SUAR CHALA SPACE KO is originally the brain child of a group of young children- Poorna, Ishaa & Ankita who participated in Gillo's Theatre Workshop. However, Writer- Director Shaili Sathyu took up the task of re-writing and directing this piece of theatre created by children. This led to the conception of the first independent children's production creation by Gillo, which is a group dedicated to a variety of media initatives for children.
The play is about two friends Rinku and Ishaan, their pet Laddu, a pig called Badbudaar Singh, and their journey from a small village into space. It all starts when the friends discover a spaceship in a cave. Not knowing what to do next, they enter the ship and accidentally activate it. Thus, they go into space, halt at the red planet and then return to the Earth. However, on the way the pig -Badbudaar Singh contracts a deadly disease which then spreads fast and infects all the living beings of their village. From here on, how Rinku and Ishaan deal with this problem and find a cure for the same, as well as owe up to their mistakes.
This re-written script is tight and compact. It is filled with interesting ideas and twists and turns which hold the audience for the most part. The playwright has created some interesting characters in the form of the chirpy mausi, the whacky doctors, and the multi-lingual aliens. The light tone and humor of the play helps to set the mood and the pace. However, the script loses its spontaneity towards the end and becomes rather predictable.
The play is written in a way that its success heavily depends on the visual design. And the director has done a good job of creating the necessary illusion to support the script. The play's most important device is the design of the space ship. The director plays with shadows throughout the space ship scenes thus enthralling and fascinating its audience. However, these images repeat themselves and at times go on for too long thus minimizing the effect they first create. Also, some short scenes are unnecessarily divided by blackouts which hamper the pace of the play.
Another area where the director scores is the technical team she has put together. The set design by Abir Patwardhan and Tanya Mahajan is brilliant. It is minimalist but within its limited scope the designer creates a space ship, a laboratory, an electrical gadget made of bulbs as well as a stable. The choreography by Pooja Pant further enhances the visual range of the play and the Dance on the Red Planet is arguably the best visual in the Play. The music composed by Mithila Lad and Hetal Waria begins very well but could have offered more variety. The actors do well as a team and Navyata Malkani in the character of Mausi and Siddharth Jhaveri and John Soans in the characters of doctor /alien are very good in their parts.
The play entertains and fascinates the children. They also connect well with the characters and the central idea of this play. It creates the desired impact on its audience often inspiring awe and making them laugh. However, the end is a bit hurried, and one feels like an enjoyable ride has been bought to a sudden, untimely halt.
*Sudeep Modak is a young theatre person with interests in other media. He has worked with Ramu Ramanathan, Chandan Roy Sanyal and has done production work for THE PROPHET by Naseeruddin Shah's theatre group Motley, amongst other things.
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