Cult orientation

Cult orientation happened on 23rd July this year. It is the event in which every club comes together on one platform to showcase the freshie junta of IIT Bombay their respective genres. Hence, there is a healthy competition by each club to make the freshies stand up on their toes through their showcase. This competition goes beyond the normal performances, speeches and videos presented by each club to more intense gaali fight (slang exchange), shouting, clapping and cheering for freshie hostels. It was the same this year also, only instead of “H10 humara hai” or “H3 ki maa ka ***”, it was “H15A humara hai” and “H15B ki something something”. But what did not change was the effort put up by every club to lure the freshers into their respective clubs. We saw great performances by all performing and non performing genres, and our dramatics club FourthWall also performed outstandingly and left the crowd cheering the loudest for us :-). The performance started with the famous ‘Sonu ka Gold Medal’, the entertaining spoof on present JEE system and mockery of the whole two years of family pressure experienced by the JEE aspirants. The crowd was very energetic and responded like crazy having gone through the entire procedure very recently. It was followed by the famous trio Badri, Ayush, and Aditya’s stand up performance on what to actually expect after coming to IIT Bombay (pun intended :-p). Freshies burst into laughter and the response of the crowd was like madness. It sure was a hell of an entertainment for freshies and kind of a peep in for what they are about to experience in the coming days in IIT Bombay. Later the FourthWall council introduced themselves and informed the crowd about the level of professionalism the institute had attained in all these years in dramatics. Kudos to team FourthWall for being the rockstar of the Cult orientation. 🙂

ABCA(Any Body Can Act)

A new and one of its kind initiative by the club the Institute Cultural Council, aimed at those who have enthusiasm to act but hesitate in performing on stage and also to those who have acted sometimes back in their life but could not continue due to some or the other reason. Also this initiative reached out to many others who are enthusiastic but did not get any platform so far.

The event was held on 15th June in the newly announced Theatre Room, and the turn out of the people was really amazing. The special guest were our own Dean of Student affair Yagnik sir, who encouraged the participants by coming to the event and taking out time from his hectic schedule. Around 8 performances, including monologues and one acts, mentored and scripted by seniors like Vikas Pandey, Aditya Buddhadev, Shakti Sharma, Urbashi Sarkar, Jigar Sura, Ayush Gupta and Ratan Guha were staged during the event. These performances were all new and were never before performed in an IIT stage. The noticeable thing in this event was the way UG and PG students came up and collaborated with each other to bring out the performances from those students who are not usually stage addict. Considering that fact, the event saw really great quality of acting, scripting and directing.

All in all, a very good initiative by club and the Institute Cultural Council to come out and welcome people from outside the club to come up, interact with seniors, and most importantly, showcase themselves on stage. One can surely hope to see more of such refreshing initiatives and events from the dramatics club.

Kohl-lined eyes, trademark tikka, minimal accessories, elegant sari, hair neatly plaited and an ear-to-ear smile, quite unlike her multi-layered music, Shubha Mudgal the person is plain and understated. But put her before the mike and she at once acquires a striking persona. It’s all in her full-throated voice. It’s the voice with a cross-generational appeal. It’s the voice that comfortably traverses genres. It’s the voice that oozes sensuousness and emotion in the switch of a tune. So, you can hear a classical thumri or dadra, a hard-rocking “Ab ke saawan”, the resonant “Ali more angana” or a moving “Pyar ke geet”.

A post graduate in music and trained by several gurus, including Pandit Vinay Chandra Maudgalya, Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki and Pandit Kumar Gandharva, Shubha scaled the musical charts with her album “Ali More Angana” in 1996. “Though it was talked about a lot, it was certainly not my first album as many think. I had done enough classical work before (since 1986), which were well received. Anyway I didn’t get carried away by all the attention as the album was just an extension of my artistic endeavours.”Her foray into the field of popular music was quite incidental.
Shubha has done extensive research in ancient and medieval music, particularly bhakti sahitya to know how it can guide and add depth to sangeet. “Because when I started learning I was told that music and devotion are synonymous. That’s why Indian music is meditative and soothing. This is one of the reasons why I took diksha into a Krishna sect. The importance they give to music is absolutely moving. They make two kinds of offerings to the Lord – bhog seva and raga seva. This tikka, which many see as a stylised bindi, is a symbol of belonging to this group,” says this first generation musician, whose parents taught English at the Allahabad University.
Though her world revolves around melody, she is an avid sari collector and a foodie, who savours all kinds of vegetarian preparations. Khana or gaana, Shubha Mudgal prefers a delicious variety.
She has conceptualized this year’s very famous play in TheaterFest “Stories In a Song”. Fourthwall salutes her for her great contribution to the world of Music and Musical Theatre on the occasion of *TheaterFest 2012.*

TheatreFest-2012 – Back with a Bang !

