Chaheta and Mickey: Making the META cut

Chaheta and Mickey: Making the META cut

It’s that time of the year when the theatre circuit across the country is abuzz with talks of nominations and awards and the most prestigious of them all, the 15th edition of the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) Festival has announced nominations and two theatre groups from Pune have made the cut.

The senior one, in all respects, and also the past recipient, Aasakta Kalamanch, has bagged seven nominations for its play, Chaheta (The Beloved). Theatron Entertainment has bagged nine nominations for their play, Mickey.

Chaheta (The Beloved), a Hindustani play, explores the psychological scars of a survivor of a traumatic event. Chaheta’s dysfunctional family, misplaced in time, walks a fascinating line between inclusivity and alienation and in turn attempts to question the sanity and sanctity of people who claim to talk with God. It has been directed by Mohit Takalkar.

Ashish Mehta of Aasakta Kalamanch says, “We are happy to perform in Delhi at META amongst probably some of the best theatre happening in the country. For us, it’s more about the opportunity to present work in Delhi and we are glad that it happened with Chaheta. This would be the eighth play that Aasakta is performing at META and it’s both an honour and pleasure to be a part of the 15th edition of the festival.”

Mickey, which has been written and also co-directed by Virajas Kulkarni with Suraj Parasnis, is dark, edgy and funny. It is a modern Shakespearean tragedy and a character study of what happens to the best and the worst among us when pressures are high and morals low. 

Kulkarni is both intimidated and excited with the nominations. He says, “We truly didn’t expect to be nominated in so many categories. When we decided to send the entry in December last year, the uppermost thought in our mind was, ‘let’s see what happens’. It is a privilege to find our names and works amongst the leading names from the theatre fraternity. I directed my award-winning Bhanwar for Thespo, which is the brain-child of Quasar Thakore Padamsee and to have Mickey nominated alongside his Every Brilliant Thing is making me nervous and happy. I have grown up watching Piyush Mishra’s plays, and Mohit dada (Mohit Takalkar) was amongst the first ones to watch Mickey. He praised us and well, Mickey is now competing with Chaheta.”

Ruia’s Natyavalay (Mumbai) too has made a brilliant debut on META’s nomination stage with Ekadashavatar bagging a whopping 11 nominations. Dashavatar is a mythology genre play, performed primarily in Konkan and Malvan regions. The group of youngsters have used the mythological format to comment on the political situation in the country. Says Shantanu Salvi, a group member, “We performed it first for the inter-collegiate drama competitions as a one-act play. The germ of the story came from our senior Ramchadra Gaokar. He pitched the idea to Prajakta Deshmukh and she developed the script in a week’s time. We all thought this was something unique. Not all of us were familiar with the Dashavatar genre. We had heard of it, of course, but didn’t know the technicalities and nuances that went into it. Ranjit Patil, the director, and the actors watched some videos of Dashavatar and that’s how we devised this play within a play. It has references to the genre but is not completely based on it.” 

Other nominated plays 
Every Brilliant Thing directed by Quasar Thakore Padamsee, and For the Record, directed by Nikhil Mehta are the other noteworthy plays. Staged in an in-the-round setting, Every Brilliant Thing, produced by Vivek Rao and Toral Shah from QTP, is an uplifting play about love, life, family, mental health and a list of all the wonderful things in the world. This is QTP’s second innings as a META nominee and this time they have been nominated for Best Play and Best Actor in Lead Role (Male).

Gagan Damama Bajyo has been written, composed and directed by actor-playwright-poet Piyush Mishra. It is a musical on the life and times of Sardar Bhagat Singh and showcases the inspiring life story of one of India’s most celebrated freedom fighters and revolutionaries, Shaheed Bhagat Singh. The play has been nominated in six award categories.

From Kerala, Bhaskara Pattelarum Thommiyude Jeevithavum, a Malayalam play based on the novella, Bhaskara Pattelarum Entey Jeevithavum, written by famous Malayalam writer Paul Zacharia, has been nominated in three categories including Best Production and Best Actor in a Lead Role (Male).

The play deals with tyranny, social struggles, love and freedom. Directed by noted film and drama director Suveeran and produced by first-time META nominee, Backstage, the play has been nominated in three categories including Best Production and Best Actor in a Lead Role (Male).

Black Box Okhla features for the first time at META with five nominations for their production, For the Record, which recreates the deliberations, disputes and the drama of a 1971 incident when a tribunal was tasked with selecting three artifacts to represent India to the world. The play questions the ideas of representation and Indianness.
 
The Bengali play, Ghoom Nei, directed by Saurav Palodhi, is a working-class manifesto which runs through the highway of a dark and broken society reaching towards light. Produced by Thakurpukur Ichheymoto, the play has received six  nominations.

The Old Man, directed by Sahidul Haque, is an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway classic The Old Man and the Sea, performed in Assamese and gibberish. It brings out the eternal conflict between the human society and nature and deals with loneliness, hopelessness and optimism. Produced by Orchid Theatre, the play has been nominated across seven award categories.

Maze, directed by Sunil Kumar and produced by The Mimers, is a non-verbal play and depicts the relationship between a servant and an old man who are connected through a web of memory and reality. The play has been nominated across four award categories.

All the 10 plays would be staged in New Delhi from March 13-18 at Kamani Auditorium and Shri Ram Centre. The winners will be announced on March 19, 2020 at Kamani Auditorium.

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