Anamika Kala Sangam’s last two Hindi imports from Delhi and Mumbai respectively do not give us cause for enthusiasm—the first for ethical reasons, the second for dramatic reasons. Felicity Theatre’s Patte Khul Gaye once again exemplifies Indian theatre’s shameful disregard for proper acknowledgement. Rakesh Bedi, the director, supposedly “wrote” it, but he actually lifted it without any credit from the Italian film Perfect Strangers (2016), which holds a Guinness World Record for the most remade movie ever. Whether he took it from the original or the unofficial Kannada copy, Loudspeaker (2018), we don’t know and don’t care. The fact remains that he hides the source, probably to avoid paying any fees.
In such a scenario I don’t see the point of reviewing the production, except for noting that Bedi makes it more farcical than Perfect Strangers, which satirized seriously the way mobile phones have overwhelmed the decorum of our socializing activities, and that the cast does a good job with the one-liners and split-second timing required as their secret affairs come cascading out of the closet for all to hear on speakerphone.
Potli Theatre Group’s Golden Bazaar, written by Pawan Uttam and Vijay Singh Parmar and directed by Parmar, needed someone to weed out the implausibilities in its weak script. Obviously the young to-be-married lovers were not on the same page to begin with if he actively pursued another girl (which could happen), but the heroine acts too immaturely all through for us to believe the complex procedure by which she shows him up later. Moreover, the wordy duel between her two prospective clients in Sonagachhi simply does not convince and clearly serves to pad the plot into a full-length drama. The one performer worth remembering, Puja Prodyut Mondal, plays a cynical but protective sex worker.
25 August 2026