Pritesh Sodha's Experiment with Dastangoi in Gujarati...
December 20, 2019 4:36:46 PM IST MTG editorial
Actor-Director-Writer Pritesh Sodha has carved a niche for himself in Gujarati theatre with productions like MANCHHA (adapted as TEE in Marathi) and NANIMA, among others.
He has recently directed DASTANGOI GUJARATI.
We asked Pritesh about this unique combination of an age-old form of Persian storytelling with Gujarati Literature, and he said : "I love Gujarati. It is my mother tongue. Gujarati stories, in my opinion, are not reaching the right audiences. So when Hiten Anandpara conceived the broader idea, I chalked out a plan with him to use an interesting format like Dastangoi to take these stories to the people."
We asked him about the challenges he encountered, to which he said: "Hiten and I read more than 70 stories rigourously during the curation stage. We have looked at writers like Zaverchand Meghani, Pannalal Patel, Ajay Oza, Ketan Munshi and Dhumketu. The idea is to also display how Gujarati writing has changed over the years, through alternating themes. The biggest challenge was to get the apt artistes for a story telling form like Dastangoi, which is actor-centric and to manage their dates."
DASTANGOI GUJARATI will be staged at Prithvi Theatre on 28th December 2019 as part of Wintertime@Prithvi at 5 pm. There are other shows that follow as well.
*Mumbai Theatre Guide takes no responsibility for change in schedule.
