SYNOPSIS.......

MASTER PHOOLMANI bears the distinct stamp of the Boston-based writer Chandrakant Shah's creative skills. Based on Satish Alekar's Marathi play Begum Barve, and spiked with borrowed material from the Autobiography of Jayshanker Sundari, a legendary Gujarati male actor who played lead female characters, this musical extravaganza is an outright entertainment. It brings the old-bygone charm of Bhangwadi theatre alive.

It is an engaging story of pleasant fantasy and harsh reality so finely blended together that the play evolves as an overwhelming emotional experience. Two, out of work Bhangwadi actors, presently living in miserable conditions relive their dreams in the most dramatic way with two aged bachelor clerks living in their fantasies about women. One of the male actor desperately wanting to play a female lead enters the fantasy of one of the clerk, marries him and so on. Of course, all this enacting is a play within a play.

MASTER PHOOLMANI is a classic example of a well-crafted script. It is also aptly directed and competently enacted by energetic artists, who perform, sing and dance and thus delivering an enthralling theatrical experience.

Popular Gujarati songs in the play invariably demands ONCE MORE from the members of the audience.

Live music contributes immensely to the success of this production. The technicians and musicians deserve rich compliments for the economically, yet artistically designed set. The lighting also enhances the aesthetic value of the play.