2000

Cast :	Kikku	Vaibhav Jain	(B.Arch. I)
	Chintamani	Harsh Enkhia	(B.Arch. IV)
	Bunty	Vipul Singh	(B.E. I Civil)
	Sumangla	Sweety Agarwal	(B.Arch. IV)
	Tukaram	Nikhil Mishra	(B.E. I Civil)
	Bindhumadhav	Roopesh Nair	(B.E. IV Elec)
	Durgavati	Priyanka Gupta	(B.E. I E&C)
	Priya	Ananya Banerjee	(B.E. I Indl)
	Gauri	Rashmi Sonal	(B.Arch. II)
	Baba Bhagwan	Nirjhar Shah	(B.E. II Civil)
	Titu	Vishal Choudhry	(B.E. III Civil)
	Shivaji	Ali Irfan Reza	(B.E. I CST)

This light-hearted romantic comedy highlighted the basic problems an average urban middle-class family had to face in today's society. And at the same time it attempts to convey the message that seemingly insurmountable and complicated problems can be easily overcome by employing just a little bit of love, patience and understanding. The incidents and situations are so real-life that the audience can easily relate to what is happening on stage and see it as a reflection of their own lives.

Chintamani Sarnobat, a respectable bank manager is at his wits' end as his whole family life seem to go haywire, and he could hardly do anything about it. In contrast to Chintamani, is his wife Sumangla, who thinks that everything is going on normally, and problems like her husband's displeasure with their children waywardness being just a temporary phase in their lives which is soon going to get over, with no great harm done. No matter who thinks what, the family seems to be heading towards a major crisis. Their daughter, Gauri, is entangled in the clutches of a conman, Baba Bhagwan - who is a representation of the many so called spiritual gurus who claim to provide quick fix ways to all problems. Their over-confident and irresponsible elder son, Titu, is a cricket star who is also a philanderer. In the wake of his new-found success and adulation he has even forgotten his first love, Priya, who too has grown disillusioned with him. Not to be left behind, the youngest son, Bunty, is an aspiring Bollywood actor and his studies suffer as a consequence.

It is in this seemingly hopeless scenario that Chintamani's father, Bindhumadav steps in. A historian by profession, Bindhumadav is a seasoned and well-matured man who has seen life, and has his own and somewhat unusual ways to solve the gigantic tasks that he sets himself to tackle. Complementing and contrasting at the same time Bindhumadav's jovial and happy-go-lucky attitude, is his wife Durgavati. No matter how hard Durgavati tries to bring to light the seriousness of the matter, Bindhumadav always finds a way to diffuse the situation with his sense of humor. Tukaram is an office peon, who due to his proximity to the family does not shirk from giving his comments on the situation and hence adds another flavour to the atmosphere. Kikku is Bunty's classmate, and a sort of hanger-on, who vicariously gains his own satisfaction through Bunty's achievements. Rounding up the cast is Shivaji, who is Titu's teammate and also a C.B.I. officer who is investigating Bhagwan's activities.

How Bindhumadhav in his typical and seemingly flippant style manages to bring the house to order, solve everyone's problems and tie the loose ends forms the crux of the story. In the end, Titu, who is duly humbled, and Priya get back together; the scam of Bhagwan is exposed; Gauri, who is freed from Bhagwan's clutches, and Shivaji fall in love; Bunty gets back on the right track; and as a consequence of all this Chintamani can breathe a sigh of relief.

The play is not one long family drama, but in fact it has several smaller sub-plots/ themes running in parallel. For example, the romantic angle is played by Titu and Priya, who genuinely care for each other but are forced by circumstances to withhold their feelings for each other. The influence of popular culture and peer pressure in an average person's life is depicted by Bunty. Then there is a religious angle which exposes those types of 'spiritual gurus' who guide people towards salvation by conning them. The plight of a common Indian housewife albeit a bit subdued can still be grasped from the play. How she has to strike a balance between her husband, children, chores and social obligations is depicted. The demands, pressures and cut-throat competition of today's world is felt by everyone, but the one who is affected the most by it is the head of the family, who therefore has the most harrowing time. The common thread that joins all these themes is that of how an older, wiser and cooler head does not flinch at the face of adversity, and shows his family how to untie the knots that they have tied themselves in by following 'the path of love'.

The publicity of this play was a little different, in a way that it used new technology to the fullest use, so much so that during the course of the year and for other events, other people copied the concept! The best way to publicize as it turned out, was to send individual e-mails to all the students in the campus, so it added a bit of personal touch and made people aware of the activity that was going on. This was one of the reasons as to why the play received such tremendous response. There were even quite a few people that replied, telling us as to how much that person appreciated the play. Also, during the staging of the play, pamphlets were distributed, mentioning in brief the story line, cast, etc. Play was staged on 21, 22, 23 Oct.

