What do women want? The play ‘Chuhal’ attempts to seek answers

Chuhal, a play by Kriti Stories and KissaGo Theatre, explores why women shy away from commitment. . Directed by Pallavi Verma, the play will be staged this weekend at Rangbhoomi Spaces in Gachibowli

What are the factors that make women shy away from committing? The play Chuhal by Hyderabad-based Kriti Stories, in collaboration with KissagGTheatre, attempts to seek answers to this intriguing question. Chuhal means playful activity, says director Pallavi Verma, one of the founders of Kriti Stories.

To be staged this weekend, the 70-minute Hindi play written by Manav Kaul, set in the late 90s, follows the lives of Sudheer (Jonas David) and Aarti (Shailja Chaturvedi). The production looks into the reasons that make the girl hesitant to commit to a man and how the system plays on the minds of these two people. “It could be a simple romantic story or a tale with many layers; it is up to the viewer to interpret,” says Pallavi.

Having loved the scripts of Park and Shakkar Ke Paanch Daane by Manav Kaul, Pallavi was instantly drawn into the world of Chuhal. Pallavi, who also did the set and costume designing for Chuhal, says she could easily relate to the characters. “This story is set in the mid-90s tier two cities; I grew up in Jabalpur, my hometown,a tier two town in Madhya Pradesh. So, I could connect to many things in this story.”

Pallavi has a performing arts specialisation in Kathak from Indira Kala Sangit Vishwavidyalay (Khairagarh University) and started as a choreographer and actor in Hyderabad in 2009. Besides acting in plays by different theatre groups, she launched her group, Kriti Stories, in 2016 with Junaid Ullah and her husband Saandeep Minnaganti.

Pallavi first directed Chuhal in 2018 and has, so far, staged it 10 times in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune. She had been waiting for an opportunity to stage the play again when she heard Kissago theatre group’s reading sessions. The two production houses (Kissago and Kriti Stories) collaborated with Pallavi at the helm. Earlier productions of Chuhal had followed Manav’s script, which had Switch, an improvisation technique that ended on an interactive mode by inviting the audience to have a cup of tea with the actors on the stage. The KIssaGo-Kriti presentation is experimenting with a different ending this time. Also, except for the lead actors, the other actors are new.

Chuhal will be staged at Rangbhoomi Spaces on July 28 and 29 from 7 30 pm onwards; Tickets: ₹300 at bookmyshow.com