Saturday, October 20, 2007

'Natak'aayan and the A'wah'rds

Posted by: Rajiv Chalke

Ganeshotsav2007 has ended... and so has another hectic natak(play)schedule. Hold on! I am not attempting to detail out on the events and happenings; I will leave it to the other keyboard-happy-devanagiri-friendly-folks. I have some thing more exciting.

This may be stale news by now for some/most active Yuva, but for our global blog visitors this is the news, the update they need to know. Yuva's entry for Ganeshotsav 2007 - Kamalabai Marathe Ekankika Spardha (One-act play competition) was "Mooshakayan". This was a runaway-washout success. We ran away with many awards and washed the awards table away. The play was staged on 22nd and prizes announced on 25th September.

The play was written-conceptualized by our own Dhananjay Khare, to most of us he would pass off as another dude around us. He isn’t seen or heard much, BUT his work speaks and rocks, I am glad this was Yuva's choice for this year's entry. The comedy play was a political satire about a king and the scheming people around him. How they con him to believe that a big mouse/rat is out to kill him and in the due course to eliminate this mouse, they loot the royal treasury. All events in the play are parallels drawn from real life political scams and 'mis-happenings' of the political world. All this with added humor.

The Natak database is updated on Yuva Blog and has all the award listings. Don't fail to notice the 3 hatrick awards for the 1st place. (Actor, Music Lights). A sort of understatement... considering that prizes like Director, set , actor and Enkankika have not stopped raining on us in a while. Or am I just trying to find some new statistics all the time? (Uh- maybe… glad to do that!)

A friend even quoted "Congratulations.... On second thought - should habitual things be congratulated??" Hell yea! They should be!! Appreciation is oxygen for us artists. Isn't it guys?

This same friend and another also filled up for me for my usual tasks. He clicked photos of the play, since I ‘lost’ my way on the stage this time...and was ‘helpless’ but to put up an act there tch! tch! . Another friend who directed the play also 'feeled*' up my shoes and made the traditional 'Wah-shout' poster, while I was busy and traveling… and did a wonderful job.
(* FYI 'Feeled' was a typo made in one of the emails by a Yuva friend. Please read as 'filled' . I am just rubbing it in :P)

So here is a link to Rajesh Thipse's photo album and Sujay Ghorpadkar’s washout poster (after you read through this Yuva awards list, clap thrice. and say... Arey wah wah wah wah... WAH... ankhin edka Wah-shout!)

Others helped me a lot to keep my 'Nepathya'(Set) tradition on. Also on the stage I got help to get my lines right. I was more conversant with a different set of lines (drawing lines with my pencil, brush and mouse and covering few hundred kilometers of road and off-road lines on my bike)

Ok… let me put the longest full stop to my blabber and give you the stuff you want to see/read. Others please feel free to write your experiences at the 'Natak'ayan and how you feel about Yuva and its A'wah'rds

Ganeshotsav 2007

Best Director: 1st (Sujay Ghorpadkar)
Best Play: 1st (Mooshakayan - Yuva)
Best Actor: 1st (Mayuresh Nirhali )
Best Actor: 2nd (Raja - Prasad Vader)
Best Supporting Actor: (Mandar Sane) The only prize given. This new trophy was announced this year.
Best Lights: 1st (Amol Kulkarni, Prasad Kapre)
Best Music: 1st ( Priti Gadgil, Kedar Sirdeshpande, Shantanu)
Best Playwright: (Dhananjay Khare) The only prize given to an original written script. Another new trophy announced this year( I guess because it was noticed that someone was actually going to the next level with in-house writers).
Best Set: 2nd (Rajiv Chalke, Sagar Khedkar and Yuva)

NATAK PHOTOS–
picasaweb.google.com/rajeshthipse/Ganeshotsav07

WAHSHOUT POSTER-


VIDEO LAUNCH ( Yea! we did it this time.)