No more Bollywood for me.

Never in the entire history of my existence have I witnessed a theatre act and ‘Delhi IBSEN festival’10’ gave me a whole new perspective to the concept of what acting is.

‘The Mountain Bird’ by Henrik Ibsen, directed by Lars Oyno (Norway) is a path breaking play that shook my sensibilities towards judging a good act. Despite being surrounded by middle-aged men and women and art connoisseurs that looked like pilgrims, the evening was worth my time. The characters lit up the stage with their exquisite performances and there was pin drop silence in the hall throughout the play. Their performances gripped every audience for nearly two hours. It is amazing to see how each actor breathe the character and how well they presented it. It must be challenging for the director and the casts to coordinate everything flawlessly. The sound of the violent at the background and the feet tapping of the characters reverberates throughout the play. What is interesting is that a good actor need not be a Greek god or anything closer. It is simply the ability to do justice to the character he/she is presenting. It involves a great deal of hard work, dedication and team effort. They performed as if there was no tomorrow and it is this energy, that the show was a great success. My only complaint is the sub-titles because I somewhat got distracted from the story. I couldn’t concentrate and I feel it is too much of multitasking. Guess I need to do a little research on the play to understand it profoundly.

Growing up in India, I am accustomed to a lot of masalas and cheap thrills when it comes to watching a movie so much so that I have unknowingly ignored content, social impact and above all fine acting. These are characteristics that would drag millions to the Oscars.

Given a choice, I would cast my vote to a theatre show and not a cinema hall. It is indeed ‘the new world’ to indulge in.