In the hands of audience

INTERACTIVE THEATRE

Bhagwaan Dhoondo, an interactive play performed by Yours Truly Theatre in the City on Sunday, was a brilliant and witty commentary on lives in cities. Directed by Nandini Rao and Ranji David, the play, which was composed in one of the newer formats of theatre called ‘Complete The Story’, was a pleasurable experience.

The play depicted the lives of three people — a painter, a girl and a joker — who are  desperately in search of something or the other in life. A painter, for whom the world is a canvas and the colours are the language, lands up in a city in pursuit of his dreams. But with nobody showing interest in his paintings, he becomes unsuccessful in life. At the same time, a girl is longing for a fulfiling love life and a joker is caught between his passion for photography and family responsibilities. Having lost peace in their lives, all the three characters are desperate to seek the true meaning of life.

Here ended the first plot. At this crucial point of the story, the performance was paused and the audience was invited to decide the fate of the characters. Picking one of the apt endings, the actors continued the play till the climax.

Though Bhagwaan Dhoondo didn’t have a linear story line, the continuity of the narration was nowhere affected. It was a play with many collages. “The play mirrored real life. It was all about what youngsters are going through in this realistic, competitive world.

Though it presented diverse stories from the beginning to the end, it never let the audience down. The idea of the audience suggesting the end of the story was totally new for me. I enjoyed every bit of the play,” said Amaresh Rathod, a play enthusiast.
Agam, a music band and the winner of National Band Hunt handled the music. The title track, Kahin Ghoom Gaya Bhagwaan was appealing.

A huge painting by Anand Kumar, who is the winner of a National Award for his paintings, provided a fitting backdrop to the play. The cast included Nandini Rao, Ranji David, Abhijit Madhwaraj, Chetan Nataraj, Ramya M and others.