Gems from The Hindu our local papers

Time was when it was the ToI that provided one's morning entertainment. Now the Hindu has, with its elbow aggressively out, ousted the ToI.

Here, from yesterday's Metro Plus, is a portion of the review of a play performed as part of the Kalakriti Annual Arts Festival:

Jashoda, in order to feed a family of 17 members, agrees to be a wet nurse to feed the children of a rich person of the village. She remains to be pregnant through out her life to feed the rich man's children, by getting food and clothes in return, and in turn supports her family.

However, she suffers from breast cancer and the family including her disabled husband deserts her and she dies unattended. The pain with which she calls her children to help her, fall on deaf ears and ironically shows how the real mothers are ignored in society.

The play directed by Alok Gagdekar, an NSD product was presented well, though it seemed too loud at times and crude in depiction which put off the audience. It also showed a little amateurish portrayal of the play by the group. Such serious plays need more control on the emotions and should be more subdued.

The use of two artistes to portray Jashoda was meant to give the mirror image and also to highlight the character. The dance form used in the play and the narration style was NSD style of presentation. The settings were simple and apt for the play. The posters of heroines, goddesses as part of the setting ironically portray the society, who worships them, but not the real mother.

It remains to be seen how she 'remains to be pregnant' for the rest of her life. Fascinating.

Also, theatre reviews on the lines of such prescriptions as 'Such serious plays need more control on the emotions and should be more subdued' make me wonder if the people writing these reivews have any idea at all of what they're talking about. The ghost of Ghatak will have to down a few to get over it.

But as usual, I've saved the best for last:

The invitees who came with their family members were dumbfounded with the seriousness of the play that many of them walked out in the middle of the play, not understanding what the play was about?

Please note the question mark at the end. Luckily for the invitees (and family members) 'dumbfounded' didn't necessarily mean rooted to the spot as well. Out intrepid theatre reviewer must have been relieved to report that they had the use of their legs and could, thus, beat a strategic retreat.

Update: Can poetry be anything but soulful? What would our newspapers do if, for instance, some alien intelligence removed that word from our collective vocabularies?

And no, I did not read out poetry. Oh my god! Does this mean I should now believe every politician who comes along and says the media misrepresented their words/misquoted them/took their words out of context?

Please also note that Hoskote is clearly not photogenic enough for the ToI photographers; I would be grateful if someone could tell me who Reema Bannerjee is.