Cast :	District Attorney Flint	Saif Iqbal	(B.E. IV Chem)
	Defense Attorney Stevens	B .Rajkumar	(B.E. III Meta)
	Judge William Heath	Anurag Krishan	(B.E. I Chem)
	Court Clerk	Swapnil Gupta	(B.E. I Meta)
	Karen Andre	Ishwinder Kaur	(B.E. II E&C)
	John Hutchins	Vipul Singh	(B.E. II Civil)
	P.I. Homer Van Fleet	Sameer Dhar	(B.E. II Mech)
	Inspector Sweeney	Gaurav Charya	(B.Arch. II)
	Magda Svenson	Priyanka Gupta	(B.E. I E&C)
	Nancy Lee Faulkner	Shruti Rathore	(B.Arch. I)
	John Graham Whitfield	Bodhaditya Bhattacharya	(B.E. II Elec)
	Siegurd Jungquis	Sreejan Choudhry	(B.E. I CST)
	Lawrence 'Guts' Regan	Vishal Chaudhry	(B.E. IV Civil)

'The Night Of January 16th' was one of the earliest works of Ayn Rand and reflects her renowned philosophy in its embryonic stage. The whole play is a question to the society- how do you rate a man who considered himself above society, above its norms, who felt that he wasn't responsible for his actions towards anybody? The protagonist of the play who believed in this was an extremely wealthy banker- Bjorn Faulkner.

It was his murder trial which raised all these questions and issues and the accused was none other than his mistress/lover- Karen Andre. She was the proverbial 'woman behind a successful man' who fuelled his ambitions incessantly. Forced with imminent ruin, the prosecuting attorney- Flint contended that Karen Andre deserted his rocking boat, killed him and tried to get away with his last ten million dollars. However, Stevens the defence attorney branded the death as a suicide and gave his own reasons. As the trial progressed with the initial testimonies of Hutchings- a night watchman; Homer Van Fleet- a private eye who was trailing Bjorn Faulkner; Sweeney- the inspector who was the first official to reach the crime scene; Magda Svenson- Faulkner's house keeper followed by the moving testinomy of Nancy Lee Faulkner- Faulkner's mourning widow and her father John.G.Whitfield, Karen Andre certainly didn't win any friends in the jury.

But the sudden arrival of 'Guts' Regan- a notorious gangster and Karen's lover it became apparent that there was more to the story than meets the eye. It turned out that Bjorn Faulkner had etched out an elaborate plan to disappear and escape to Argentina along with Karen, but his plans were thawarted when he was murdered while he was on his way. The testimony of Regan and Faulkner's secretary- Jungquist implicated Whitfield whose second round of cross examination gave the defence ample reasons for picking holes in the prosecutions theory.

In the end it came down to a showdown between the two facets of society; the closing statement of both the attorneys requesting the jury to go along with their conscience and to reflect on what they truly believe in while delivering the verdict. The first play of Dramatics section with an interactive audience, five of whom became jury members, returned the verdict in favour of Karen Andre amongst cheers from the audience. The whole trial was presided by His Honour Judge Heath.

The play was a unique experience, because it involved the audience and took them on a roller coaster ride of conflicting emotions that so personifies Ayn Rand's philosphy of 'Objectivism'. And the response of the audience was what determined the final outcome of the play. For the record the jury members (who could in a way be thought of as unwitting actors) were- Chandrasekhar Raman, K. Arun Reddy, Chirantan Chatterjee, Ritu Verma and Shubra Bansal, all IVth yearites. The excitement the play created and the anticipation and eagerness of the audience, can be gauged from the fact that people were standing outside the venue long before the play was to start, lest they miss it, because of the one-show format in Thomso.

Cast :	Nartak-1/Darbari-3	Simran Dayal	(B.E. I Civil)
	Nartak-2 / Darbari-3	Ananya Banerjee	(B.E. I Indl)
	Shah Jahan	Aurcko Bhattacharya	(B.E. II Mech)
	Darbari-1 / Chaprasi	Rashmi Sonal	(B.Arch. II)
	Guptaji	Nitin Girotra	(B.E. IV Indl)
	Sudhir	Sachin Talwar	(B.E. II Chem)
	Bhaiyyaji	Nirjhar Shah	(B.E. I Civil)
	Neta / Paperwala-1	Vaibhav Jain	(B.Arch. I
	Vigilance Inspector Sethi/ Paperwala-2 / Darban	Ali Irfan Reza	(B.E. I CST)
	Sharmaji	Nikhil Mishra	(B.E. I Civil)

What would happen if Shah Jahan chose to build hi symbol of eternal love in today's world? What follows is a hilarious and side-splitting parody that reflects too well the state of affairs that exist. And at the end of long years of waiting and yearning by Shah Jahan all he gets to console himself is that the 'tender' notice to award the contract for the construction of the monument is finally being floated. Though when he gets this 'good news' its already too late for him.

