THE WORLD’S A STAGE
Hindustan Times Kala Ghoda Arts Festival (HTKGAF) 2017, which is an amalgamation of all forms of art was in its full glory for the umpteenth time. A home to various art forms — three street plays were the highlights of the event on February 8, 9 and 10. SonyLIV collaborated with Rangshila Theatre Group, which saw performances of street plays throughout the festival.
A CREATIVE PLATFORM
“The idea of associating with the street play was a perfect blend with SonyLIV’s renewed brand ethos, We LIV To Entertain. The brand underlines its commitment to fulfilling the most basic and pressing of human needs — that for robust, high-quality entertainment,” says Uday Sodhi, EVP and Head — Digital Business, SonyLIV.
Speaking about the performances, Avneesh Mishra, chief of the theatre group, said, “Apart from catering to the audience for mere entertainment, we also did some other street plays to raise awareness such as organ donation. Since not many are ready to donate their organs.”
According to Sodhi, the HTKGAF 2017 is a space that provides an overwhelming experience to the best of the arts across all forms and mediums such as cinema, music, theatre, visual arts and many more. “Throughout these nine days, audiences get to witness expressions of national and international artistes in classical, formalist, and contemporary genres. SonyLIV has always focussed on bringing the best of entertainment to its users across the genres. Thus, it gives us great pleasure to associate with such a platform, and enrich our content offerings by showcasing the various events at Kala Ghoda on our platform,” he says. Sodhi is of the opinion that festivals such as these are integral to nurturing arts. He adds, “We wish this event, and its subsequent editions, keeps up its hard-earned, and much revered legacy.”
IT’S PLAY TIME
There were also another set of plays performed throughout the course of the event on other serious issues, that showed, entertainment in the right way can promote awareness. Furthermore, the plays were light hearted; The first one showcased a scenario wherein a prominent sports cocoach boasts about hihis sporting prowess,pro and misgmisguides innocents. There were some referencreferences made to the two films in trend. The second streets play did have a little story line where Salim and his rival fight for Anarkali in the most musical and dramatic manner. There were shayaris narrated along with pickup lines to woo Anarkali, and the ultimate catch was the qawwali battle that was performed during the last five minutes of the play. The final play on the February 10 was a soliloquy, which started off with the line, “Valentine’s day aa raha hain!” (Valentine’s Day is nearing). The play revolved around a villager who was madly in love and so deep was his love that he started eating paan every fifteen minutes. The climax of the play was left open ended. However, the play also stated that we all tend to do stupid things after being hit by Cupid.
Sodhi says, “The plays were based on the unifying theme — We LIV To Entertain — which amplifies every emotion of SonyLIV. With its all-inclusive and comprehensive genre of content — TV shows, Live Sports, Hit Movies, Originals, Kids, Live TV, Music and Short Films. SonyLIV depicts the amalgamation of all sorts of emotions, drama and most importantly, the variety of content. People who missed out on going to the event can also see the street play on SonyLIV app and website.”
Regardless of the mismatched and quirky themes, all the three performances highlighted the culmination of drama, music and art. The plays were well received by the members in the audiences at HTKGAF.