Damn, January's over already!!

My goodness, it's been ages. The last time I posted, we tried, 'unsuccessfully' to put up Duck Tales, as part of Thespo 11, in december 2009. Although All My Tea couldn't manage to do that, a few of us ALL MY TEA-ans managed to get back to Proscenium's Chugad dham rehearsals, and the journey of the musical began.

Just a sum-up of the last 2 months ( if anyone's not interested....OPEN YOUR MINDS, and Get Interested! )
- Singing Classes, thanks to Aditi 'Sing' Sharma, and taking us through what the 'musical' is actually supposed to be!
- Rehearsals, Rehearsals, and suddenly we hear--Thespo's asked for a couple of weekend shows for 'Confessions'!
- Different rehearsals, then musical rehearsals
- Ravindra Natya Mandir- discovery of a new, comfortable, and yet artistically inclined rehearsal space.
- Thespo @ Prithvi....Chugad dham at the NCPA EXPERIMENTAL
- Performing at the Expi after 3 years---Chutney Sandwiches, Tanaji the technician, everything came back to me!
New Year's!
January....January....January.....and I'm kinda stuck in this rut now. No idea when I'll get out. Water required. Air required. Work required. Life to be reclaimed. Wake up Divyesh!

All-My-Tea-titilations!...

I've been a jumper. Moving from here to there..absorbing ideas..letting out my own (in short, sometimes unseen bursts)...and gently skipping away to a new one. Rukawat Ke Liye Khed Hain, a play that I acted in last year, earned a few words of praise, but then kinda dissolved into oblivion for a while, as everyone of those 10 actors got busy with other things...Me, Amol, Saha, got engulfed in the Musical Extravaganza that was Chugaddham. And yet...now, after so many months...Thespo beckons, yet again. Things somehow always seem to fall in place. I tried applying for the Film Institute's Screenplay Writing course again. Faltered at the last step...Apparently I've worked on screenplays, and not LEARNT about how to work on them...that is reason enough to keep me out of a "Course"...fair enough...I used the wrong means to 'hitch my wagon'...i agree...but...all things happen for a reason.

We managed to scrape in our 1st official sponsored paid..(away from the youth festival that we premiered at)...show of Confessions, on Oct 24, at the NGMA, Kalaghoda, and we realised how even battered old souls who come to watch good theatre can get entertained by classy performances, and not get put off by the gory nature of the script in itself.

And now...on to All My Tea's latest venture.....woohoohooo...Duck Tales......Quack....don't expect what your mind jumps to when you first hear the title...it might be something you have been thinking about for a very long time...but it might not be the exact thing that first struck you when you heard it.

As for me...I'm out of comfort zone again...need to focus on my character...need to get the traits out...all simple things enough for any regular actor....but...I guess I tend to lose focus...as i Said earlier in the post, Jumping gets me exhausted...have to land on my feet, or my ass will hurt real badd!

The Magic of Theatre- Lechayim!!!

It was simply unbelievable. All of us, each and every member, actor, director, production person, have all worked on different productions at different points of time. And yet, Confessions, that dark comedy about brutal fiction coming to life, that we all begain with, that Lechayim productions begain with, always comes back, and always has something of a statement to make, in all of our lives.

And that's exactly what happened on the 2nd of Sept, in the 9.30 pm show at Prithvi Theatre. . The end of the 2nd Act.The show's about to draw to an end, half an hour more. Kashin and Divyang, on stage, taking their scene as it comes. 158 people watching intently, focussed on each and every turn the play was taking ( we have the lovely script to thank for that, apart from our performances, i hope)...and, suddenly,..the power goes off...Darkness..pitch black...prithvi staff rushes inside with candles and torches...production team, us actors up in green room start to almost panic...mobile torches set up, ready to aim at stage...when...

Divyang (K)---Detective, should we go on?
Kashin (T)---- yes, I think we should...As I was saying....
The actors let the play go on...and reading this, the audience members, were nice enough to light up torches and mobile phones of their own, and aim it towards the stage...letting the play linger on, even in the middle of this temporarily chaotic moment. Although the blackout lasted for almost 7-8 mins, it was still a beautiful sight, and it turned out to be one of our best shows ever, because the lights came on after, and the play went on, and the audience loved it, and our director came on stage and personally thanked the audience for sitting through the darkness..

Its funny how things like this happen in the theatre...Some audience members actually believed it was part of the dark scene, which was set in an interrogation room, where a sudden blackout had been part of an innovative light design....all in all, we at Lechayim would like to thank you guys again, and hope that we can continue to serve you with intelligent and rivetting plays like Confessions...its been the cornerstone of everything we've done, and with these 2 shows, especially this one, we've reached a new High...cheers...To Life, To Life, LECHAYIM!!!

Emptiness thy name is Misery

It's bound to happen...it happens everytime...you'll find something new to do....forget about it....it'll happen again soon....get over it....you're boring....you should be relieved....you can WORK now....you can earn now...you SHOULD stop all this....you BETTER stop all this now...not one more show....please, not one more play....the same play?....are you crazy?....when can we come and watch?

