Bikhre bimb - an amazing play

We had been to this play last Sunday. Off late I have watched few plays and am loving the experience of watching plays :) Its not that I didn't watch plays before , but very rarely used to go to rangayana in Mysore. The frequency of watching plays has increased now. We watched " Jugaari cross" and "Bikhre bimb" on consecutive weekends ;) . "Bikhre bimb" is the Hindi version of "odakalu bimba" in kannada written by Girish Karnad. Its English version is " Heap of broken images" .

As we enter the theatre , we see a TV studio setup on the stage and a big screen as well. This is a nice way of letting the audience start thinking about what might unfold on this stage :) . Its a solo act by Arundati Nag. This was the first time I saw her in a play and she is just amazing :) 

Coming to the play itself , it is about a kannada author Manjula Nayak who acquires instant fame and money by writing a single English book , which is a work of genius. She comes to the TV studio to talk about her book and once that is done , she is about to leave when she hears her image talking to her from the big screen.Then the image starts interrogating her about the book , her past , and skeletons start tumbling out of the wardrobe. Whole sequence of play which follows is just amazing. I kept wondering as to how difficult it must be for the actress to sync with a recorded sequence playing on the screen..

The emotions involved in the relations of Manjula with her partially paralyzed yet highly intelligent younger sister Malini ,who was staying with Manjula and her husband , with Husband ,the dilemma and tragedies  involved in the lives of these 3 people when they were living together and at present , is brought out beautifully.Though there are negative shades in each of these characters , you can empathize with each of them. Though there is a single actress carrying off the whole play , you are taken through the emotions and feelings of all the 3 characters and you kind of know and can visualize the other characters very well. 

I started off thinking that I will write out the story of the play. But then thought , I shouldn't spoil it for others who still haven't watched the play :) Do watch it if you get a chance. I am waiting for the kannada version to come , want to watch the original ;)