Family is the foundation on which we build our lives and our future. Whenever life gets difficult, family is the safe and warm sanctuary that we return to again and again to seek love, security and joy. On this International Day of Families (15 May), Zee Theatre celebrates this exact sentiment with two teleplays; ‘Ladies Sangeet’ and ‘Gudiya ki Shaadi’ where despite the many challenges they face, families find a way back to love and harmony, learn to value their differences and stay closely connected.
An overview:
Gudiya ki Shaadi
Writer and director Samta Sagar’s lighthearted and yet incisive play addressing unrealistic beauty standards and colourism is woven around a young girl, Gudiya. She is not conventionally pretty but her spunk and strong will, prevent the opinions of others from denting her self-confidence. On the eve of her much-awaited wedding, she loses her eyebrows accidentally and panic takes over her family and causes her groom and prospective in-laws to stop the wedding. The situation forces the audience to introspect and wonder if what lies within a woman has less value than what she looks like. The play goes on the delineate how Gudiya deals with these questions. Watch the play to know if her family rallies around her finally to bring the story to a happy conclusion. The filming director of the play is Sourabh Shrivastava and it stars Shweta Basu Prasad as Gudiya along with Virendra Saxena, Samta Sagar, Ishtiyaq Khan, Saroj Sharma, Neha Saraf, Vikram Kochhar, and Anveshi Jain. The play will be screened at TataPlay Theatre at 2 pm and 8 pm.
Ladies Sangeet
Purva Naresh’s acclaimed play ‘Ladies Sangeet’, tells the story of a young bride-to-be Radha who is all set to wed her beau Siddharth in a big fat Indian wedding at her beautiful ancestral home. On the surface, everything looks almost picture-perfect but soon the tension between her parents, her own misgivings about the institution of marriage, and a long-buried secret threaten to disrupt the celebrations. With beautiful music and dance sequences, insightful writing, and powerful performances, the play demonstrates how important it is for individuals and families to confront outdated notions concerning marriage, body image, respectability, and gendered roles. The play is thoroughly entertaining but also thought-provoking, as it asks questions like, ” Why, must people get married if they are not ready? Why should they stay in loveless marriages? And most importantly, why do families suppress their children from expressing their sexuality?” How a family navigates these tough questions to finally connect in an authentic way makes for revetting viewing. The play’s filming director is Suman Mukhopadhyay and it stars Joy Sengupta, Loveleen Mishra, Nidhi Singh, Siddhant Karnick, Harsh Khurana, Sarika Singh, Monica Gupta, Niranjan Iyengar, Mallika Singh, and Nivedita Bhargava.
It will be screened at TataPlay Theatre at 2 pm and 8 pm.
