Zen Katha ... a review

A beautiful play directed by Lillete Dubey, this expounds on the story of a prince who becomes the first partriarch who spreads the ideology of Zen and Buddhism in China. Casting included Rajiv Gopalkrishna, Sandhya Mridal, Denzil Smith, Vikram Chaturvedi, Asif Ali Beg, Shardul Chaturvedi, Anu Menon, Pawan Singh, Pallavi Symons. Martial Arts by Sensei Parvez Mistry Original music score by Mahesh Tinaikar Went to this play mainly because I was interested in how they would be depicting the martial arts and zen given the fact that I am doing a lot of reading on these themes myself . On the other hand it had two of my favorite actresses.. Lilette Dubey as the director and Sandhya Mridul as one of the actors. The play, Primetime Theatre Company’s twentieth production, was based on the story of Bodhidharma, a prince from the ancient kingdom of Kanchi in 525 A.D, who was the first patriarch of Zen and Martial Arts, as we know them today. The first half devotes itself to the introduction of Prince Dharma who belonged to the royal family of the Pallavas and how he was brought up under the wise guidance of his guru prajna.The first half also brings forth the innocent love of Sanghameeta who was ready to give up everything for her Prince Dharma even allow him access to the secret codes of buddhist martial arts... from her father. Written by the famous narrator and playwright Pratap Sharma, the play is an interesting and colourfully dramatic piece which enraptures you with its story flow and the flawless performance of the characters in it. I would like to specially mention Denzil Smith who simply stole the show as Boddhidharma's guru in the first half and then as teh Chinese emperor in Wu Ti of the Lian dynasty. His depiction of the Chinese emperor and the nuances of the language commands special attention. His delightful baritone of a voice and his acting skills have held the audience enthralled and I was thinking to myself that I needed to see more of this man's performance. Another very versatile actor is Asif Ali Beg who donned many hats to perform many roles.. Be it the tantrik who has a lascvicious attitude or the 28th aging Partriarch of Buddhism, or the rogue who accosts Boddhidharma or the Hui 'Ko who becomes the second patriarch of Zen, he is a actor to watch out for. It was as if he was pulling out rabbits out of a magic hat... when he was changing his character so quick and fast. Among ladies, Sandhya Mridul put up a lively performance as the role of Sanghameeta and of Velu the disguised Sanghameeta who follows the love of her life to the mountains under the monk's garb. She is a refreshing as I had seen her in the serials... The play had some good choreography of martial arts which was one of the main things that I was interested in. I must say that the main protagonist, Rajiv Gopalakrishnan who acted as Boddhidharma needs some more years on him to hone his performance. His stage presence was lacking and well maybe its personal.. but I was not impressed with his performance be it his acting or his delivery of the dialouges. I think he will be better with more acts.. Well I had an enriching experience and look forward to watching more of them ... and sincerely hope that they keep coming to Bangalore with such interesting themes...