From fatherhood to a forlorn lover’s tale, the plays to be staged at the Hindi theatre festival Ananda, tackle different topics dealt in completely different styles. The festival spans across three days with a new play being staged on each day. The Guide takes a look at what the festival has in store.

Kalaam
A play that deals with terrorism, bureaucracy and media, Kalaam is a take on the current state of affairs in our society through three characters — a terrorist, a bureaucrat and a peon. The play is the first Hindi production by Silly Point Productions and has been written by Meherzad Patel and Danesh Khambata. Patel first wrote the play as a 14-minute play in English about two years back. “When we decided to produce it, we realised it just didn’t click in English. It felt fake, felt like a translation in English and we hence decided to do it in Hindi,” admits Patel. The play has three monologues by the three protagonists and the three different stories are later linked together by a fourth character. “The fourth character is a woman who plays the role of a mother, daughter, police officer linking the stories together. We look at the struggles of the three people. I wanted the audience to look at them as people and not just as the stereotypes they are supposed to be,” he says, adding, “The play is also a direct criticism on the bureaucracy that exists in our society, because of which the lower class suffers. No one is ready to take responsibility and terrorists go scot free.”