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Play : Final Draft
Venue: Sammukh
Date: 16 th Jan
Time : 6.00 pm
Final Draft. Marathi. 2 hrs 15 hrs (with one interval).
Prod. Maharashtra Cultural Centre, Pune. Dir. Girish Joshi.
Story ( Play)
This is the story about a professor who teaches script-writing at a television academy, and his student. The girl, of average intelligence, is unable to grasp what the professor teaches, and when he realizes that, invites her home to give her extra lessons, that trigger off several questions in the girl’s mind: What are the basics of writing? What is story structure? What is imagination? What is the exact difference between real life and fiction? Discussions and reactions over these issues soon start making a foray into their personal lives.
The girl, who has come to town from a small village, has led a confused and directionless life, and is troubled by the thought that life has got nothing better to offer her—she would like to be a writer, but is unwilling to put in some hard work. Hence she is unable to complete even a routine exercise set by her professor. This continues over the next few sessions, with little improvement; the reason for this being, having a certain familiarity with his work, she comes to realize that he is not what she had thought him to be; and starts disliking him.
The professor, who was quite famous 15 years ago, had been trying to write a play for the past 3 years. He is unhappy with his academy, where he is not treated with minimum respect; and in his family, he does not vibe with his wife. He fails to answer the questions that his student puts to him in all innocence. This hurts his ego, and frustrates him even further. He feels perplexed as the realization that he has not been able to do justice to either his personal life or his writing comes to him.
Lessons give way to an exploration into each other’s lives, till they come to terms with their agonies, blemishes and faults.
They meet after a gap . . . her story has meanwhile been selected for a commercial project, and she has at last gained self-confidence; the professor on the other hand manages to complete his play.
About the Director
Playwright-director Girish Joshi (b. 1966) teaches Elements of TV Fiction Writing at Media School, and Choice Film and TV Academy, Pune, and has several awardwinning productions to his credit, mostly from his own scripts, including the controversial Makadachya Hati Champagne.
Director spaeks
‘As part of their exercises at the Media School where I conduct teaching sessions on scriptwriting, whenever I ask my students to cull out their own experiences, they put in an imaginary story to it; and whenever I ask them to write from imagination, they tend to add realism to it. Why does it happen like that? This was the thought that inspired me to write this play.’
Cast and Credits
Professor: Girish Joshi
Student: Mukta Barve
Lights: Anil Takalkar
Music: Rochan Ganoo
Make-up: Shrikant Agashe
Costumes: Shubhangi Damle
Script, Design and Direction: Girish Joshi
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ART & THEATRE 