With BOSM just around the corner, the BOSM English Press sat down with Chinmay Pushkar, the Coordinator of the Hindi Drama Club (HDC), to learn more about the workings of the club.
HDC will be presenting a production called ‘Amalgam’— an anthology of four plays of various genres. It will be held in the JC Chaudhary NAB Auditorium, which according to Chinmay, was a cosier setting and allowed the audience to gain a greater feeling of immersion in the play. The comprising plays will be ‘Do Behenein’, a social commentary about jealousy based on the story by Munshi Premchand; a queer romcom called ‘I Don’t Like This’; ‘A Beating Heart’, centred around cannibalism; and a fourth play of the comedic genre. Chinmay stated that this edition of Amalgam would involve greater use of the English language, with about 60–70 per cent of the plays being in English. He added that he would like people to know that despite their name, they did not perform exclusively in Hindi and that language was not a barrier to being in the club.
Chinmay said that the preparation for the event started during the summer vacation. He explained that the hunt for the scripts began then, consisting of reading and watching as many plays as possible and selecting the ones they liked, instead of chasing audience appeal. He stated that the plays were chosen based on the conviction of their respective directors, and that his job then was just to give them the go-ahead. Furthermore, he said that they had recently started the process of ‘blocking’— mapping out the movements of the actors onstage with respect to the audience. He mentioned that the club was experimenting with incorporating live music instead of playing a backing track this time.
Chinmay stated that due to the popularity of the event, they expected the auditorium to be fully packed. He also added that during the last Amalgam, the Director had reportedly tried to enter the venue to see the show, but had been unable to do so due to the crowd. He stated that the club plans on inviting the Director themselves from this edition onwards, and that they wanted professors as well as students to attend.
Talking about his experience as the coordinator, he said that it had been wonderful, and commended his juniors. He added that their main goal for the semester was to produce their entry for a competition to be held in OASIS and achieve a third consecutive win.
When asked about the evolution of the club in the past few years, Chinmay stated that the number of club members had increased drastically since he had joined. He added that the club had started experimenting with more diverse forms of theatre as well. He stated that they had revived the tradition of street plays on campus, which had died out to COVID-19. Moreover, he explained that he had to learn the process of directing a street play for the previous edition of OASIS, and that he considered it an important art form as it was exclusively performed in India.
In closing, Chinmay requested the fest attendees to enjoy the play as well as attend Amalgam. He encouraged the first-year students to attend all the events and encourage their teams and wingies, and enjoy the fest.