Chinta Chhod Chintamani – a hilarious staging of generation gap!

For theatre aficionados, Yatri Theatre and Om Katare, the founder of this group, needs no introduction. Over the course of thirty five years, the group has given us some of the most hilarious hindi plays. And, one of their longest running plays, with over 4500 shows, is Chinta Chodd Chintamani. Originally written by Vasant Kanitkar in Marathi, the play was adapted to Hindi by Ashish Dikey and then re-written by Om Katare for Yatri. It is really commendable to see how this wonderfully and light heartedly this play tackles the age-old issue of generation gap. The plot of the play is such that it could be true to any middle class family.

Chinta Chodd Chintamani is the story of a modern and urban upper middle class family, whose patriarch is Chintamani, the protagonist, played by Om Katare himself. He is like any other father of his age who is concerned about his progenies, who he thinks are standing at the threshold of total ruination. Their wayward behaviour is the constant cause of his worries. Having always looked at everything from his world view, Chintamani is at a loss in relating to his city-bred kids who, with their own value system, seem to be against all that he holds sacred. The children, on the other hand, calls it the generation gap and thinks that their father is unable to bridge this gap. Over the course of the play, the plot slowly unravels to question the viewer of the authenticity of each view. Is it really a generation gap or a case of miscommunication? If it is really a case of generation gap then who will bridge the gap?

The questions like What exactly, is generation gap? Do the differences in opinion run deeper than what we perceive? Or is it just a lack of communication? What does one do about it? Are the one which almost runs in every middle class family. The play addresses these serious question but in the guise of earthy humour. The viewers will get to witness unbiased look at both sides of the coin, both from the perspective of father and children. Along with Om Katare, other artists who are playing important characters in this play are Mukesh Yadav, Puneet Maloo, Prashant Upadhyay, Paromita Chatterjee, Ashok Sharma, Keya Gupta, Sonam Singh, Vaibhav Joshi and Prateek Pendharkar, Priyanka Kaul.This is one of the few plays in Hindi which addresses this age old issue of generation gap in such a hilarious yet sensitive way.  

Source : articlesbase.com