Wierd how the lines flowed above. But these are the thoughts that revolved around my head, over the last two days, some made vocal by lots of people, some just inside my head, being echoed inside the emptiness that is the brain...( i knew i should have had more brainfood when i was a kid)...

To the unbeknownst...the ignorant...Chugaddham Sym-phoney, and Off-beat Musical, directed by Chandan Roy Sanyal, happened last thursday, friday, at Sathye College Audi, in Vile Parle (e)...Yours truly, has been part of this maverick, madcap production, based on a Bertolt Brecht play, for the past 6 months...and...after 7 months of rehearsals...singing...voice exercises...insane travelling from home to juhu...3 different rehearsal spots...change of character...improving hindi diction...learning the ropes as an actor...unlearning all that I'd learnt as an actor...and apart from that....trying to keep parents happy, with the usual: it's alright, i'll take up a job, once this play gets a few shows down.

Just 2 shows down, and, I already feel empty...its gnawing at me...i wake up in the middle of the night, and i see my fellas around me, waiting for me to get out of the box, which i always took insane amount of time for, (thanks to my perfect figure, of course).

Its mad...it was a caper that I'm proud that I took part in...it'll come back, of course...just can't wait...i better end it here, or i might start singing one of the songs, nnd save it as an audio file here, for all of you to listen...not without the rest of them, though..

don't know what to say

It's straight out of a movie...one that's scripted to perfection...one that's been directed and executed brilliantly...just the one movie that killed everything cinema, and the freedom of 'expression' stood for. The terror strike on the city of Mumbai, on the heart and soul of the city that I derive everything from...I don't know what it's done to me. I've walked around in my house aimlessly...without any feeling of what I'm doing....it's...worse than sickening...its worse than any nightmares I've woken up with, panting and sweating and out of breath. Yes...I feel the air changing...around 30-40 kilometeres far away from the site of the attacks, and yet, I feel it in the air...in the environment.

It's easy to say we had it coming...it's easy to say we'll bounce back...but...how...just HOW the HELL did it happen? how did some random guys with GUNS come into a crowded railway terminus and shoot hapazardly? ...THE TAJ Mahal HOTEL---the entire city, especially people in the suburbs who go to town for work, have this deal with Fate, with Destiny, with their friends on Gateway too...Let me Earn enough to give you guys a superb dinner at the TAJ...what's going to happen to their dreams now?

The OBEROI--right next to the NCPA...the theatre of dreams, the place me, and my fellow thespians make our Home for the month of December...our festival Thespo, scheduled to have its 2 days on the 13th and 14th...and...we see this happen right next door...heartbreaking was an understatement.

Whoever these bastards are...they did it alright...they shook us up...they waited, and waited...they ate their meals, they sat in their positions, they waited and watched, and then attacked every round of commandos we sent in...this is just perfect. I don't mean to blame it on complacency...but 3 locations, where hostage-count, and shaheeds(people killed on duty) go on similar terms, and we find terrorists dead, or captured, in each location, less than 5...it's just...insane.

The idea that everyone I knew was safe, became secondary for the very first time that such a crisis has hit us...the places that were attacked...I've been there for the last 4-5 years almost on a daily basis...they say a name, and i see the picture in my head, before it's flashed on the television set...and all I can think of is...WHY THE HELL AM I HOME WATCHING THIS?....what could I have done? why wasn't I there? ...I am ESSENTIALLY and PRACTICALLY a scaredy-cat....and yet, I felt terrible for being away from it...when those wretched brutes were killing those hostages, and firing rounds at our soldiers.

I don't know why I'm posting this...I don't know how it helps...I know this blog was meant for me totalk theatre with you...but this is one time, when I don't stand by the line: The Show Must Go On....no...we can't have a show when people come in and point a gun at you and tell you to evacuate a theatre, or drop the curtain, and blackout an auditorium. THat's exactly what it feels like. You're caught inside an auditorium...the audience is at gunpoint, as is the cast, and crew...you can't do a thing...can't call up and let the world know...and they're gona hold you...hold tyou till this one army guy or police guy comes in and faces him and either dies from his bullet or kills him with one of his own...and for this....that's how this post came about...I dont' care about Pak's involvement, I don't care about what everyone thinks...I just know that this is an eerie image of the city, and that I'm sure that it isn't over...there's probably more to come...3 top cops killed in one night...will lead to a lot of repurcussions, among other things.

I still, still...for some stupid hopeless reason wish I could be pinched and can wake up from this NIGHTMARE and I'd still be doing Thespo work on wednesday evening, with nothing but the Festival to worry about.

22nd Birthday Memories

Once again, thanks to everybody who wished me on my birthday...* whoopee 22...no big deal, of course...just older, not wiser, still very much the same me*

Now...the big secret...not exactly, but the question on everyone's mind, since I didn't run riot with it...what did I exactly do on the night of my birthday.

