Ian Joseph ’19 and Michelle Wu ’19 rehearsing their lines from the Nautanki-style play “Mission Suhani.”
A popular regional opera form of India is helping bring Indian culture a little closer to home for students, who are getting a crash course in Nautanki-style plays. They are learning from one of the best, visiting director Devendra Sharma from California State University. After a limited number of rehearsals, the students will perform Tuesday, Nov. 1, at 8 p.m. in Setnor Auditorium.
“Mission Suhani” follows Suhani, a confident young Indian bride, and Chaliya, her non-resident Indian groom, who has taken her dowry and left her in India. Against familial and societal pressure, Suhani tracks him down in the U.S., recovers the dowry and finds her love. Nautanki is one of the most popular performance genres of northern India and an inspiration for Bollywood films. Professor Sharma adapts the traditional interactive, festive Nautanki style to contemporary spaces and social issues
through music and humor.
This short video was produced at one of the rehearsals, as students learned their lines and lyrics.
