IISU Theatrical Society presents annual play ‘Paan Khayenge’

IISU Theatrical Society’s presentation ‘Paan Khayenge’ kindles serious self reflection

5th October 2016: Jaipur: Miyan Mirza Kanjoos…Sab kehte ise Makhhichoos. Mirza’s only concern in life is his cash. He is so obsessed with money, in fact, that he nearly tries to strip search everyone who goes in and out of his house. He crossed all the limits when he made his servants slapped a paanwala when he was asked to pay for the paans. Much of the play’s action focuses on Mirza’s stinginess. The situation gets intense when his children Faruq and Azra conspire against him to accomplish their wishes. The conscience and ethicality of people dancing to the tune of money and power, abundance of good ‘wealth’ but lack of good ‘will’ are such socially relevant issues that were raised through a play ‘Paan Khayenge’ staged by The IIS University’s Theatrical Society at India International School auditorium on Wednesday.

This play is based on ‘The Miser’, a five act comedy play written by the French playwright Moliere. The plot majorly consists of a classic conflict between love and money. The protagonist is a sixty year old self obsessed widower who is very paranoid about the money he has amassed over the years. Through comedy the team has made the best of efforts to not only entertain the audience but to also kindle some serious self reflection.

National School of Drama graduates and Mumbai based five sense’s group’s director Mr. Hardik Shah and trainers Sweety Ruhel, Gurinder Sethi et al have taught the nuances of theatre world to the students. According to Mr. Gurinder “It started off with basic theatre games and exercises, and was followed by games and exercises of clowning. These included connection building and work on expressions.”

Amongst other things like imagination, creativity, body language, voice modulation etc. the highlight was the technique of clowning, which is the major part of the play. Clowning is all about an actor’s connection with the audience.
The credit goes to all the actors whose brilliant performance took the show to another level altogether. Mirza character played by Ritika Bidawat has garnered great response from the audience. Kalindi Kapil as Faruq and Arshika Madnani as Azra, very convincingly depicted the pain they had gone through due to their father’s careless behavior towards them in their performance. Anshika Gupta as Nambu, Divya Kumawat as Matrimony Aunty and Anubha Khandelwal as Nasir were equally good and convincing.

Model, Bollywood Actor and Singer, Sudhanshu Pandey was the chief guest on the occasion. Towards the end, Mr. Sudhanshu applauded the artists’ performance in the play and persuaded them to pursue acting as he had seen a great potential in them. Coordinator Ms. Aditi R Khandelwal and Co-coordinator Ms. Priyanka Gyanchandani of The IIS University have contributed in giving the play a final shape.

Dr. Ashok Gupta, Vice-Chancellor of the university has congratulated everyone associated with this play for putting their heart and soul into it to make it successful. He also distributed participation certificates to the students.