prem Patra’ a personal collection of letters between him and his wife. These letters, written in chaste Hindi, takes the audience to the life of Kanta, Pushpa and Dharamvir. The second section has performances from extracts of his works ‘Andha Yug’ and ‘Kanupriya’.

This is an absolute masterpiece on several fronts. The research, the narration, the performances are all top-notch. Luckily for us, Ms. Pushpa Bharti was also with us as audience that night and her praises for the research done for the play knew no bounds. On performance front, Ila Arun’s take on Gandhari is something that audience will not forget for long time to come! One can buy the ticket solely for her portrayal of Gandhari, such is the act! Rajeshwari, Varun and K K Raina also suited their roles to the perfection.

An amazingly researched piece, this falls short from being a must watch for regular audience on two fronts. First, the language – the Hindi used is in pure definitive form, which at times became tough to understand for me as well (I am a regular Hindi reader and still continue to grab a Hindi novel once in a while). Secondly, the pre-interval part with the letter narration seems dragging a bit. What also disappoints a bit is that (unlike Ek Mulaqat where Dipti and Shekhar memorize all words and dialogues), Ila and Varun read the letters on the stage from printout/notes.

Overall, it is a must-watch for the fans of Dharamvir Bharti ji, but the audience with challenges in understanding Hindi can find it little tough to understand the performance (first half in particular). 

AglaPlay Verdict: A must watch for Dharamvir Bharti's fans
AglaPlay Rating: 3.5/5
Language: Pure Hindi
Duration: 2 Hours
Writer: Ila Arun 
Director: K. K. Raina
Cast: Ila Arun (Narrator / Gandhari), 
Rajeshwari Sachdev (Radha / Mrs. Bharti), 
Varun Badola, KK Raina, 
Abhishek Pandey

Below are a few relevant links.

Other Links
Full Performance on YouTube
Dharamvir Bharti Wikipedia
Ila Arun Wikipedia