The show titled ‘Without Curtains’ was a collaboration between Notice Board, Bauria Peoples Repertory Theatre, Bibhaban, M.A.D ( Mad About Drama) and Hypokrites, five of the city’s acclaimed theatre groups. Some of them comprised of college students, and some had professional actors. The only common link between them was their love for theatre.

The evening started off with an informal discussion on Intimate Theatre. Both the performers and the audience shared their thoughts on taking theatre off the stage and presenting it in a different form. Aritra Sengupta from M.A.D delved on how this particular form of drama bridges the gap between the actual performances and the rehearsals, while Anuvab Sengupta from Hypokrites spoke about the benefits of intimate theatre, including its low cost of production and the dialogue that it facilitates between the viewer and the performer. The negligible scope of error in Intimate Theatre was another aspect which was discussed at length.

The first performance of the evening was ‘Why So Serious?’ by Notice Board. The play was centred around student politics prevalent in the city and how it affects an individual.  With some effective use of props and witty dialogues, the play brought out the irony in how the two major political parties of the city differ in their ideals and actions. Spirited performances by Souradeep Roy and Adreeta Chatterjee and a fantastic portrayal of the Chief Minister by Poulomi Roy ensured that the play was a delight to watch. The live music in the background, primarily with an acoustic guitar, a couple of upturned buckets and a few plates and spoons gave a garage band-ish feel and added to the animated character of the play. Though there was sufficient scope for improvement, the play was one which provoked thoughts which have been there on every Calcuttan’s mind ever since the TMC took over, but which very few have voiced.

Next up were Bauria Peoples Repertory Theatre with their play titled ‘Bhool Rasta’ (Wrong Road). Performed in a mix of Hindi and Bengali, the play was based on Pandavani, a form of folk theatre from Chattisgarh, which narrates episodes from the Mahabharata. With an absolutely stunning performance from Utpal Phauzdar, which got a standing ovation from the audience, supported ably by Amit Das, they narrated the story of a prince who gets lost during his journey and finds a second family in the midst of the forest. By using theatre, the group put forward the evils and redundancies of social barriers which divide people.

The third play of the evening, ‘Black Coffee’ by Bibhaban was one which concentrated essentially on dialogues, rather than actions. Shobhen Ganguly and Supriyo Samajdar, two veteran theatre actors of the city, indulged in a deep conversation in a state of apparent intoxication. Through their conversation, they questioned social stigmas, such as one’s actions always being pre-decided by the ‘system’ that he or she is made to follow and, the physical aspect of a relationship with a much younger partner in comparison to the platonic feeling of love. They also highlighted how the status of a person is ascribed, rather than achieved in society. The play managed to capture the Bengali spirit with some effective dialogues and recorded music.

The next play was ‘Somebody That I Used To Know <3 :* ’ by M.A.D (Mad About Drama). It dealt with the lives of three people, their relationships with each other, and its after effects. The play went into the depths of the characters, exploring their darker sides, and bringing their post-relationship hate for each other to the surface. Aritra Sengupta, Romit Roy and Sharmistha Pandey as the three protagonists of the play put in an honest effort, though with a bit of fine-tuning, they could have managed it much better. The gradual change in their characters during the course of the play was well projected; and ultimately it was this very change, which made the play a memorable one. Although some of the basic elements of theatre were ignored, the play managed to leave a mark on the minds of the audience, as it narrated a story similar to what many people face in the course of their lives. The emoticons used in the title of the play depicting the change in a modern-day relationship from the initial love to infatuation and ultimately the realization that all of it was a mistake, was a concept well thought of, but could have been executed much better.

The last play of the evening by Hypokrites, titled ‘Bhalo’ (Good), was the shortest and probably the most impacting amongst all the plays. With an absolutely magnificent performance by Anuvab Sengupta, supported by Anindya Sain, the play recounted events from various stages of the protagonist’s life. It was centred around the theme of perception and focused on how the same thing may be perceived differently by different people, giving rise to different emotions. Satyam Bhattacharya’s live painting which went on throughout the play, found its relevance only at the end, and when it did, it left the audience with a sense of wonder and amazement.

The evening was not only about the love for theatre that these groups have or their performances. It was also which left you with a thought to spare. Overall, ‘Without Curtains’, with plays being performed in English, Hindi and Bengali (and sometimes a mix of the languages) was a treat for theatre enthusiasts in a city which refuses to let go off its innate love for the performing arts.

