They have organized a gazal program in the evening, invited the supremely gifted Pooja Gaitonde who I believe is the heartbeat of Indore. It is a houseful audience clad in coats and shawls all geared up to stay up a long time listening to the popular artiste.  Everyone is in high spirits as Gaitonde travels them from Kesariya balam…  Suffi and finally gazal… There is a thunderous applause as she begins ‘Aaj jaane ki zid na karo…’

The night is young and nobody appears to be in a hurry but I have my personal plans for the city. I have heard a lot about an interesting place called Saraafa and requested my new friend, a motivational speaker and debut author Shashank Kasliwal to take me there.

As we walk out of the campus to find our car, I notice that the security guards at the campus have lit a bonfire and are relishing kadak chai. I decide to join them spontaneously and they are more than happy to share pages from their villages – happy stories, sad stories that have the potential for a powerful script but let’s leave that for another time as today the much talked about Saraafa awaits us.

What is Saraafa, what happens there; well you will have to wait a little longer!

@bhawanasomaaya

The interesting about any festival anywhere is that that there are discussions in all languages and all topics. So we have poets reciting in Gujarati, reading stories in Hindi, Taslima Nasreen reading a Bangla poem from her phone and another young author speaking in English.

The audience came in equal numbers – friends, families, relatives, in short everyone attracted to literature. All the speakers were defined a limited time and all of them respected the schedule.

Pravin Sharma, editor Hello Hindustan made sure that he was present at all the sessions, introduced the speakers himself and supervised their stay personally as well.

His large team of volunteers worked efficiently both on and off the sets, they collected stories for their next day edition.

@bhawanasomaaya

Every year this time of the year Pravin Sharma of Hello Hindustan hosts Indore Lit Fest inviting the best authors/ poets/ artists to his city and every year the three-day festival is an opportunity for the storytellers to get together and share their experiences.

The city is clean and uncluttered and Sayaji Hotel our host for the festival flawless in aesthetics and in service.

I check into my room, order a quick lunch and head for the venue to listen to seasoned poets recite their latest writings.

There is a huge poster of the festival all around and young volunteers going out of their way to make you comfortable. This time they have restricted the schedule with just two sessions at a time, one inside the tent the more serious panel discussion and the lighter one, usually a workshop outside the tent. There is an Author Lounge where the speakers can relax before and after the session and it is the place where interviewers seek time to chat with authors.

@bhawanasomaaya

Film: Fukrey Returns

Date: 08.12.2017

Director: Mrighdeep Singh Lamba

Producer: Excel Entertainment

Cast: Pulkit Samrat, Varun Sharma, Ali Fazal, Manjot Singh, Richa Chadda

Ratings: 1.5 stars

Fukrey Retuurns is the remake of 2013 release Fukrey starring four slackers Hunny/ Pulkit Samrat, Chucha/Varun Sharma, Zafar/ Ali Fazal and Laali/ Manojit Singh who come together to make easy money and live up to their notorious image in Delhi. In the sequel, they are joined by a fifth partner in the crime, Panditj marvelously played by Pankaj Tripathi.

Bholi Pujaban portrayed by the saucy Richa Sharma controlled the four friends who were vastly relieved when the don went behind the bars in the prequel. In Fukrey Returns Richa Sharma is back from the jail and the boys are back to hunting treasure for the don.

In the two hours 21-minute film the characters wander all over the city – the zoo, the ruins, the minister’s bungalow and a glamorous stay at a 7-star hotel. There was no storyline in the prequel and there’s no plot in the sequel either unless you call Varun Sharma having premonitions a serious track? Many described Fukrey as a delightful watch and many were cracking with laughter at the screening of Fukrey Returns too.

I didn’t get the humour the first time nor the second time. If you are my age bracket I suggest you stay far away from the film. If you are under 30, relish senseless chatter and senseless PJs, in short, you are a slacker, you can get your mad friends together and head to the nearest cinema hall.

As a critic it’s not always possible that you fathom every film you watch, I couldn’t figure out Fukrey nor Fukrey Returns but for the competent performances, I rate the film with 2 stars.

@bhawanasomaaya

Writer-director Gulzar and Salim Arif have done many combined collaborations for theatre, this is one more. Essay Ppl is about a puppet Pinocchi that comes alive with the help of Jimini his conscience and now he has to prove a worthy boy to himself and others. Gulzar has written extensively for children – books/ poetry/ prose/ theatre but this one is beyond his earlier productions because he raises the vital question that is relevant in present times.

IPTA’s Bobby Ki Kahani tells about a little girl called Bobby who has been brought up by her parents like a boy. The story has no connection with Raj Kapoor’s Bobby because this one is written by legendary Vijay Tendulkar and adapted by Shivdas Ghodke. It is interesting how so many decades later the subject still has relevance in our society and echoes the same sentiments in our children.

@bhawanasomaaya

I’m at a book launch and in the middle of the event my What’sUp reads: Shashi Kapoor no more.

I knew he was in the hospital… I knew he was not doing well, his daughter Sanjana Kapoor had discussed he was deteriorating but I was hoping he would fight back and return home. He didn’t.

