Bharata Shaadi: I don’t want to be a single lady!

This weekend, I got a chance to watch the play called “Bharata Shaadi” created by the student from the Faculty of Communication Arts, Chulalongkorn University. This play is one hundred percent made by the student, the castes, prop, sound, light, script, costume, backdrop, make-up and hairdo, all created by them. It is my second time experience the play from this faculty and it amazes me again!

The story takes place in the city where being the single lady is not accepted under the belief that the unmarried life is never completed. Being a single lady is also contrary to the superstition believed that the lady who does not has a husband will bring bad luck to the city. Every night, single ladies in the city will be dragged to the square and be pitched by small rocks in order to be punished because they do not have the husband. They also believe that being single makes god’s dissatisfaction and will cause the fire in the city, and people in the city will become the maniac.

Aesha is the hottest woman in the city, she is going to be married with Farhan, the only son of Rani Rattika. (Rani is a status of the highest woman in the city, it is similar to the queen) Unfortunately, the day before the wedding day she found out that Farhan has never loved her, so she let him go. When the mother of Farhan, Rattika knew, she was very angry and wanted to punish Aesha. Rani Rattika waited until the dawn to punish her. In the same day Ram, Aesha’s ex-boyfriend, has shown up and came to talk with Aesha. She knew that he is the last and the only one who can help her to escape from single status and the punishment in the upcoming night, but it is not easy to win Ram’s heart again.

I like the character Aesha so much, maybe because she is a strong and straightforward woman, she knows what she wants and she does everything she thinks she could do. When she knew that she is going to be killed because seethe cause of the calamity she did not run away even if she got chances, but she tried to seek the truth to defense herself.

The play is combined with funny, romantic, sarcasm and dramatic scenes. They put so many details about Indian cultures, sounds, styles, light, and facial expressions that the characters have shown. The dancers are also awesome! They dance the stage like they are dancing in the Bollywood movie and I like it so much that I want to dance too, lol. One of the dance team is my good friend, Jam, I have visited her during the dance workshop and I could see that she put a lot of effort into this mega project! All of the players and production team had to stay at the workshop until late night every day for more than 2 months in order to prepare for the play.

It is one of my favorite plays that I have ever watched. Comparing with the last play they have done, Secret Alert, it is totally different from this story. The last play is more imaginative in the way of how the authors run the story because everything in the story is not real, but in this play, the content mostly based on the belief and Indian culture, even if they have put and changed some details. This play gives me the sense that the belief could be real in some places in this world so I was more serious while watching this play. In contrast, the play “Secret Alert” did not make me feel this serious because I knew that it will never happen.

I really enjoy watching the play so much and I can’t wait for the play of our faculty next year, which a couple of our classmate is going to play and some of us are involved in this project! I hope that “Aloha Paradise” is going to win my heart for next year!