Kids from Vatsalya Foundation steal the limelight with their powerful street play at a charity show in Mulund
Bhanu Kumar, Mulund west
‘What does this city have to offer,’ was the question that found an answer in the street play ‘Mumbai Meri Jaan,’ presented at the Kalidas Auditorium on December 17 that was part of the charity show organised by Tarang, L & T Ladies’ Social club. The play was written, directed and enacted by children from the Vatsalya Foundation that works towards rehabilitation and integration of street children.
Their innovative improvisation was the highlight of the day. Their improvisations only proved that you do not need elaborate sets and extravagant props to convey your message. All you need is creative imagination, a script with a punch and they had it.
“The script for this play saw seven different drafts. One day finally they sat overnight and just wrote it. They have done 36 shows from housing societies to the best of auditoria,” informs Swati Mukherjee, trustee of Vatsalya Foundation.
Yakub Shaikh is just 13 but manages the music score for the play. Necessity is the mother of innovations. Ranjit Verma acts as a famine hit villager. Vikas Shinde is the hawaldar who drives away the footpath dwellers. Ranjeet, Vikas, Manikandan, Tushar, Rajavel, Sagar, it is a long list integrating India.
Zakir Khan is the village father lost in this crowded city and realises that the village is his home. Ironically Zakir does not know which village he belongs to. “I learnt diction, voice modulation by following the guidelines of Anupam Kher and Naseerudin Shah and am enthused to perform better. Acting with them was dream come true for me,” says Zakir.
The freshness of their performance adds to the script and depiction. Krishna Thakur who was a street child picked up and groomed by Vatsalya is now a staffer. The guiding principle is empowerment. “Children love to learn but hate to be taught,” Swati puts it in a nutshell.
They have acted with the likes of Anupam Kher, Gauri Karnik at the Habitat centre, New Delhi, with Naseerudin Shah and Saurabh Shukla at NCPA and Prithvi theatre. They have their own dreams. Zakir wants to become a news photographer.
The second half of the Charity Show was a delightful, well choreographed and well delineated Kathak recital “Ritu Vilasaha” by Ranjana Phadke and her students, depicting the similarity between human life and six seasons.
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