_______________________________________________________________

Photographs by Sounak Roy

There are many other authors whose first works (of fiction) have garnered similar reactions. Of course, there’s Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things and Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. There’s Siddharth Dhanwant Shanghvi’s The Last Song of Dusk and for that matter, even Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone. However, here’s a list of three authors whose names might not have come to your mind instantly. Feel free to add more examples of your own.

1. Keep Off the Grass – Karan Bajaj

This novel has seen its time in the bestsellers’ lists across India. Bajaj is one of the writers in India whose book sales have created records of their own. This one is about Samrat, your new-age Sindbad. His travels make him learn and unlearn more than he could have ever have imagined. From Yale to Dharamshala to Varanasi, the book will surprise you to no end. And when you do reach the end, you will discover how the title of the book is an epiphany in itself.

2. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 - Sue Townsend

In 1982, when the first of the Adrian Mole titles was published, little did author Sue Townsend know that the series would turn out to be something that boys especially in their late teens would swear by. The entire series consists of nine books and chronicles the life of Adrian Mole till the time he is married. The feelings that he has for his childhood sweetheart Pandora mirror the relationships that young couples share even today. This one is her best-selling book and till date, the most loved out of the entire series.

3. The Sari Shop – Rupa Bajwa

From a writer who hails from Amritsar herself, this book is an exploration of the lives of the various classes of society that live in the city. It takes the reader through the day-to-day life of Ramchand, an assistant at a sari shop as he visits various houses and revisits the thoughts that he has for them. Bajwa’s depiction of each of her characters is done to perfection. For me, this is a classic debut and definitely a book that should not be missed.

The redness that has crept over my face takes me to a time in the past; a time when we knew so little that each other was all we had. My red lipstick stained your neck as I pressed my lips against it. Your hands were right there, in the small of my back, pulling me toward you. As our bodies kept pace with each other, we passionately made love that night under the whirring fan. The fan, so full of dust that its blades were now brown. Brown, just like the colour of the liquid you were now sipping. You look up at me with a question on your face, a hint of concern hidden somewhere. Why wasn’t I sipping my coffee? I lifted my mug as the blue rims of your sunglasses caught my eye.

I lay down on the beach that day, panting after chasing you along the coast. You came back and plopped right next to me. You smiled, a perfect set of teeth gleaming at me, and pulled me into a tight hug. I pushed you away and looked up at the sky – clear blue and absolutely cloudless, as if the Gods knew this was to be a perfect day. The hues of blue ran down from the sky and formed a large puddle at the horizon, which came crashing at our feet every few minutes. The space between us seemed to vanish as we moved closer that summer day. And somewhere in that blue that surrounded us, I accepted you, knowing all I had was to lose. I felt your hands cupping my chin as you drew your lips to my forehead. You ruffled my hair like you always did, forcing my sunglasses back onto my eyes. I could see the blue now, with a tint of brown. Brown, just like the colour of the liquid I had now finished sipping.

You called for the cheque, pulling me back to reality, away from those faraway places that made me smile. Yesterday may have been, but today wasn’t mine. You look right at me, for the first time in many months. Your eyes are boring into mine, like you’re still searching for some part of me to love. I can see the pain that failure brings you; it is evident in your eyes. You pull me close, into a final embrace, hoping I’d give you a reason to stay. But I offer none, and just like that, I watch you walk away. You keep walking until I can barely see you, lost in the brown of the trees that line the lane.

Brown, just like the colour of your eyes. Those eyes that spoke volumes to me; for them words would never be enough. They knew me so well, every nook and corner of my body, every inch of my mind, they could read. Brown, just like the colour of the coffee you made me have on our first date. Rich, brown and pure, brewed perfectly right with no adulteration. Why would you like to consume something in a way it wasn’t meant to be? I had no answer and quietly accepted the steaming hot liquid. It was bitter, but I swallowed and refused to let you know. What started off as a compulsion, turned into acceptance and eventually, approval. The brown espresso was what you stood for in my life – pure, unadulterated and perfectly brewed, but eventually bitter.

I opened my inbox a month later to find a mail from you asking me how I was doing. Great, I thought. I’d managed to wash off all the colours you left me with – the greens, reds, yellows and blues. Save for the brown. The brown I’d always keep with me. It’s a part of you that is now mine, a part of me, in the form of my morning cup of coffee.

