Home is a film about Fulmani, a resident tea plantation worker, and her impending retirement. In order to keep her home after she retires, Fulmani must send her daughter Aarti to take her place at the plantation…reports Asian Lite News
It’s an exciting time since the spotlight is now shining brightly on the performers on stage. The NCPA produces, performs, and hosts world-class theatrical productions that delight, challenge, and inspire. And the stage is abuzz with a fantastic line-up of presentations.
Coming up in February:
Reality Check (The Show Must Go On) I An NCPA Presentation in collaboration with Cinema Collective
The NCPA has revived the Reality Check?film?series, which was started in 2014, to promote and encourage documentary filmmakers in India, whose work reflects life and culture in the country today in a provocative blend of creativity and integrity.
After decades of dormancy, the aging icons of Parsi theatre return to the stage, putting aside their walking sticks and wheelchairs. Plunging into rehearsals, this documentary chronicles the resilience of a singular cast of characters that want nothing more than to go out with a bang. For most of them, it will be the last time on stage after careers spanning over half a century. As the film tumbles headfirst into the creative chaos of rehearsals, we get an intimate portrait of the bonds shared between veteran stars and youngsters, along with a distinct flavor of their sensibilities, marked by a particular brand of not-so-subtle humor that is uniquely their own. The actors want to put up the best show they can. In a way, this film is also very much about celebrating old age. About how people considered well past their prime, still have so much to give, while being their flawed and joyous selves. A great tragedy befalls the cast on the eve of the final show. Will it change everything? Or will the show go on, despite all odds?
Date – Friday, February 3
Time – 5.00 p.m. and 7.30 p.m. (Followed by a discussion)
Venue – Godrej Dance Theatre, NCPA
Tickets – Free Entry, on a first come first serve basis
Documentary Film Screening| English, Hindi & Gujarati | 60 mins
Lavanyavati (Premiere Show in Mumbai) I An NCPA Presentation in collaboration with Kali Billi Productions
Lavanyavati is a performance devised in collaboration with Lavani and Tamasha artists. In this performance, we follow the journey of Lavani through the years. The dance form, which is part of Maharashtra’s folk tradition, has evolved over time with changes in social, political, and cultural developments as well as changing audience preferences. It has not just survived but thrived through these changing times and has become a part of contemporary cultural identity. Starting from the traditional form of Tamasha and Sangeet Bari performed mainly in rural areas and smaller towns of Maharashtra, it has also reached audiences in metro cities like Mumbai.
Exploring the meaning of Lavanyavati (one who performs Lavani), we start our journey from the early 1800s till today. In this performance, we look at Lavani and Lavanyavati through the lens of legacy, gender, and modern feminism.
The performance is devised in the form of documentary theatre. Along with live performances of Lavani songs, we share stories, archival material like family photographs, video interviews, and contemporary works like our collaboration with the Agents of Ishq and Paromita Vohra.
Dance Performance in Documentary Theatre |Marathi, English| 90 mins
Date – Saturday, February 4
Time – 5.00 p.m. & 7.30 p.m.
Venue – Experimental Theatre, NCPA
Tickets – Book Here
Dekh Behen (99th & 100th Show) I An NCPA Presentation in collaboration with Akvarious Productions
A big fat Delhi wedding is underway. Merely hours before they need to put up their rehearsed item number, five bridesmaids catch up, gossip, eat, drink and bitch about their identical outfits. But that is not the only thing they have in common. They all dislike the bride. Akvarious Productions presents an all-female cast and crew in a bittersweet comedy about daughters, girlfriends, mothers, sisters, and wives, and getting through one wretched shaadi ka function.
English/Hindi Play | 100th Show| 18+| 70 mins
Date – Sunday, February 5
Time – 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Venue – Experimental Theatre, NCPA
Tickets – Book Here
One Week And A Day I The Indian Express Film Club screening in association with NCPA & Embassy of Israel
One week and a day is a bittersweet drama about families, neighbors, and the glue that keeps people together. A grieving father steals medicinal marijuana from a hospice, skips work, and hangs out with his estranged neighbor’s son, while his wife tries to get back to her daily routine as she fights off school teachers, stray kittens, and dental clinic workers.
Hebrew Language with English Subtitles | 98 mins
Date – Tuesday, February 7
Time – 6.30 p.m. (Followed by a discussion)
Venue – Godrej Dance Theatre, NCPA
Tickets – Free Entry, on a first come first serve basis
The film screening will be followed by a discussion with Shubhra Gupta, Film Critic, and The Indian Express.
