Retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Originally posted by addytorialsKatha Collage II starts half an hour late at Horniman Circle Garden on Day 3 of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. The theatre company apologises profusely for the delay before beginning. But even after the introductory skit is through, people still amble in at a leisurely pace. They greet their friends in the audience so loudly it makes you wonder whether they too are wearing concealed microphones. And then come the phone calls.

“Hello? Oh, yes. I’m watching a play. No, no, I really can’t talk now.”

Really? But you still are. I always thought that a better way of sending across the message would be not to take the call at all. Has nobody here ever heard of non-verbal communication?

But that’s not all. The woman with the large hair-do right in front of you must lean over to her friend at regular intervals to say, “Oh, he is wonderful. What an actor.”

Well, Bhansali’s Black moved me too, but I’m still against bringing deaf and blind friends to the theatre. That’s just me. If you need people to tell you that the performers are good (especially during the play), you shouldn’t be there.

However, Motley deserves due credit for an engrossing series of short stories enacted with comfortable finesse. To be surrounded by a gaggle of excited teenage girls in the audience who don’t understand a word of Hindi and still be able to lose oneself in the play is a feat made possible only by the substance of the play itself.

From the hilarious deliberations on the downfalls of being termed a good man to an intelligent debate on the benefits on not bathing, the play holds your attention from the get-go. The short humorous satires on everyday life has you nodding in agreement to the silliest of things.

Of course, one may wonder why a play scripted in orthodox Hindi about largely middle-class sentiments has attracted an audience of mostly elitist non-Hindi speaking socialites who look at you with bemusement when you chuckle. And one may also wonder why the populace who seem to be really enjoying the play are standing on unsure feet outside the arena to get a glimpse of the people who seem to be carrying their voices on stage.

But I shall leave that for another day, probably as fodder for another play.