After being thrown into the abyss at the end of Thor, Loki attacks the Earth in order to get the Tesseract (link to Captain America) which is an energy source of unknown potential, in order to open a portal for getting his Chitauri army on Earth. In order to defend the planet or ‘avenge’ it, S.H.I.E.L.D forms a team of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and Hulk assisted by Black Widow and Hawkeye.

The first half of this film revolves around getting the superheroes to ‘gel’ with each other. The ego clashes that they have are brought out by one fight which Iron Man and Thor have. These arguments do help build the characters individually.

Now, what do you when you get average results even after getting actors such as Edward Norton and Eric Bana play the role of Hulk in the past? Well, you hire Mark Ruffallo. Even though Hulk cannot carry a film completely on his shoulders, he can overshadow the rest dude to sheer awesomeness.

Robert Downey Jr. holds his own well and is extremely funny like he is in the Sherlock Holmes and Iron Man series.  Chris Hemsworth who I feel is the weakest actor in the entire film, was spared as this film didn’t require much of his acting. Special effects do most of the work for him and even Chris Evans takes a backseat. Scarlett Johansson delivers a much better performance compared to Iron Man 2 along with Samuel L. Jackson who does what he can best – being a ‘bad motherfucker’. And as for Cobie Smulders? She’s just there.

The whole visual showdown in the climax has a very Michal Bay/Roland Emmerich influence to it. The movie on the whole is nothing new but the way it is shown; right from the witty dialogues from to the special effects puts it head and shoulders above a lot of other films. I just wish the film would have been a little shorter.

To conclude, the film is fun to watch, where you find yourself cheering for the heroes throughout the film. It’ll make you feel like reading your old comic books again.

An exhibition entitled India Dance Panoramaby Mr. Shiv Kumar will be also take place.  The exhibits are a collection of dance journalism for the past ten years sourced from clippings of newspapers, magazines, calendars and brochures. There will be performances by the students of FTII and Kala Chhaya in accordance with other student groups.  The screening of various films from Germany, France and India will take place. A unique programme of Indian film clippings of dance sequences from NFAI’s collection will be an added attraction. A  lecture on the documentation of dance and its preservation on film by Konrad Kirsch and Uma Dogra will also be a part of the festival.

If you are in Pune and want to gain an insight on the history and significance of dance in India, do pay a visit.

Dates: 26th, 27th, 28th April

Venues: NFAI, Law College Road, Pune / Max Mueller Bhavan, 14/3-B, Boat Club Road, Pune. 

The movie opens with a scene of the La Tomatina festival in Buñol, where we first get a glimpse of Eva as part of the festivity. It progresses a few seconds later to show her lying on a couch in an unkempt living room as she awakens from sleep. The movie weaves in and out of flashbacks where Eva is seen as happy, free-spirited and in love with a man named Franklin (John C. Reilly) that she eventually marries. It is clear that Eva loves to globe-trot, being a successful travel writer who roams the world and is passionate about what she does for a living. Later, she then finds herself pregnant with a boy whom she names Kevin (Ezra Miller). Kevin shows the quintessential traits of a baby but as he gets older, things sharply swerve from one scene to the next.

Initially, Eva’s mothering ways are strained, cold and distant when Kevin is young. She even turns violent in one scene where she hurls him towards a wall. The hair-raising part is that Kevin doesn’t react to the excruciating pain of a fractured arm; it is as if he is immune to such an emotion. As the years progress, Eva shifts from unforgiving mother to a compassionate parent, making up for her questionable parenting ways while Kevin was growing up. It’s disturbing to see how Kevin switches on and off between both parents – one minute he is mocking his mother, the next he is beaming at his father when he returns home from work.

It is clear that Kevin has a vendetta against his mother, maybe as an act of revenge for not being ‘good enough’. It will leave you uneasy to witness this iniquitous child unleash such hatred towards his own mother. As a child, Kevin develops a liking for archery where his father gets him initially interested and gradually hooked. As the movie inches closer to its end, the flashbacks come to a screeching halt where Kevin is found responsible for a school massacre. He takes great pleasure in knowing that his mother would return home later that night to two dead bodies sprawled out in the backyard. The movie boils down to one thing – he was out to get his mother.

