Cast : Rajeev Siddhartha, Ira Dubey, Vikrant Chaturvedi, Asif Ali Beg, Joy Sengupta, Varun Narayan, Pihu Sand & Prince Ali
ZEN KATHA Story :
The play opens in the opulent kingdom of Kanchi in India, it starts with the birth of Bodhidharma to King Sugandha, the reigning Pallava King. The first half explores his relationship with his guru Prajnaratna, who trains him in yoga, kaliripattyu and meditation, and with his playmate Sanghameeta, who is secretly in love with him. It traces his transformation from a Brahmin to a Buddhist monk and finally to the 28th Patriarch, who decides to travel to China with the Buddha’s bowl to spread Buddhism.
The second half begins with his dramatic encounter with the powerful Chinese Emperor Wu Ti of the Liang dynasty and then moves to the austere world of monks and monasteries in Shaolin, where we finally see the birth of his Zen philosophy and the Martial Arts as they are known today, in popular forms such as Tai Chi and Kung Fu.
Zen Katha is a play that tells an extraordinary man’s tale- his intense temporal relationships and inspiring spiritual and physical evolution, culminating with his discovery of an alternative way of being.