Devika Rani to be staged

The Durga Das Foundation and Primetime Theatre Co. Mumbai, Chandigarh art aficionados will be treated to rare theatrical spectacle, titled Devika Rani, to be staged on January 10 at Newton Auditorium of Strawberry Fields High School-26 at 6.30 pm. The Tribune is the media partner for the mega event.

Written by playwright and novelist Kishwar Desai, the play chronicles the life and achievements of Devika Rani the First Lady of Indian Cinema. She was a trail blazer in every sense of the word and, being a pioneer in shaping the Indian cinema, was rightfully decorated with Dada Saheb Phalke award.

The play has been produced and directed by Lillette Dubey.

Devika Rani had established the Bombay Talkies with her actor husband Himanshu Rai. She was a path breaker in many ways with her feisty independence, talent, and shrewd business sense.

Dubbed as the Indian Garbo of her times, she lit up the silver screen, in path breaking films that were strongly women centric, and dealt with important social themes, from casteism, to the ostracism of barren women, from anti British propaganda to widows.

The play highlights her beginnings in the world of cinema to her dramatic quitting of this same world to moving into oblivion with her second husband, the Russian painter and spiritualist, Svetoslav Roerich.

The cast includes Ira Dubey, Joy Sengupta, Mark Selby Bennington, Rishi Khurana, Kashyap Shangari, Pranav Sachdeva, Nandita Dubey and Aakanksha Kadre.

—SD Sharma