The annual Theatre festival of IIT Bombay is going to be held on 29th 30th and 31st October . With the venue being the newly renovated , Grand Convocation Hall and the play lineup boasting of names as impressive as highly reviewed Stories in a Song and much awarded Baghdad Wedding the Festival promises to be  Bigger, Better and a much more enjoyable affair than ever.
Keep watching this space for more information and detailed reviews of the plays.

Dramatics tutorials

Here are some Videos exploring basic elements of Theatre.

For all the aspiring Script Writers here are some links to Dramatics Writing Workshops .

Cultural Orientation

The institute cultural orientation was held on July 23rd . Here is a short review of the performance written by our very own Aman Singhal .

                                 Celebrate endings-for they precede new beginnings

We don’t have very good food served in the hostel mess but it never tasted more tasteless. May be I was rushing up for the orientation as it would be (I hope it should be) the last one of my IIT stay I’d get to attend. Albeit in different representations, I have been a part of it all these years; as a freshman, as a hostel secretary to cheer my hostel up, as an actor and as a fourth wall council member.

I was sitting in the very front row and had taken hold of my seat prior to the event commencement as I didn’t want to miss any glimpse. While reminiscing from the old good times, a part of me still wants to jump out of that seat and scream as no one cares. But no matter what I was thinking back then, for now without any further redundancy, I’ll do what I’ve been asked for and write what this space is meant for.

The play starts with an introduction song, where verma ji gets to know about Sharma ji’s son who made it to IIT Bombay. He, under social stress then takes his irresponsible son to Coaching guru and after outwearing shoes on paying huge fee amounts; his son Sonu finally succeeds to make it to IIT. As a whole, the play speaks about the rugged life of students during JEE preparation, and the sacrifices their parents make. Though it’s a firm satire on the private coaching institutes and exploiting business in the name of education, it delivers the message in a much more humorous manner.

The play was little lethargic in the start and few of the actors seemed to be fumbling with their dialogues. It consequently impaired the sync at times but picked up the slack soon after it received a huge emboldening from the freshmen’s end. Some of the scenes which I personally think turned out to be really good, include the cheerleader’s one; the news reading where miming act adds flavor to the plate; the one where they overload Sonu with books; and the portrayal of computer on JEE result.

Overall, it was a great collective effort by sophomores and a wonderful time for the audience. Girls did complete justice to their roles. I liked the co-ordination between Rewa and that mime guy during the news reading scene. Ayush did justice to his father role as well. Sargun looked pretty natural as a coaching guru. Aditya very well played the overstated reporter and Ankit too came out to be impressive in all his scenes.

But the performance leaps up to another benchmark after Badri and Abhishek’s unannounced entry. Abhishek has his own way of mimicking various actors and captivating the audience while Badri only needs few of his body moves to all steal the show. No doubts Badri with his empyreal performance would have had a huge female fan base by now 😛 Cheers to both of them for bringing on stage all young content in a very short time. As they say, even the loftiest towers rise from the ground, I believe that hard beginnings always make a good end. I couldn’t ask for a better finish and I am glad that we have such gems in our club to shoulder up.

In the end of the line, it was nostalgically delighting to watch new talent setting their foot upon the LT stage. ‘Sonu ka gold medal’ will keep coming fresh every time we watch it unless Sibbal succeeds in calling the JEE off. With all these talented sophomores and an awesome council, future of the fourth wall seems to be pretty bright and promising. I hope this year turns out to be the best year for all of us.

Mandali : Coverage by IITBBC

Childhood may be over, but that doesn’t mean playtime is.

By Aman Singhal

One voice above all lies
One voice before it dies.

They believed in using words, not fists and hence they were followed. Since great acts are often born on a street corner, let’s shout together on street itself. Fourth wall IIT Bombay invites you all to the much awaited official launch of’ ‘MANDALI’ which conceptualizes on state-of-the-art dedicated street play group.

