A year and a half after director and playwright Chetan Datar's death, his pathbreaking play `Ek Madhavbaug' was translated into Hindi. A play reading by Mona Ambegaonkar brought the roof down at PVR Juhu.
An emotional Vivek Anand, CEO of Humsafar Trust and a close friend of Datar, who translated the play into Hindi, said it was a huge moment for him personally. "EK Madhavbaug was staged in Marathi and English and there were plans to always do a Hindi version, which never happened during Datar's lifetime," said Vivek. A tale about an unconventional mom's discovery of her son's sexuality and her efforts to deal with it, got a standing ovation from the audience for Mona. "Society may not be there to always support you and agree with your choices, but you have to go ahead with your journey irrespective," said Mona. Asked about how should parents deal with a lesbian or gay child, she replied, "It should be a hands-off approach, but be there to support them." Mona's performance not only got a standing ovation but brought tears into many eyes. Saturday also saw the houseful sign going up for four consecutive sessions at the 112-seater PVR Juhu. The other highlights of the day were ‘Suddenly, Last Winter’ - about how a couple deals with a wave of homophobia sweeping through Italy; Prodigal Sons and Amnesia: The James Brighton Enigma. There were many transgender-themed films at the Alliance Francaise today and the highlight there was a panel discussion called 'Trans Gaze -- the world of transgenders through the lens'. The panellists were the makers of a film called 'Our Family', Anjali Monteiro and Jayashankar, who belong to Tata Institute of Social Sciences; Prasanth Kanatur, whose film 'The Missing Colours' is being shown at the festival, and Urmi, head of the 'Care and Support' unit of Humsafar Trust. The discussion was moderated by Dalip Daswani. Author R. Raj Rao attended some of the sessions at the Alliance Francaise along with friends from Pune. For all the news on Kashish, please check out http://www.facebook.com/BombayDost or search for the #mqff10 hashtag on twitter -- Kashish Newsdesk
