Family Business ★★★★

A 20-minutes comedy play about a jobless MBA who is being persuaded by his father to join the family business.

This one-act play starts with a successful business man’s corporate AGM. This successful business tycoon was not born rich, though. As an young MBA graduate he failed to land a job for two years. All those two years, he was also being persuaded by his father to join the family business, which the protagonist didn’t want to.

This short comedy play tells the story of this young man, his passion, the family pressure and his eventual rise to riches – all in bite sized presentation of 20 minutes.

There are a few versions available online. There are minor differences between them with the dialogues. I would suggest 2017 version performed at Prithvi because of audio and video quality (link below).

2017, Open Stage, Prithvi Theatre2019

AglaPlay Verdict: A must watch, suitable for audience of all ages
AglaPlay Rating: 4.0/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: ~20 minutes
Writer: Om Katare
Director:  Om Katare
Cast: Rajesh & Others

Chinta Chhod Chintamani

Written by Vasant Kanetkar, the play revolves around the average middle-class family. Chintamani is the bread-earner of the family and the age is getting better of him. He is living with his wife, two sons and a daughter. His parents have also come to stay with him. The elder son wants to become a cricketer and does not focus on studies. The daughter follows a spiritual leader and decides to leave home. The other son wants to become an actor. Their career choices put them in cross with Chintamani’s hopes for his children. The parents and wife are not helping as they do not share Chintamani’s concerns.

Audience have an easy connect with the plot as all of us have had some experience with some Mr. Chintamani in our lives. The actors also perform well. However, the scenes are rather monotonous and the character of Chintamani is flat. The writing, though having semblance to real life situations, is just too plain. It is predictable, run-of-the-mill play where audience keeps on waiting for the punch which never really comes.

AglaPlay Verdict: Avoid
AglaPlay Rating: 1/5
Language: Hindi
Duration: 
Writer: Vasant Kanetkar
Director: Om Katare
Cast: Om Katare (Chintamani), 
Paromita Chatterjee, Keya Gupta, 
Mukund Bhatt, Vaibhav Joshi, 
Radha Bharadwaj, Prateek Pendharkar, 
Prashant Upadhaya, Puneet Maloo, 
Ashoke Sharmaa, Priyanka Basu - Kaul, 
Mukesh Yadav 

Below are a few relevant links. The web links to other reviews are also provided for easy reference. Yatri’s 10 minute YouTube video [has spoilers] (top link) below summarizes the complete story and covers the major punchlines as well.

Other Links
Chinta Chhod Chintamani Trailer [spoilers]
Chinta Chhod Chintamani Keya Gupta's act 
Vasant Kanetkar Wikipedia 
Om Katare Wikipedia
Review on TOI 
Review on BMS