A CLASSIC STORY BACK WITH A TWIST
Ranga Theatre offers its first show of Rashomon Blues, a modern day adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 classic ‘Rashomon’.
Mumbai to witness the first ever musical hindi drama ‘Rashomon Blues’ during the Prithvi Theatre Festival 2013 from 5-18 November, 2013. Unfolding the pages of classic Rashomon, Ranga Theatre under the guidance of design and direction Bijon Mondal and an adaptation by Rameshchandra Shah came up with a modern twist to the all time classic of Akira Kurosawa of 1950s. ‘Blues’ is an operatic avant garde presentation.
The audience will witness a complete musical hindi play seen never before were story revolves around a sword fighter and his wife who are assaulted by a notorious criminal resulting in a rape and a murder. The story further proceeds with testimonies presented at the trial are varied in accordance to each witness’s point of view. Eventually, the fourth witness, who found the body, reveals that he saw the entire incident concluding that his version is also completely different from the others.
The play will get you on the edge with several questions running over your mind like who is telling the truth? What is truth? The story is a profound concern about humanity in a civilized society and each person’s perspective of the event.
To create this magic on stage, the team from Ranga Theater has burned candle from both the ends. Starting with a beautiful concept is creatively penned down by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. The uphill task is magnificently carried by the director Bijon Mondal along with the support of the astonishing performances by Nagesh Bhosle (Tajomaru – Outlaw), Kirti Kulhari (Wife), Vineet Sharma (Husband), Salone Mehta (Mother), Shreyas Pandit (Undertaker), Shailesh Singh (Municipality worker), Samiksha Bhatnagar (Social worker) and Ritika Murthy (Medium) on the contemporary designed sets by Vivek Jadhav.
One of the major attractions of the evening would be the brilliant music for the drama. Lyrics & Voice is gracefully done by Salone Mehta backed with the apt music design Rohit Das and sound design Gautam Dhanu.
Bijon Mondal commented, “This play depicts the world of today where we witness lack of truth and degradation of morality at each step. We have been working on the modernization of the classic dramas over 6 years, making it more easy and relevant for today’s generation. We retain the core message of classics but we take the drama on a different level with the help of contemporary fusion music and language… making it simpler yet entertaining. I’m confident that this drama will be loved by everyone and we’ll certainly get strong support from the viewers.”
Adding further Mondal said, “This was a mammoth task by Ranga Theaters and I hope I stand to their expectations. This drama is a wonderful concept and I’m glad to have such a great team to make this a success. The grandeur and scale of this drama will certainly support to take the theater industry a step ahead. The concept of such classic dramas has survived in the past and will always keep its mark in the further but with a little twist”.
The drama will be an eye opener and will certainly give food for thought to the viewers. Come and witness this magnificent drama on November 8, 2013 at 6 pm at Prithvi Theater, Juhu.
