The sixth edition of Maunaantar 2019 which will be held in Mumbai and Pune in the first week of July, has seen entries from four groups from the capital city and 16 from Pune. “The competition, which has been organised by Wide Wings Media, Fairytale Media Studio and Dreams 2 Reality, provides an open platform to people of all age groups, to explore themes without making use of speech,” says Saumitra Kulkarni, event manager of Wide Wings Media.
We chat with two groups from Mumbai about the themes that they will be depicting in the competition.
Count on expressions
Black and White Artist will be presenting a mime act play named No Man’s Land. Sandesh Ramraje, one of the members of the group, says that the concept of the play was suggested by one of the group members. He says, “The concept was developed step by step by all the team members contributing to it. No Man’s Land is a fictional story where a group of rogues travel on a ship. They are caught in a cyclone and all members, except two, get drowned. These two end up on a ‘No Man’s Land’, a place with no sign of human civilisation. The play focuses on how they survive.”
The artists are performing in Maunaantar for the second time. Says Ramraje, “Last year, we participated through our college and presented an act based on the collapse of Elphinston bridge in Mumbai. The play called Shoonya Shoonya Chaar focussed on the bond between a father and his son. But this year, we have formed our own group and are participating with 15 actors.”
In a mime act, props play an important role in building a bridge between the actors and the audience. However, gestures and non-verbal language count more. Ramraje agrees and says, “We had earlier performed a five minute mime act play in a youth festival. We didn’t use any props. For this competition, we are trying our level best to include less props and present our theme more through expressions and body movements. The five-six props that we are using are mostly symbolic.”
Props to the rescue
Abstract Art group from Dombivli is rehearsing for their play The Deaf Symphony. It is based on the life of German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Ashish Pawar, who has directed the play, says, “The Deaf Symphony is inspired by the life of Beethoven who in spite of being hearing impaired, composed beautiful music. This play showcases how art is important for an artist and how art gives all the answers.”
Prathamesh Chavan will be playing the role of Beethoven.
This group too is performing for the second time in the competition. He adds, “Last year we staged The Seed of Art, which was a pantomime used for creating illusions. It was originally developed by Marcel Marceau.”
Speaking about the challenges they faced, Pawar says, “Coming up with props was a challenge because we had to set up an entire orchestra for the play. We created props from the scratch because we wanted to establish the atmosphere of the music hall as authentically as possible.”
ST Reader Service
Maunaantar 2019, a mime act play competition will be held at Ravindra Natya Mandir in Mumbai on July 4, between 7.30 - 10.30 pm