As I rush out of the venue waiting for my car, I discover it is thundering and raining heavily. There is no reason for this sudden climate change and I wonder if it is nature’s way of displaying anxiety over Shashiji’s exit.

It is a dark stormy evening and as I drive home, my mind wanders to the first time I met Shashi Kapoor way back in the 70s. I had called his home to fix an appointment for an interview and he asked me to come over the following morning to Famous Studio. Still in college and inexperienced I innocently asked ‘Where is that?’ ‘Open the directory young lady and find out for yourself’ was his answer.  That was the first lesson I learnt as a journalist. You don’t ask directions, you figure it out yourself.

He gave me a wonderful interview and I kept meeting him again and again chronicling his life and career over the years.  He was extremely charming and devastatingly good-looking and female reporters fought with each other to interview him. He was the busiest star in film firmament in the 70s shooting double/ triple shifts a day and conducted all his meeting/ interviews in his car, driving from one studio to another.

Shashi Kapoor has unknowingly been a major influence in my grooming as a journalist. There are many lessons I have learnt from him. Once due to shortage of rooms at a studio he was sharing his makeup room with veteran actor Bharat Bhushan. I had an appointment with him and as soon as I entered his room began chatting with him.  He was annoyed that I had not greeted Bhushanji and when I whispered that I had not been officially introduced to him, Kapoor flared up ‘you don’t know Tansen… you don’t know Baiju Bawra  why do you presume you need introductions?’ He was right and I apologized.  Not satisfied he dragged me to his set holding my hand and made sure I said Namastey to his producer/ director/ writer and the camera man. He said it was rude to not acknowledge the unit and I have remembered that.

He said an actor must always know his lines thoroughly and he always did. He was as meticulous about his dubbings and marked his pauses on the dialogue sheet so he did not make a mistake. He was a master at time management as well and compressed all his meetings/ interviews while travelling from one studio to another. I was with him when he would meet up with foreign architects to supervise plans for Prithvi Theatre at that time an empty space. It was his dream to resurrect his father’s theatre and his wife Jennifer went all out to make Prithvi Theatre the cultural hub it is today.

When Jennifer ill, Shashi Kapoor put everything on hold to be with his wife and when she died, he went into depression and neglected himself. He put on so much weight that he had to eventually stop working.  He was not interested in acting any longer and not interested in making films either.

He continued to be attached with Prithvi Theatre fortunately and spent most of his evenings watching a play and later relishing a drink at the café.  I always bumped into him every time I visited the theatre and chatted with him about old days. Initially he found it all entertaining but as years went by and he turned frail he appeared more and more disoriented and seldom talked with anybody.

Come November though and Shashi Kapoor was always present at the Prithvi Theatre Festival to light the lamp and declare the festival open. In the later years he did the honors sitting on a wheelchair but the tradition continued. The guests were happy just to see him and it did not matter that he did not recognize them any longer.

Except this November, last month for the first time since the inception of Prithvi Theatre in the late 70s Shashi Kapoor was not present at the inaugural because he was in the hospital.  He had in recent times been in and out of the hospital so many times that all of us thought he would somehow recover and come back once again.

He didn’t but the show had to go on and Kunal Kapoor and his children kept the spirit going.

Shashi Kapoor is no more but we will remember him through his films and his legacy of Prithvi Theatre. As long as his children and his grandchildren continue with the tradition their parents believed in, Shashi Kapoor will live with us forever.

Bhawana Somaaya/ @bhawanasomaaya

One night Aadarsh falls asleep while studying for his music history exam. In his dreams, along with his sister Nidhi, he enters a strange new world of music and encounters interesting

Personalities, it is a story about adventure, friendship, struggle and celebration. Written by

Saurabh Nayyar and directed by Avneesh Mishra Sur aur Asur is a story of unconscious dreams and making them true, a story about imagination.
Mithilesh Singh written/ directed Jhumru meets Jhumri is a story about possibilities and impossibilities. Produced by Ekjute it tells about a Lion cub who wants to befriend a baby deer. Is this possible? One cannot tell till one meets the two and find out what’s going on.

@bhawanasomaaya

For three years now winter has been a special season for the children. There is a special festival featuring plays and workshops for children aged 6 years to 16 years. Perfectly timed to match the Christmas vacations Prithvi Theatre always adds a touch of creativity to the holidays for both the parents and the kids.

This season has its delightful share of plays that kicks off with Hanumanji Aa Rahe Hain about a child who is angry because the BMC has broken down the hutments and police is not helping the slum dwellers, as a result, the child seeks help from Lord Hanuman in a nearby temple which is also an illegal construction. Written by Makrand Deshpande and directed by Amogh Phadke it is an interesting perspective on conflict and resolution.

Ek Rupaiyya is about a little boy, who for a little need steals a one rupee coin, all he wants is a little happiness but heaven falls apart. Writer-director Nitin Bharadwaj taps your conscience and makes you rethink the concept of right and wrong.

@bhawanasomaaya