An Audio Play
I grew up in a small town in India that didn’t have a TV station till I left home for college. Aside from books, radio was my only window to the world - the news on All India Radio, Hindi film songs and radio plays like Hawa Mahal.
In recent years, audio has made a big comeback. Besides podcasts you have Audible for audio books, Audm, an audio service for magazine articles and now Clubhouse, an audio only social media platform. Theatre is slowly testing the waters of this new (old?) medium.
Naturally, we had to try it out too. It so happened that my wife Vidya Pradhan was in the middle of translating a collection of Mannu Bhandari’s short stories to English (Roli Books, expected May 2021). For our first outing with audio, I picked one of her short stories called Abhineta.
Mannu Bhandari was part of the Nayi Kahaani movement in Hindi literature in the 50s and 60s. Much of her writing is about gender equality and the middle-class urban woman. Many of you will remember the Hindi film Rajnigandha (starring Vidya Sinha, Amol Palekar). Bhandari wrote the screen play for the movie which was based upon her own story Yahi Sach Hai. Abhineta is not one of her best known stories, but it lent itself beautifully to an audio dramatization.
The Actor is an adaptation of Abhineta. This is a full-blown production - with original music, sound effects and sound mixing. The actors put in a lot of work. We rehearsed for weeks before we recorded (remotely, of course).
Give it a listen. I think you’ll like it. This is our first attempt at an audio play so tell us what you think. Write to us at info at bayareadrama.company
– Basab Pradhan
The Actor - an audio play
Written and Directed by Basab Pradhan
Based on a short story by Mannu Bhandari
Music by Sruti Sarathy
Language: English/Hindi
Ranjana is a Bollywood actor at the top of her profession. She has fame, fortune and Filmfare awards, everything that an actor could hope for. But, she is lonely. Her friend and manager Kamini thinks a relationship with an actor would be good for her… and good publicity too.
Ranjana doesn’t think so. And then she meets Dilip. Dilip is visiting Bombay from Dehradun. He doesn’t seem to care that Ranjana is a film star. Ranjana is very attracted to him. Their romance begins. And then, it takes them to some very unexpected places.
The Cast:
RANJANA - Richa Garg
DILIP - Anirudh Mohan
KAMINI - Tannistha Mukherjee
ANANYA - Priyanshi Shrivastava
Poster photo credit Nikhil Uttam