Dastak - Entertaining string of plays in Singapore

Applause first for the gargantuan efforts required to bring together this event.

Appreciate the explosive mix of professionals and amateur actors drawn from society making an explosive mix

The light and sound design was impressive. Really thoughtful there to put in the subtitles making it a bigger challenge to the actors and the person controlling it to ensure synchronized play

The concept is as helpful to the audiences as laudable it is for being a creative concept. A burst of 10+1 plays played out one after the other to a live audience is a challenging concept and a treat for the paying audiences.

It will be unfair to even start with anything but praise realising the enormous task of getting this mix of incredible talent drawn from people not essentially from the entertainment industry

Rayana and Veena were simply outstanding with their dialogues and emotion. Veena (who I have seen as an excellent dancer) , was fully into her character while Rayana recited reams of dialogue with the absolute ease of a professional. Any disturbing growls you may have heard during the performance were the sounds from the GI system desperately wanting the desserts being referred to.

KPSandhu and Namita lal were very impressive with their absolute intensity.

Jhamela did tickle with some fun moments aided by the irrepressible Aditya .

Kamli with its subject was naturally intense and overall with their actors above par

Expectedly the most pleasant one was the simple neat play by Gopal Dutt and Neelu Dogra. The acting is so effortless. It almost seemed like they did not need any rehearsals. Nothing less expected from them but there was a certain simplicity reminding you of Basu Chatterjee movies.

Blue diamond will remind you of Farooque Shaikh and Deepti Naval
Guru ka Brahman was intriguing and had the toughest expectation of impressing the audience with the opening act

Subin with his genial smiling face from Dhund catches your attention.

Icing on the cake - the 30 min dance drama Nukkad performed on the lawns like a street play and so beautifully designed with minimum props and yet making an entertaining impact. One could see scores of children who have perhaps forgotten the Panchatantra, glued . Masks with some really electrifying designs and creative classical music used by Ponamma to direct this unique act of animals left a great impression and audience left asking for more. Just wondering if performed under controlled focus lights, some jungle audio and audible dialogues could have helped scale this into a full fledged theatrical on the epic tales. This can actually be a mass booked play performed for kids in schools here.

The festival director Shalaka deserves to take a bow for stringing together years in a row, a festival of this scale and keeping the cultural and drama theatre going great guns by promoting new talent.
If you have not made your stop at the Goodman's Art centre yet, try out today unless of course they are sold out!

The next time stop is at Star Theatre I guess