Cotton 56 Polyester 84

After a long long time had been to a drama theater to check out a Drama festival which is going on at Ranga Shankara this week. The Ranga Shankara theater is very near to my home and had never checked it out. Must really appreciate the quality which has been maintained in the entire execution of the festival.

 

Happened to meet T.S. Nagabharana (National Award Winning director) and Arundhati Nag, both famous theater personalities. More over I was sitting beside Nagabharana while watching the play :)

 

Nagesh Bhonsle is a well know film personality (Siva, Sarkar etc), was the UPS of the play. He perfectly fits as a lower cast mill labor who has lost his job. His almost perfect command on Marathi flock songs added to the ambiance of the play. But I liked the performance of Kumud Mishra as a Muslim worker.

 

The script, I felt exaggerated the concepts of castism and communism and are a bit out dated in the current context. It does bring out the frustration of the mill labors who lost their jobs to the rapid growth of the industries and its technologies. Its a story about people who don't want to and can not come out of their "injustice has done to me" mind set and self pity.

 

Hoping to see "Jameela Bai Kalaali" this Sunday.

 

Presented by: Arpana

Director: Sunil Shanbag
Playwright: Ramu Ramanathan (translated by Chetan Datar)
Duration: 140 mins (with interval)
Language: Hindi

Cast: Nagesh Bhonsle, Kumud Mishra, Charusheel Sable-Vachhani, Pramod Pathak, Nimesh Mehta, Hridaynath Jadhav, and Aanchal Nandrajog

Lighting Design: Hidayat Sami, Sunil Shanbag
Music: Devdatta Sable
Musicians: Bali Deshmukh, Sada Mulik
Set Design: Vivek Jadhav
Backstage: Suresh Yadav, Babu Thapa
Production Control: Sunil Shanbag

Synopsis

Cotton 56 Polyester 84 is a gritty, true to life saga centred on ‘Girangaon’, Mumbai’s historical textile mill district. The text has been arrived at after months of research, which involved meetings with innumerable mill workers, their families, and union leaders. The drama of ‘Girangaon’ is played out by Kaka and Bhausahab, two mill workers, who spend their days at a local newspaper stand, recording their past. As they speak, a fascinating stream of characters flows past, each character adding a fresh dimension to the story. The play reflects Girangaon’s rich cultural heritage through live music in the best folk traditions. The play is hard-hitting, funny, and poignant. It will change the way one sees Mumbai forever.