Normally people celebrate 1st January as the day of new year… a new start… a new ray of light… a new hope of life! It was the same day – 1st January of year 2002 when we had our competition show at Kamgaar Kalyan Theatre, Vikhroli. It was December 27-28 when I had packed my bags from my hometown Thane & had shifted to Pune.
It was august of 2001 when my writer friend came with a script asking me to read it & give my opinion. That was the first time I was obsessed by that script. It was a play of 40-45 minutes then & he wanted it to be performed in some one-act competition. The discussion later ended up on a note that it had to be a complete play of over 2 hours. It of course had that potential.
After a lot of discussions, conflicts, re-writing, efforts for collecting money from all possible sources (those were days when nobody in the group was working & earning a single penny), struggling to find props and regular rehearsals for over 4 months; finally we had a good show on 1st January 2002. The play won almost 5 prizes. Later, it was august 2003 when I had started working with a new publication in Pune, the play made a history.. same year we performed in the state level competition & bagged a few more! Ranked 1st amongst 23 participants & was selected for the finals at Ahmednagar. The claps, standing ovation & appreciation continued at Gadkari Rangayatan Thane.
This all came to my mind when I saw the same play some days back at Balgandharva Theatre Pune. The feeling while seeing a well-known actor Pradip Patwardhan playing Dr. Kotnis (the role which I used to play) – the dean of the hospital, is beyond words. He was given maximum movements & actions that I had worked out during the initial phase. I was seeing myself on stage & was enjoying it sitting in the audience at the same time! That was January 2002 & this was January 2012 – the feeling was still the same!!
Scripts are born successful or born dead. ‘Dhan-vantari’ is an example of former. Well… I’m glad that the story of ‘Dhan-vantari’ didn’t end there. It’s still doing well commercially irrespective of the problems it faced at the time of its birth. Wishes to the new professional team.
Cheers!
- Abhijit
कमाल!!😇
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