Vision is all he needed and vision is all Ashtam Neelkanth, the director of the upcoming play, 1,500 ka Dost, had. His upcoming comical satirical drama based on the journey and destination of friendship in an urban paradigm revolves around the value different friendships hold. Monetary and otherwise.
The narrative was inspired from the director’s experience. Sometime ago, he had to attend a friend’s wedding but didn’t know how much to give him in sagan. “To those who aren’t close to us, we give Rs 1,100. Those who are close to us, we give more than Rs 5,000. But this friend of mine was the Rs 1,500 category. Not more not less. Since that monetary denomination doesn’t exist, I was faced with the predicament of how much to give him based on the value his friendship held for me,” says Neelkanth. The play mirrors the hierarchical nature of friendships these days.
While returning from wedding, he phoned two of his close friends, also the co-directors of the play, Amit Tiwari and Rahul Saini, to discuss whether the idea could be developed into a play. They answered in the affirmative and the plot was ready.
This production will see the presence of persons with disability in the cast as well as in the audience. It’s being organised in partnership with Yes We Can, an NGO that works for the disabled. The director is differently-abled. He founded Vayam Performing Arts Society, an independent performing arts group, to challenge the notion that the differently-abled are different. Through the play, he wants to sensitise people about accepting them into the mainstream. “Disability is the inability to see ability,” he says.
Around 10 years ago, the group started as a campus theatre society in Delhi University with the aim of making theatre as popular as cinema. “The day is not far when we’ll make that happen” says Neelkanth.
January 7, at Akshara Theatre, 11-B, Baba Kharak Singh Marg, Connaught Place. 4.30 pm-6.30 pm.