Zishaan Hayath Scrapbook

To dream big is synonymous with IITB (B for big?). One such dream was to revive and do the Annual Production. This meant that you would see the insti's best talent together on stage. The Annual Production was intended to be a dram, complete with lights, music and sets. Girish Karnad's play 'Yayati' was chosen for the script. What follows in this page is a brief account (an exhaustive one would require me to write a book) of the people who made it happen.

In the beginning, there was the Sutradhaar and there was light. And he started a story which went something like this...
Long long time ago, there lived King Yayati. And since he was a king he had queen, Rani Devyani. And since they were married and old, they had a son Puru. And since the prince was young, he got married to a princess, Chitralekha. And since they were all royal people, they had two dasis, Swarnalatha and Sharmishtha. So here starts an endless story with all the twishts and turnz...

Hey wait! Who wants to listen to the story. I promised an account of the people who made it happen. So here it is.

ON STAGE:

Vikram Jamwal (Maharaj Yayati)
Vikram was so tired practicing for the play that he fell asleep in every show (Pun unintended). Somebody would then throw a paper ball from back stage to wake him up. He would wake up startled and catch the right hand of the wrong woman (Eeesh...). And so would come a twisht in the story.

Neeraja Balchander (Maharani Devyani)
She was perhaps the only woman who did not get the oppurtunity to hold hands. Vikram knew the knack of somehow avoiding that, for he could not repeat errors of this kind more than once. Neeraja, (who in real life spells her name a.t.t.i.t.u.d.e.) played the 'Rani' in the true sense. All she would do on stage was order, shout and scold people around her. Her fav dialogue being 'Chup raho... Dasi', which was later immortalised.

Deboleena Minz (Sharmishtha)
Debo wanted to play the 'Rani' and director wanted her to play the 'Dasi'. But Debo wouldn't stop there. Demon-princess that she was, she used all her charm and flair to hijack the scirpt and ultimately became the queen. She left no oppurtunity to settle her scores with Neeraja.

Amit Pathak (Yuvraj Puru)
Poor fellow was always so confused and clueless... every 3 minutes Pathak would come on stage and say, 'Hey Bhagwan! Is sab ka kya arth hai?'. The poser actually created a little suspense and helped the audience stay awake for 2 hours.

Prachee Banthia (Chitralekha)
She was a straight pick from the Star Trek. She would move around like an android and utter broken sentences like Marvin, the Robot (of 'The Hitch-hikers Guide to Galaxy' fame).

Saumya Gupta (Swarnalata)
Of 'Chup raho... Dasi!' fame. Her role in the play was to weep. But all she could do on stage was smile and giggle uncontrollably. (Don't believe me? Go see the video.) But it actually helped in keeping up the enthu of the cast. Her motivation helped them keep the show going (ahem... ahem) even when the eggs and tomatoes were pouring in and it was a free-for-all kind of situation in the auditorium.

S. P. Singh (Sutradhar)
Flo would forget dialouges on stage and give a tough time to the prompters. Since most of the times even the prompters would be asleep backstage, he would make his own situational stories and tell them to the audience. No wonder audiences of all three shows had different tales to tell about the script.

BEHIND THE SCENES:

Maneesh ZERO Singh
Aim: Make moolah
Result: Made moolah
Pocketed around a lac. After all he was the GS Cult. So what if the AnProd was revived and done after a gap of 6 years? So what if he dared to do it and put in about five months of effort?

Bharat Garg
He created a new hero in the comic world... The-Butterfly-Man. All just because we hired an extra costume and he wanted paisa- vasool from it. But unlike other heroes who would save and help people, Bharat's suggestions and advice invariably resulted in accidents of 6.8 Ritcher scale. Ummm... perhaps there was something that separated him and the others. Yes, now I remember!

KK and his music team
He and his team could scare away Cacofonix (of Asterix comics fame). And the sad part being, KK thought he was melodious and hearable. A special mention of Gaurav Porwal who would be back every half an hour saying, 'KK, Show mein abhi kitna time hai? Yeh shank nahin baj raha hai'.

Piyush Singhall
The Light-man. Not because of his ability to dabble with the light-controls as one would play a symphony on piano (except that the actors and director would be in dark as to which composition would be played when). It was because of his ability to smoke 20 cigs a day. His fav line was 'Lights forever'. So much so that every time a scene got over, Bharat would shake Piyush and wake him up saying, 'Abey Piyush, scene over. Lights bandh karde'. Lights forever?

Dinesh Meena
He would always be busy without work. So much so that he never saw first half of the play being practiced and did not know till the actual show as to why Yayati did not rescue Chitralekha.

Adil, Zishaan and the IDCians
Adil would patch up with gold on what the IDCians painted green. Such was their penchant for green that entire set looked like a football field. However, their chunnies came very handy to patch up a lot of things at the last moment. As to Zishaan, he was the 'Atlas' of the AnProd team, with entire burden on his strong shoulders. Enough said.

Aditi Singh
She was responsible for all those Halloween looks of the cast. Saumya's wig was the original one used in the movie 'Evil Dead - Part III'

Taxi, OP et al
They thought it was another kind of PAF and came down to show their skill in Bamboo-giri. Only later did they realise that the show was indoor.

So what started as a dream utimately ended in a nightmare. The cast collected a good kilos of tomatoes and dozens of eggs. It was like one of those English movies in which a school dram team would spoof a Shakespearean play. The story would go hay-wire, the prod would break down, the sound would go off and the lights would fall down. All said and done, it was an experience.

PS: If there are any people I have missed, it has been intentional.
PPS: If you find the material on this page objectionable and want it changed/ removed, please drop a polite mail to zishaan[at]iitb.ac.in. I assure you that your requests will be ignored.

Chup Raho Dasi

A poem by Vikram Jamwal, S.P. Singh and KK

Antahpur mein rahti thi ek aisi dasi
Nai kahani sunne ko woh rahti sada prayasi

Ek din Sutradhar ko milne par woh boli:

DASI:
Sutradhar, mujhe aik kahaani sunao.

SUTR:
Kahaani? Tumhen kaunsi kahanni sunaun? Ann Prod treat par to saari kahaniyan YAYATI se sambandhit hoti hain?

DASI:
To phir mujhe Yayati ki hi kahaani sunao.

SUTR:
Kahaani avashya sunaunga
Par ek shart bhi dohraunga
Chup rahogi agar tum
To hi kahani sampoorna kar paunga.

DASI:
Isme kya hai... mein to chup hi hun.

SUTR:
To fir suno...

Antapur mein ek tha raja, aur ek uski rani thi
Raja sahsi veer Yayati , aur rani Devyani thi

Rani ki thi ek saheli, jiski pakki nishtha thi
Sang rahe uske hamesha, aisee woh Sharmishta thi

Pralaya ka din ek aisa aya, badli yeh kahani thi
Brahman-kanya bani rani, aur daasi bani jo rani thi

DASI:
Aise kaise sambhav hai? Kyon ki usne yeh du:sahsi?