Swastik has been organizing Chaturang Theatre Festival for six consecutive years and it has been a regular feature of the cultural landscape of Goa. Café has the details about the upcoming seventh edition

 Swastik-Panaji is organizing its seventh edition ofChaturang Theatre Festival on October 12, 13 and 14, 2018, at DMK, Kala Academy – Panaji. This edition of Chaturang Theatre Festival is dedicated to the great Goan thespian Late Tatoba Velingkar of Veling.
Well appreciated and critically acclaimed plays in Hindi, English and Marathi and 2 stand-up comedy acts will be staged this year.

The festival will begin with a Hindi stand-up comedy show by the talented Raju Srivastava on Friday, October 12, at 6:30 p.m. Srivastav has performed in stage shows in India and abroad. He gained initial notice as an Amitabh Bachchan look-alike. He started his career by doing small roles in Bollywood films. He entered comedy in the talent show The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and finished as second runner-up, subsequently taking part in the spin-off, The Great Indian Laughter Challenge – Champions, in which he won the title of “The King of Comedy”. He is best known for his observational comedy about various instances in daily life.

On Saturday, October 13, 3:30 p.m., a Marathi Play “Challenge” will be staged. It is a critically acclaimed Marathi play which is making waves all over Maharashtra. Challenge is a play which speaks about freedom fighters Savarkar and Madanlal Dhingra’s friendship. When Dhingra is highly doubted about his loyalties towards the nation and Savarkar by his fellow freedom fighters, in that period Savarkar keeps his faith in him and proves his patriotism to the whole team. It is written and directed by Digpal Lanjekar and produced by Mukta Barve and Dinesh Pednekar under Anamika and Saisakshi’s banner.

On Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. there will be an English Stand-up Comedy Show by two versatile comedians of this generation – Sorabh Pant and Anirban Dasgupta. Sorabh Pant is one of India’s leading comedians, the kind to expend the last drop of energy and Glucon-D to make you laugh. Sorabh has done over 1000 shows in 60 cities across 15 countries, as well as 300+ corporate shows. In his three-year affair with stand-up, Anirban has performed extensively across the country, been featured as a ‘Best in Stand up’ act and has opened for the biggest stars, including Vir Das and Cyrus Barucha. Anirban has featured in over 400 shows, which include auditorium shows, college fests, corporate and private shows. These two will make sure to tickle your funny bone.

The last day of this festival, Sunday October 14, will begin with fun-filled, humorous story of that drama, ‘Vastraharan’ made quite a sensation when it was staged forthe first time in February 1980 by Machchindranath Kambli, a renowned Marathi- Malvani theatre actor-director and made history of performing for the 5000th time, at the Shanmukhan Hall on 21st November 2009. The classic is now coming back with a bang. Based on the life of Draupadi, when the Kauravas tried to disrobe her, ‘Vastraharan’ is a play within a play-rather a play that never was! In a small village of Konkan called Revandi, the villagers have gathered together to perform a story from the Mahabharat, that of Draupadi Vastraharan – the disrobing of Draupadi. One of the striking features of this play is that celebrity actors are going to perform in this hilarious play.

On Sunday, at 03:30 p.m. an award winning Marathi Musical Play titled “Devbabhali” is going to be staged. This play has been appreciated by veterans such as Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal, Nana Patekar, Saiee Paranjape, Vijaya Mehta and so on. Sangeet Devbabhali – is a soulful musical journey comprising of old and new Abhanga that transports you through a spiritual journey! The play features Shubhangi Sadavarte as Avali and Manasi Joshi as Lakhubai. The achievements of the two-hour performance rest in the direction of Prajakt Deshmukh. Soulful abhangs and background music is directed by Anand Oak. Sangeet Devbabhali is a period drama that blends a legend, some elements of fiction and episodes from the real life story of the saint-poet Tukaram and his wife Avali.

The concluding show of the theatre festival will be an English play by Bharat Dabholkar titled “That’s My Girl” starring Ananth Mahadevan, Shweta Rohira and Ananya Dutta. ‘That’s My Girl’ is a story of a daughter who has come looking for a role in Hindi Film Industry and meets her Father who had deserted her and her Mother 20 years back. Although the undercurrent of the story is very emotional and sensitive, every line brings smile and laughter on faces. The interaction between Daughter-a wannabe Film Actress and Father-a veteran Film Writer is hilarious but chokes the heart in some moments.

Top Bollywood and TV actors like Paresh Rawal, Manoj Joshi, Asrani, Padmini Kolhapure, Mukta Barve, Reema Lagu, Sonali Kulkarni, Arif Zakaria, Rohini Hattangady and Tushar Dalvi have performed at this festival in the past.

The tickets of the theatre festival are available at Pastry Cottage – Campal. For online booking log on to www.swastikgoa.org.

This article was first published on Herald cafe on 7th Oct 2018