Read the full story

Jose Thomas Performing Art Centre (JTPac) brought to the city of Kochi, an adaptation of the Marathi blockbuster comedy Ek Lagnachi Ghosht, shaadi@barbaadi.com on 23rd May, 2009 in association with the Muthoot Pappachan Foundation. Radio Mango being the radio partner.

After his outstanding appearance in the famous Bollywood flick Hera Pheri; nothing less could have been expected out of this talented comedian actor Paresh Rawal.2.5 hours of non stop entertainment is how we can best describe this play. Paresh Rawal and his team (small screen artists) had the entire audience rolling with laughter with their exceptional performance.

Written by Umesh Shukla and directed by Paresh Rawal, the plot is based on a Gujarati guy falling in for a babe at a bus stop and how the story proceed leading to their blissful wedding to an equally chaotic post marital life. How the wife doesn’t see eye to eye with the mother-in-law and how the Gujarati guy (Paresh Rawal) goes through the brunt. I was looking forward to seeing Ye Jo hai Zindagi fame actor and wife of Paresh Rawal, Swaroop Sampat on the stage; however she didn’t come and her part was played by some other artist. Anyways, the show was simply hilarious and we all enjoyed it to the hilt.

I think JTPac is one of the good things that has happened to Kochi offlate. Thanks to Jose Thomas (Choice Group) and our very own Mohanlal, who needs no introduction, for brining to us a world class performing art centre at Choice School, Tripunithara. The acoustics are amazing however I feel the stage could have been a little bigger so that in future they have their option open for bigger performing bands and artists. Anyways, the management would know better, afterall it’s their vision.

So far there have been four performances, and I have been lucky to be able to attend three of them  – Dr. Subramaniam on his violin, Kavitha Krishnamurthy on vocals along with their kids; Cotemporary Jazz concert by Usha Uthup and the ofcourse the most recent Hindi play by Paresh Rawal. The one that I missed was Shobhana’s dance recital.

The management has done some intelligent thinking by inviting as special guests international diplomats for each of its show. It will not only help promoting Indian art and culture but also throw open the stage for international artists and exposing people back home to the world art.

The upcoming show that you can look forward to at JTpac, is the Malayalam Rock band – AVIAL playing on 6th June at 7:00 pm; also brought in association with the Muthoot Pappachan Foundation. Online booking for tickets can be done at www.jtpac.org