Rodevra Republic

I thank you all for your warm birthday wishes. There is a sense of closeness and belonging in your words that is difficult to express, and I am truly grateful for it. I am, by nature, a quiet and private person, and I tend to shy away from the attention that birthdays and celebrations bring. Yet, reading your messages today, I felt a gentle happiness in sharing this moment with you. Birthdays have a way of making one pause and look back. Perhaps it is the one time in the year when we become consciously aware of the passage of time. As I look back, the years seem to come together, carrying with them their share of bittersweet memories. Somewhere along the corridors of life, amidst its many events, one begins to sense that there is a certain order—a quiet harmony that underlies everything. When seen in the right spirit, this brings with it an attitude of faith and acceptance. I am reminded of a line from 3 Idiots : “Bahut mushkil se aaya hai yeh attitude… main mera yeh attitude rakh loon...

A tense moment from the Marathi stage adaptation of Dial M for Murder, set in 1970s Girgaum While it is common knowledge that the play is an adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder , which itself was based on the 1954 play by Frederick Knott, this Marathi version is extraordinary in terms of the skill of adaptation. Everything has been so perfectly localised in the cultural milieu of Mumbai of the 1970s, in and around its Girgaum locality, that never for a moment does one realise that this is an adaptation. The credit goes to the writer, Neeraj Shirvaikar. The team of Vijay Kenkre, the director, and Neeraj Shirvaikar have also given us the play Khara Khara Sang under the banner of Badam Raja Productions. While A Perfect Murder is a crime thriller, Khara Khara Sang is an uproarious comedy. Both genres have been expertly handled by this team, which speaks of their versatility, given that the two forms are so different and have their own unique dramatic demands. A word about...

Dry British humour often lies as much in the restrained delivery as in the story itself True British humour indeed! What was even more interesting was the way he recounted the story. It was a fine example of dry British humour. One could see the complete emotional neutrality with which he narrated the comic situation. I found the language and delivery particularly interesting. The language was typical Queen’s English (as one would expect), characterized by the distinct pronunciation of each word to enhance clarity. For example, the t s are true t s, where the articulation is very clear. Listen to how he says the words “Majesty” or “next”. Even when a word ends in t and the next word also begins with t , the sound is clearly articulated in both words. A good example is when he says “at times”. In many other English accents the t sound in the first word would often become silent. Another feature is the “eh” sound at the end of words ending with y . So hear him say “normally” as nor...