As PRASHN PANCHALI opens on 27th July 2010, Preeta Mathur Thakur, actress in lead and right hand to Dinesh Thakur's Ank, talks to us about the play, and of how Ank, a veteran Hindi theatre group plans to move ahead.  Deepa Punjani Ank has come up with a new production after a long time. How did the idea develop? Yes. We have been on the lookout for the right play for quite sometime. A couple of years ago when Prithvi Theatre had a poetry festival, we were keen to be part of it but those dates of ours were committed for outstation shows and we could not participate. The idea had taken root though and Suneetaji's PRASHN PANCHALI has been on our minds for the past year. We were contemplating on the right format for it. Is this your first solo performance? As an actor what was compelling to you about the text? Yes, not only is it a first solo performance for me, a solo performance is being directed for the first time by Dineshji, and for the first time in the history of Ank, a solo is being performed. The language of the text is beautiful. It is not to be just read in private but to be heard out loud. Also the anguish and trauma of the characters was something I identified with having gone through some rough patches myself. The Mahabharata has been the eternal mirror of any society. The characters of the Mahabharata are real, flesh and blood. What was the rehearsal process like? Were there any challenges to overcome? The kind of movement used for the play was one of the challenges. Dance movements slowed up the speech and diluted the intensity. At the same time we needed very graceful movements with variety. We have tried to bring in variety with characterization, moods and music. Subtle dance-like movements have been used to lend grace. The other challenges were the editing of the text (which is more than 200 pages) and flow of the language, which is not your everyday Hindi. Ank is one of the most well-known Hindi theatre groups in the country with a long history behind it. How do you see it developing in our times today? How do Dinesh Thakur and you envisage the group's future? Ank has always enjoyed doing plays with a large cast and we have a history of long running plays. But of late it has become difficult to sustain plays with larger casts due to the fast turnover of actors. Sometimes there is no time to train actors sufficiently before the next show. We have also now included two-actor plays in our oeuvre and we might embark on a soliloquy format. At the same time we have about three large cast plays waiting to take-off ( the result of our search for the last year and a half) - we just need to get our time and resources together. For a group to survive and flourish, there has to be a strong, driven and talented individual at the helm who can inspire others with his maturity and vision. Dineshji is all of that but we also need to develop a second line, and that is a challenge. 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Interview 2 Timira Gupta Jyoti Dogra Lillette Dubey Mahesh Dattani Chandan Roy Sanyal Sunil Shanbag (ii) Jairaj Patil Jehan Manekshaw K Raja Ravi Verma Sankar Venkateswaran Heisnam Tomba Hariharan Jamini Pathak Hilda David Satish Alekar Vir Das Ranjit Hoskote Om Katare Nipun Dharmadhikari Satyadev Dubey Dipan Ray Stefan Kaegi Zafar Karachiwala Dakxin Bajrange Makarand Sathe Ramu Ramanathann Cyrus Dastur Shekhar Sen Benjamin Juhel Chaitanya Tamhane And Sudeep Modak Sujata Mehta Asif Basra Barry John Nagesh Bhosale Astad Deboo Manhar Gadhia Sandesh Bhandare Usha Ganguli Sushama Deshpande & Suhas Joshi Jyoti Vyas Arundhati Nag Habib Tanvir Ramu Ramanathan Pushan Kripalani Harold Pinter Rajeev Ravindranathan Rajendra Gupta Viji Iyengar Sunil Shanbag Darshan Jariwalla Smriti Irani Atul Kumar1 Ashwin Gidwani Toral Shah Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal1 Shaili Sathyu Sanjay Narvekar Rohini Hattangady Dr. Ashok Ranade Vandana Sajnani Mahesh Elkunchwar Madhu Rye Mahesh Thakur Srimathi Madiman Kinnari Vohra Joy Fernandes C.K. Thakkar Jameel Khan Anupama Jayaram Lilelette Dubey Avatar Gill Dharmendra Gohil Rajesh Puri Kumud Mishra Kumar Shahu Meenal Patel Mujeeb Khan Anant Mudra Utkarsh Mazumdar Shekhar Sen1 Manav Kaul Rati Agnihotri Smita Jaykar Uday Chandra Rahul Da Cunha Atul Kumar Manoj Joshi Jaimini Pathak Boman Irani Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal Naseerudin Shah Joy Fernandez Kamlesh Mota Dinesh Thakur    Discussion Board

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