The Book Of Dust I An NCPA National Theatre Live (London) Presentation
Elevator pitch: Set 12 years before the epic His Dark Materials trilogy, this gripping adaptation revisits Phillip Pullman’s fantastical world in which waters are rising and storms are brewing. Two young people and their demons, with everything at stake, find themselves at the center of a terrifying manhunt. In their care is a tiny child called Lyra Belacqua, and in that child lies the fate of the future.
Screening | English | 3hrs | 6yrs+ Date – Wednesday, February 8
Time – 6:00 pm
Venue – Dance Theatre Godrej, NCPA
Tickets – Book Here
Comedy for Comedy’s Sake I An NCPA-Off Stage Presentation in collaboration with Comedy Ladder
Valentine’s Day is for Love but also for broken hearts. A breakup is part of life, and if you haven’t had your heart broken, this is a great place to learn how it may happen and how to deal with a broken heart. Come and watch some very funny comics talk about their past relationships and share their experience.
Comedy | English, Hindi | 16yrs + | 1hr 30mins
Date – Tuesday, February 14
Time – 7.00 pm
Venue – Dance Theatre Godrej, NCPA
Tickets – Book Here
Readings In The Shed – Letters of Love I An NCPA Off-Stage Presentation?
When was the last time you wrote a love letter? Or penned a quick note to your beloved? In these times of beeps and pings, ink and pen messages seem to be losing their relevance. Until you come across an old trunk or a shoebox, scoot the dust bunnies off, that is. And lo and behold, they emerge…on yellowed paper and in faded ink, words that are, or deserve to be, immortal. Join us as we dig through the archives of some famous folk to uncover love stories that have lived on. Readings in the Shed presents the fifth edition of Letters of Love?
Storytelling | English, Hindi | 2hrs
Date – Tuesday, February 14
Time – 7.00 p.m.
Venue – Tata Garden, NCPA
Tickets – Book Here
Aurat Aurat Aurat I An NCPA Presentation in collaboration with Motley Productions
An all-female cast enacts selections from Ismat Chughtai’s autobiography, and three other writings (Ek Shauhar ki Khaatir, Aadhi Aurat Aadha Khwab, and Soney ka Anda) which are essays rather than stories, reflecting Chughtai’s abiding concern for the state of womanhood, her impatience with empty rituals and her anger at the condescension women are subjected to.
Drama| English, Hindi| 2hrs | 12yrs
Date – Saturday, February 18
Time – 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Venue – Experimental Theatre, NCPA
Tickets – Book Here
Bhagi Hui Ladkiyan (Theatre Group from Delhi) I An NCPA Presentation in collaboration with Aagaaz Productions
The play explores the actors’ gendered bodies and their relationship with the self, others, and public spaces-the piece uses objects, physical theatre, and cartography to devise a thought-provoking experience.
These stories begin on a random day. These are first-hand retellings of day-today in Nizamuddin Basti. The spectator is invited to enter the performer’s world through the everydayness of the narrative. The stories begin to twist into tales of how gender and sexuality play out in the lives of the four actors. Conversations about family, trust, consent, personal space, and gender dynamics begin to surface. Their questions and confusions about their identity and how they are perceived within the boundaries of their home and their community, come forth through their words and actions.
The play attempts to highlight the contrast between the confining yet comfortable quality of the home space and the liberating aspects of the outside world. The differences between ‘who I am’ and ‘how people see me’ guide the explorations that the performers embark on. The audience is invited to experience the happenings through a gender-sensitive lens.
Drama | Hindustani | 1hr 5mins | 13yrs+
Date – Sunday, February 19
Time – 7 p.m.
Venue – Experimental Theatre, NCPA
Tickets – Book Here
Taking Sides I NCPA Presents the Company Theatre production
The play is set in post-World War II Germany, during the period of ‘denazification’. While on the surface the play is about the investigation of a world-famous music conductor of that time-Wilhelm Furtwangler-it takes on larger discussions and motifs spanning music, art, culture, life, politics, morality, ethics, and more.
Drama | English | 2hrs 5mins Date – Saturday, February 25
Time – 5.00 p.m. & 8.00 p.m.