This is with great pleasure we hereby announce its inauguration to be done by a highly acclaimed professional actor Mr.Lalit Parimoo who has been actively involved on stage, radio and television for more than past 15 years. The following link would direct to his official website to get through more details on his profile.
http://lalitparimoo.com/

The concept of ‘Mandali’ has been built with a motivation of reviving the long-lost street play culture in the institute. This is nothing but a platform for all those street play lovers who are missing on it due to lack of opportunities. With an intention of taking it one step further, we are also glad to announce a series of professional workshops and acting classes associated with the same which would run throughout the next semester. In the end of the story, the fact worth realizing is that you don’t need to be an actor to invoke your voice. Join us on streets and add yet another dimension to your ambit.

P.S. No prerequisites required.You just need to be entirely bonkers to lead the entire show.

Ann Prod

By Aman Singhal

The Drama is not dead yet. Its aroma lives and so lives its soul to ameliorate. Where long span of parting can’t be a reason of surcease, we exemplify ‘Fourth Wall’.It brings to you another big event from its store called ‘Annual productions’, commonly known as ANN PROD.

Having started in 2005 as a part of theater festival, Ann prod is a stage which has witnessed greatest plays of the institute. First time ever being separated from Theater fest this year, it is scheduled as a 2 day event comprising of 8 outstanding plays. Every play in its own unique way challenges the throne of grandeur. The motivation of ensuring a primary check on quality justifies the reason of not keeping Ann Prod as a competition. It explicitly provides a platform where best talents of the institute can be exhibited.

Theater is a verb before it is a noun, an act before it is a place. Every year in the month of January, playwrights foregather to contribute back their best with everything what they have learnt here. It’s time when they let off the debt. All renowned or passed out actors from the institute whom we ever have heard of, have gained their fame and excelled in their genre right from this stage. Be it the countrywide acclaimed ‘Naali K Kutte’ or still performing ‘Jaago Jaago Jaago’, Ann prod stage has given them all. On an experimental basis, this Ann Prod presents to you a special performance by juniors to give them an opportunity so as to nurture their talent out of an amateur act. 

In the end of the line, we hereby promise you one more year of magnificent ‘Annual Productions’. The very place to display your endowments is set. All we need to conserve is the charismatic spirit of excellence. Hopefully in this journey of Ann Prod you not only gain a wonderful experience to cherish but also travel to a new dimension of Dramatics.

P.S: Keep watching this space to check on updates or further announcements on Annual Productions.

Tamanna

By Rohan Sabley

‘Tamanna’ is the same old clichéd female centric story that is common in many rural areas of India with a fresh perspective by a very talented writer/director.  It speaks of the transformation of a young girl form the rural interiors to the new empowered women by virtue of her education in the city who fights against the oppression (or rather the lack of free will to women ) of women in the society. It’s also a journey of self-discovery for the lead protagonist Tamanna (Played by Anvita). The plot has various flashback and real time scenes happening one after the other which is lucidly explained in the script.

Subhanshuk (Hawaldar) and Mayank(Inspector) do great in their parts. Subhanshu uses the rural accent to suit the plot and does commendable world in his sly humor and body language (talk about getting into the character). Bhavna (Tammana’s mother) efficiently essays a typical Punjabi mother who is proud of her daughter’s success and wants to get rid of her responsibility by marrying her daughter. Vicky (played by Vivek) is show as a naïve brother at the start (which seemed a little too childish) but transfers into a strong character when he realizes his sister is actually in love with a guy-Ashish (Ekansh) from her college.

Pikai (Ashish’s father) and Ashish (both do due justice to their roles) patiently try to convince the girl family for the marriage and the scene convincingly portrays the disregard of Love marriages in the rural Indian Society. Eventually the couple does get married.

A better portrayal of a romantic husband would have worked wonders in the anniversary scene. The argument scene seemed to go out of hand a little bit. It could have been much better with clarity of dialogues.  Vivek And his associate decide it time to get even with Ashish and eventually kill Ashish.

The gem of the story is Tammana who comes out as a strong independent woman trying to fight against the society for her love. She maintains her calm during the whole ordeal and speaks up against her Husband’s killers silencing them while standing up for the right. Anvita does complete justice to her role with sublime acting and is bound to do great in future with polishing from Fourth Wall.

Lastly, The well written script and great direction from Surabhi along with insightful narration greatly adds value to the play. On the whole it was a great effort by the whole cast and Mentors (Prasun and Tanash ) and a great time for  the audience . Fourth Wall seems to have a gem in Surabhi with her overall effort in the play and I am confident that she is bound to achieve great success in direction/script writing in Fourth Wall. All the best to all the sophomores who put a great show and may your contribute hugely to the club and enrich it even further.

PS- Long live Four Wall 😛