Playing the part of the main procastinator and chief do-good-for-myself person is the CPWD Chief Engineer Guptaji. He along with his assistant Sudhir, and a common contractor Bhaiyyaji, planned to put to rest all of their king's hopes, even before they hardly got a chance to grew. They were ably assisted by politicians, lawmen, goons and other such people who turned up from time to time to stake their share in the ever-growing pie.

Cast :	Kartik	Nitin Girotra	(B.E. IV Indl)
	Himadri	Saif Iqbal	(B.E. IV Chem)
	Shashi	Roopesh Nair	(B.E. IV Elec)
	Saatu	Harsh Enkhia	(B.Arch. IV)
	Ladki	Vidhi Agarwal	(B.Arch. IV)
	Malti / Mili / Lachhmi	Sweety Agarwal	(B.Arch. IV)

The play is a timeless love story about the tender emotions that rule our lives in one way or the other. The story unfolds in a cemetry where four people- Kartik, an old compounder; Shashi, a postmaster; Saatu, a contractor; and Himadri, a young school teacher, have come to cremate a young girl. Each of these men have a story in their past, a story which has been buried deep for a long time. But the atmosphere and the ambience is such that, the dark night, a howling dog, the influence of liquor, and the spirit of the young girl who relives their moments and hers too, brings out each of the love stories to the fore.

The catalyst of the whole story is the girl. She appears some times as the symbol of unrequited love, sometimes as the sub-conscience of the four men, and sometimes as an interested onlooker. Coaxing, cajoling, berating the four men to admit their follies of the past, the girl tries her best to bring them to admit to themselves which they had tried too long to forget. The girl comes across in various shades- as a young girl fascinated with love, who never realised it in her life, and who suffered for long to finally kill herself when she could not take it any longer.

One by one, she makes each of the them come out with their unhealed wounds, which still hurt them after the passage of many years. For Shashi, the burning pyre, is symbolic of his love Malti, who killed herself after she was forced to marry a vile cousin of Shashi's upon his insistence. At the time Shashi was too weak and coward to take action, and thought it was the best way out morally and socially. The feeling of guilt is strong and it is reflected in the stories of others also.

Himadri, on his part, had fallen in love with Mili, a young, beautiful and rich girl, whose brother he ws tutoring. The difficulties that Mili faces in reconciling between their two different worlds and society are unacceptable to Himadri. He thinks himself to be on some sort of a moral high ground and is never symphathetic to the dilemmas that Mili has to face. He never understands or appreciates the changes that Mili tries to bring about in herself, which though are slow and painful, are nevertheless great for someone like Mili. Himadri unable to take it any longer, leaves Mili. Mili is killed in a drunken driving accident. But Himadri wants to belive it was an accident not a suicide, which in probability it was.

Saatu is haunted by the simple village girl, Lacchmi, who fell in love with him. And it is her thoughts, his cowardice in not taking up her responsibility are what that haunt him. The simple love and caring of Lacchmi became a sort of bondage for him which he could never have accepted and hence chose to run away from it. His work, social considerations and other factors were too important in his mind than to consider even for one moment someone else' emotions. Her agonising and painful death later on still rankles in his memory.

Each story may be different, but with a common thread of unfulfilled love, and of a certain weakness that made each of them shy away from what they really wanted and what would have made them really happy. The character of the three girls is played out by a single person to bring out the underlying similarity.

All this while the young girl does not realise that even she was a victim of unfulfilled love, though she had thought that there was no love in her life all this time. The love in her life which she so craved for could have come from Kartik, who had kept in his heart his feelings for her for long, without the girl getting a hint of it. And had she lived for a couple of days more, all that she had wanted of life might have been hers. When she finally grasps this fact, she cries out in pain and anguish.

Even though the atmosphere is one of gloom and death, what comes out is the author's belief that we have a life full of joys and sorrows and we have to live with it no matter what the circumstances. But the final message of the play is positive and gives an optimistic towards life. In the words of Kartik, who is about to take his life, bu then stops, life in itself makes everything possible. It is actually life that sustains hope.

Though mention of our plays had come out regularly in local hindi dailies, it was the first time that one of our productions got exposure in a national daily. The Dehradun edition of Hindustan Times brought out a full length feature of the play, plus our activities. It was a pretty big article, outlining the storyline, the underlying message, the cast, etc, and even included two pictures from the play.