Prashant Damle and Vandana Gupte are two great versatile artistes of Marathi stage and their coming together after a long time through a new play ‘Shri Tashi Sau’ itself had invoked a lot of interest among the Marathi stage lovers. This comedy play originally written by Sudhir Kavadi and now developed by Vinod Hadap, is a presentation coming from Prashant Damle Fans Foundation.

Those who have seen the recent plays like 'Nava Gadee Nave Rajya' and 'Jo Bhi Hoga Dekha Jayega' will notice nothing diffeent from the main theme i.e. husband and wives doubting each other. But, 'Shri Tashi Sau' makes all the difference with its skillful presenation, where the 'Sutradhar'( Ringleader) played by Prashant Damle helps to add that required extra humour through his timely jokes and spontaneity. His ability to react quickly to any happenning taking place in the auditorium, clearly indicate his communication skills.

Vandana Gupte plays a housewife and Kiran Mane ('Govind Ghya Kuni Gopal Ghya' fame) plays her Professor husband. One day, Professor's student -Neeta ( Akshata Biwalkar) arrives in his house and the professor offers her a room in his big house to enable her to carry on with her research work, under his guidance. Now, doubting her husband's integrity, Professor's wife seeks the help of her friend's son - Mohan ( Mohan Chitre) who is doing his P.hd in Criminolgy. She admits him in the house and offers him a room too. Mohan plays a detective and is entrusted with a job by Professor's wife to keep a close watch on the activities of the Professor and his student,especially when they are out. But, in the process the Professor starts doubting his own wife and suspects some kind of relationship between his wife and Mohan.

In the meanwhile, Mohan and Neeta fall in love with eachother and they cannot stand to allgations made by the Professor and his wife on eachother. The play offers enough scope to all five characters, including the Sutradhar, who tightly holds the strings of this play with the ultimate motive of entertaining from start to finish. The drama concludes well, leaving two options for the end ;before the audience in the climax scene, which is something unique.

The original play has been suitably revised to match with the present time and as a director Ravindra Divekar has done a good job. The play has ample scope for clasical narration by all artistes with the help of perfect music provided by Ashok Patki. Stage Management by Baba Parsekar is good. Performances from all the artistes are so natural and superb. The play does have that strength to pull a sizable audience to the theatre, even on week days. On the week ends, the drama receives a very good response with a full house. In short, 'Shri Tasi Sau' is a crowd puller from all sections of the society.

by Ulhas Shirke © MMW