Venue – Experimental Theatre, NCPA
Tickets – Book Here
Short Film Corner I An NCPA Presentation in collaboration with White Wall Screenings
Home I Hindi film with English subtitles (13 mins)
Home is a film about Fulmani, a resident tea plantation worker, and her impending retirement. In order to keep her home after she retires, Fulmani must send her daughter Aarti to take her place at the plantation. But this decision comes at the cost of her daughter’s future, which she had hoped to protect from an exploitative and back-breaking labor system.
Home 2 I Hindi film with English Subtitles (12 minutes)
One afternoon, 7-year-old Inaya is suddenly unable to recognize her own parents and starts feeling like a captive in her home. Her parents call the therapist to uncover the mystery of what happened to their child.
Soul-Kadhi I Hindi film with English subtitles (13 mins)
In the upside-down realm of the night, an orphan daughter-in-law and her mother-in-law develop an uncanny bond. Secrets are spilled, recipes shared and late-night thoughts exchanged that will set them free…literally.
Date – Friday, February 24
Time – 6.30 p.m.
Venue – Little Theatre, NCPA
Tickets – Free Entry, on a first come first serve basis
NCPA’s Indian Music Line up for February
The NCPA embraces all the major strands of Indian music and continues to feature a wide spectrum of artistes – from up-and-coming to top-ranking and living legends. The range of genres is equally diverse – from pure classical, and semi-classical to devotional, light, regional, folk and cross-over music. The unique thematic element associated with each property makes it exclusive. Over the past decade, NCPA’s thematically curated Indian music festivals have been appreciated by artistes as well as audiences worldwide.
Coming up in February:
L. Subramaniam
Sama’a : The Mystical Ecstasy
Festival of Sufi Music (4 events)
Rangreza: a musical presentation based on Sufi poetry
When: Friday, February 10, 6.30 p.m.
Where: Experimental Theatre, NCPA
Tickets: Book My Show
Concept & narration: Suhail Akhtar Warsi
Singers: Girish Sadhwani and Pooja Gaitonde
About the performance: The pain of separation from the Creator is at the core of Sufi lyrics and music. Themes and styles established in Arabic, Persian and Punjabi-Sindhi poetry have had an enormous influence on poetry and music throughout the Sufi world. While saint-philosophers like Rumi, Lal Dedh, Kabir and others, have fervently expressed their love and longing for the Divine through their poetry, we find similar thoughts also being echoed in works of others like Mir, Ghalib, Tukaram, Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and many Bhakti poets across ages in numerous languages.
Rangreza portrays hues of the ultimate truth as revealed by numerous philosophers from Amir Khusrau, Baba Bulle Shah and Meera Bai, to Guru Nanak, Shahbaz Qalandar and such others who wrote in various dialects such as Awadhi, Saraiki, Behawalpuri, Multani, Hindustani, Hindavi and Punjabi.
In a style that has a harmonious blend of traditional and contemporary musical elements, the presentation will showcase the similarity of thoughts underlying the diverse poetic works, highlighting the universality of the truth.
Ovi Ovi Gumphali
An Ode to Rumi: Presentation based on the Poetry of Mevlana Rumi by Kabir Bedi
When: Saturday, February 11, 6.30 p.m.
Where: Experimental Theatre, NCPA
Tickets: Book My Show
Concept & design: Jai and Taru Talwar
About the performance: Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi (1207-1273), popularly known as Mevlana Rumi, was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian and Sufi mystic who composed one of the crowning glories of Persian literature, which profoundly affected the Persian cultural sphere of Khorasan.
Although originally written in Persian, Rumi’s poems have been widely translated into many international languages including Urdu and Punjabi. Rumi’s works transcend national and ethnic borders and seem to be relevant even today across varied cultures.
Blessed with a sonorous voice, Kabir Bedi, one of India’s best-known international actors, will read a selection of poetry penned by Rumi.
The presentation will be divided into five parts: The Seeker, Finding Love, Tasting the Divine, The Awakening and Union with the Divine.
Suhail Akhtar Warsi & Pooja Gaitonde
Rumiyana: a journey within
Presented by The Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust
When: Sunday, February 12, 3.30 p.m. & 5.30 p.m.
Where: Experimental Theatre, NCPA
Tickets: Book My Show
Direction & design: Dadi D. Pudumjee
Text & animation: Shaaz Ahmed
Music: Sandeep Pillai
Language: English
Duration: 60 mins
About the performance: Rumiyana is a multimedia musical puppet theatre performance based on Mevlana Rumi’s work, Masnavi, whose influence transcends national borders and unites people of all races, nationality, and gender across the globe, owing to the universality of his thoughts.