Exterior: Prithvi House, Opp. Prithvi Theatre, Juhu.
A boy in his early 20's enters the frame, he's seen leaving the house. He looks towards the camera to his left, when...
cut to:
A rickshaw stops at Prithvi. Two young men get out, and pay the fare, they turn towards the theatre, when...

D: " Abbey P, J, what're you doing here? "
J: " Oh no, Yeh Dekh kaun ( Look who's here...as usual)..!"

The three of them enter Prithvi Theatre's cafe.
P: " Met T ? He'sinside! "

And they sit at a table with a fourth young man, T .Fade out on Prithvi's Cafe.
The Beginning.

And then it Rained, and rained, and some more...then it stopped, then it Poured even more.

And so, since it was raining so much, I spent most of the evening, then most of the same night, at that same table, at that same corner of the same cafe of the same Prithvi Theatre.

Sounds like the most boring story on the planet, but of course a young boy turning 22, a young, aspiring actor/writer, who thinks Theatre is more than just life and blood...well it wasn't really that boring for him....what do you think?

Excel-lent films

Guess what... I'm diverting...finally...away from my favourite topic- (Me, and my Theatre exploits ):P

I'd like to take a moment and talk about a certain film company, that's been making a certain brand of films, that stand out, not just because of their original ideas, but in the style that they seem to exude, as soon as you see them on screen. I am of course, talking about my favourite Indian filmmaker, Farhan Akhtar, and his company: Excel Entertainment which he began in 2001 , with his producer/friend Ritesh Sidhwani.

Dil Chahta Hai..just these three words bring images, bring shankar-ehsaan-loy's most melodious album, to your head, and every one who's seen this movie even once on seeing the three words I've written... feels like calling up their friends (perhaps considers a trip to Goa :P) among other things. Male bonding, at its finest, urban dosti in its best.

Lakshya...Javed saab, back to what he did best: Screenplays... a journey of a man from what I believe im going through myself just now (Main Aisa Kyun Hun)...to being a proud and patriotic soldier, able to get his Goal in life. Apart from being techincally Farhan's best film, I think the story could have easily been one of the most emotionally poignant ones, ever written... of course high expectations from the audience, for a DCH part 2, made the film flop badly, didn't it? I still have high regard for Farhan's most difficult-to-make movie, and Hrithik's best performance, ever...NO he wasn't that great in KRISSSHH *

DON...The Chase began...my chase ended soon...it was one of the movies I personally wished Farhan hadn't made... it had Excel's style, Excel's class, Farhan's touch, but...i don't know what it was about it, that made me feel, he's gone on a different tangent. Maybe i felt it was a bit too commercial, even in his commercial entertainers, for the people, genre, that I feel Farhan excelled in.

Honeymoon Travels: Not a Farhan film, per se...very light-hearted, very fun to watch, an amazing ensemble of actors, playing an array of interesting characters. Of Course Farhan can't let go of Goa, can he....* i don't tink I can either since i Came back a month earlier*

And now...Rock On...the story seems to be Anurag Kashyap's Paanch, made simpler, and nicer,...the story seems to be Dil Chahta Hain with a Rock Band instead of a college trio....thats what the media keeps tellign us. Farhan's not directing....he's Acting...he's SINGING (and not bad at that )...Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, at their best in home turf, in Excel, .... can't get the songs outa my head... and somehow... with all the build-up, all the negativity, all these ideas that a rock film won't work out here... that its not Farhan directing...still.. I know im expecting a lot from this movie....debut director, still.. its got Farhan's touch to it. I mean, fine, it might not be a major Rock Fan's story, it might not be the film that rockers really flock to...but who cares... its' Excel... its the place where ideas like Dil Chahta Hai was born...it's still a cult favourite...it changed the way movies were made in India... something's gotta give, ain't it?

Next Week: No clue man...im home for the entire week... GIMME A JOB, people! :)

Nope...it's not..nothing like it used to be...not the least bit.
It's just painful, how excruciatingly difficult it has become for me to string words together in a sentence, that not only makes sense to me, but looks like something staring out of a paper to my eyes, and thus manages to create an image of what the sentence talks about, in my mind's inner eye, thus projecting a sentence, that MAKES SENSE. I used to be quite alright with stringing these multiple sentences together, use a few connecting words here and there, a few punctuations, a few spaces, and manage to convey a story, filled with characters, plot, lies, deceit, and any other masala (spice) that might be useful to get that concept into my readers' *Myself*, mind...with ease.

Whatever happened to the Divyesh of the old...*yes that's me*..:P

Where am I, where have I gone...when will I ever return?

Laziness is just the tip of the iceberg..I believe a part of my fingers has rubbed on some sort of magical powder, that's not allowing me to be as free-flowing as before.

Or maybe I'm just imagining things, I need to probably sleep on the right side of my bed for a change.

No one knows.

Script ideas to be converted to screenplay outlines...a huge concept for a full-length play to be written, and made into a do-able script...I have my hands full... and yet, every day seems like the same old mun-day-ne.
Hmmm...I did manage to string the above words together...hmm..*thinks hard*....perhaps I'm not quite out of it yet.

Next post, then. :)