After two years of having to deal with the neighborhood blaming her for the crimes committed by her son, Eva finally finds herself asking him the one thing that solely matters at this point – why? The answer to this is in no way reassuring to Eva or the audience but it will surely have you in a state of disbelief.

 The characters in the movie need a well-deserved round of applause for bringing their roles to life and having us inch closer to the screen in perverse anticipation. Needless to say, I’m sure the movie does the book justice in capturing the lurid reality of madness in a nutshell.

After years of speculation; Google launched Google Drive, which is their cloud storage service. In theory, it existed ever since Gmail came out with its insane storage capacity; the only catch was that it lacked an interface.

However Google Drive is more than just network storage. Google is plugging it as collaboration as well as storage tool. With that spirit in mind, the Google Docs service has been shifted to Google Drive. Therefore, any user can work with others (in real time) on documents, spread sheets and presentations. Once this content is shared with others, comments can be added on anything (PDFs, images, video files etc.) and the user can also receive notifications when other people comment on shared items.

Google is also promoting a few apps available for Google Drive which allow any user to edit videos and images, and create mock-up designs. It has also launched the Android app on the Android Play Store. For now, this app seems to be more Google Docs-oriented rather than an actual complete cloud storage app like the DropBox app for Android. The ability to create folders is sorely missed on the Android app since this can be done only using the web interface. An app for iOS devices is expected soon.

It offers 5GB of storage for free. People pay on an increasing scale for more space and this seems to be a convenient solution. Of course, Google is a little late since Apple, Microsoft and DropBox are already players in this rapidly developing market. So, what is different? Well, according to an official blog post, Google Drive will take cloud storage one step further.

It will have advanced features such as photo recognition, as the official announcement states: “We also use image recognition so that if you drag and drop photos from your Grand Canyon trip into Drive, you can later search for [grand canyon] and photos of its gorges should pop up.”

Besides this, it is said to have Optical Character Recognition (OCR) built in and therefore, even a scanned document can be searched directly for the words that appear in the document. For example, you scan your physical report card and upload it to Google Drive; you will be able to search the document for your Physics marks by just typing [physics].

So where does this new offering stand in comparison to its competition? Well here’s a quick comparative table for you to decide. But I like the way Stephen Shankland from CNET puts it; he says something which has a large convenience value – users should use all of these services so as to have access to a combined large storage space for free.

All of the characters and situations used in the stories are almost extracts out of the everyday. The circumstances are also so real that you tend to live the story rather than just read it. A matter of shame however is how a majority of the tales start out beautifully; build up to a point of thrilling engagement but fall flat towards the end.

The ones that did stand out for being wholesome are these -

Song of the Summer Bird – Anita Satyajit

This is the tale of a delightful little 8-year old whose love for books leads her on to explore new territories. The simple narrative and hidden innocence leave you heaving a sigh when you ultimately turn the page to the next story.

Mindgames – Manisha Dhingra

This story will have you hooked right from line one. Though it isn’t unexplored ground, this boy-meets-girl drama travels on a whole different tangent. The beauty of the thread of events lies in its unpredictability and its culmination into a worthy end.

Look How Far We’ve Come – Shreya Maheshwari

Love is as tough as it is beautiful, explains this little treasure of a story that involves a divorced couple and their young son. The giddy feeling of love, the promise of marriage and grand plans of building a family, only to see it all take unexpected turns is not easy but somewhere along the journey, epiphanies come knock your door. In the end, you wouldn’t know whether to smile or hide that tear.

Crossroads – Ahmed Faiyaz

A classic example of the thoroughly complex and intertwined lives we lead, this story grips you at all the right places. Written with precise detail with justice done to the characters introduced, it meanders through a certain self-created chaos only to end at a complete standstill.

Footsteps in the Dark – Mini Menon

There is no word that describes this story as best as ‘haunting’. An absolute must-read from the book, the story literally sets your heart racing by the way of its transparency. The stream of thought, the attention to detail and its indulgent nature let you feel a complete spectrum of emotions.

Other stories that deserve distinct mentions include The Pink Slip by Malcolm Carvalho for possibly being the one story that makes you laugh and Plummet by Avani Rajesh & Pranav Mukul for being a terrifyingly beautiful mix of innocence, boldness and naivety.

Pick this book up but don’t plan on sitting through it in one go. Allow the stories to settle in your mind for trust me when I say this, each one has something distinct to offer.