Enacted by two performers, the master and the student, the performance is synergised with dancers, puppeteers and visual theatre with specially composed music.
The dialogue of the story which is narrated at the threshold of a door unfolds a journey within, to unravel the path outside. Four stories emerge out of a single narrative to tell a tale of seeking and receiving, from being the light to spreading light to shining bright – the Unity of vision.
The presentation with animations and projections explores the concept of pluralism, and unity of all existence, as one. It uses the metaphors of soul, body, and shadow to realise the idea of the true self. It promotes unity, love, and peace, by the celebration of diversity, for there are, as many ways as there are seekers.
Raga Rang – Parthiv Gohil
Within: songs of the sacred
By Sonam Kalra & The Sufi Gospel Project
When: Sunday, February 12, 7.30 p.m.
Where: Tata Theatre, NCPA
Tickets: Book My Show
About the performance: Delve into a deeper understanding of the true meaning of Sufism as Sonam Kalra, a multifaceted singer and composer, seeks to blend the many voices of faith, through poetry, prayer and music to create one universal voice of faith.
In this presentation, prayer and poetry from different languages and religions come together to create a sound that touches every soul. The mystic poetry of Sufi poets like Kabir, Bulleh Shah, Amir Khusrau and Zaheen Shah Tajji are presented to highlight the one absolute truth; that God is within. Where the call to Allah finds resonance in the ever-soothing Sikh morning prayer and Vedic chants, where the poetry and ideologies of Sufi mystics from across the world find common ground across time and region, and where Indian classical sounds seamlessly flow into the Western accompaniment.
Thus, the lines between religions are blurred through the beauty of note and music, revealing that no matter what the language of the lyrics or the ethnicity of the sounds, there is but one language, the language of faith.
And that is the universal truth.
Ovi Ovi Gumphali: Celebrating Marathi Language Day
An NCPA Presentation In association with the Directorate of Cultural Affairs, Government of Maharashtra
Concept & Presentation: Dhanashree Lele
Supported by Preeti Joshi, Deepti Joshi
Music Arrangement: Vikram Muzumdar
When: Friday, February 24, 6.30 p.m.
Where: Experimental Theatre, NCPA
(Event to be presented in Marathi)
Entry – Free on a first come first served basis
Sonam Kalra
About the performance: Marathi, like many other languages, is endowed with a rich vocabulary. Oral tradition associated with it also shows a wealth of literary forms. Ovi is one such form used as a medium of expression, mainly by the so-called “illiterate” women folk while they engaged in the drudgery of household chores. Couched with the most appropriate words capable of expressing finer shades of emotions, the verses of ovi are meant to unequivocally state the Universal truth in the simplest manner. Moreover, plain yet sonorous tunes to which they are set, make a mesmerising impact on listeners. Today, while many Marathi words are going out of vogue from colloquial usage, the ovi literature seems to still retain some priceless age-old expressions.
Dhanashree Lele is an impressive orator, award-winning author, scriptwriter and multilingual compere renowned for her scholarship in Sanskrit literature and spiritual subjects.
Organised on the occasion of Marathi bhasha divas, this event aims to showcase a range of literary forms from the oral tradition of Maharashtra. Besides presenting some ovis with their original tunes, the event will also feature allied forms like bhav geet, bhakti geet etc., including a few that have been used in Marathi films.
Raga Rang: Raga-based songs from Hindi films of yesteryears
Parthiv Gohil & group
In association with Sahachari Foundation Events
When: Saturday, February 25, 6.30 p.m.
Where: Tata Theatre
Tickets: Box office opens on 29th of January, 2023
About the performance: This thematic presentation showcases gems of poetry and musical works featured in old Hindi films that are based on classical ragas and raginis. These timeless melodies continue to enthral listeners even today.
Having trained with several reputed masters like Laxmipati Shukla and Zia Fariduddin Dagar, Parthiv Gohil went on to become a playback singer performing for a host of films like Devdas, Saawariya, Vada Raha and others. His other projects include participation in the iconic song Phir mile sur mera tumhara and MTV performance with reputed artistes. Notable among the numerous awards received by Parthiv include best playback singer for the Gujarati films in 2007 & 2009. Parthiv and his group will present a special selection of geets and ghazals written by iconic lyricists and composed by legendary film music composers of the yester years.
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