The Vagina Warriors

Avantika Akerkar

Farhan Akhtar, Adhuna Akhtar and Mahabanoo Kotwal

Jayati, Avantika, Sonali and Mahabanoo Kotwal

Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar and Imran Khan

Imran Khan and Avantika Malik

Jesse Randhawa

Loveleen Tandon and Dolly Thakore
Last night I watched The Vagina Monologues for the very first time. I must confess all I knew so far is what little I gathered from Chandler Bing’s reaction on an episode of friends. (i.e. I assumed all men hate it and that it’s all about angry women who hate men.) Obviously I was totally off. It turned out to be a delightfully hilarious (and somewhat initimate) exploration of what defines and motivates women. If you haven’t seen it yet you really should.
Coming back to last night though, for the first half of the show my date and I couldn’t quite tell if they were having a laugh and purposely putting on what appeared to be an amateurish school production. I mean I loved the piece by Sandip Soparkar, Jesse Randhawa and Smiley Suri enacting the life and tragic circumstances which led to Haseena Hussain’s acid attack by a rejected male colleague (the fact that she was there gave me goose bumps.) But then there was Vishal Hasrani, a sweet little man who belted out songs like “One Moment in Time” and “Hero” with the deepest conviction but the most comical results. (You know, I haven’t seen a whole lot of Zoya Akhtar in the spotlight but she strikes me as someone with a healthy sense of humor and appreciation for irony considering she also giggled through Vishal Hasrani’s tearful rendition of Mariah Carey’s “Hero.”)
The actors Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal, Dolly Thakore, Sonali Sachdev, Avantika Akerkar, and Jayati Bhatia were all brilliant (I particularly enjoyed “My Short Skirt” by Avantika Akerkar and a wonderful adaptation of “He liked to look at it” by Sonali Sachdev and full props to Jayati Bhatia for hitting all the high notes with reckless abandon.) and Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar ‘s rendition of the poem “In India girls are meant for burning and boys are all that matter” by Mahabanoo was both moving and heartbreaking. Even Imran Khan did his solemn best to convey the ache and terror women witness around the world to this day. Loveleen Tandon, co-director of Slumdog Millionaire played humble chief guest. Their collective mission; V-DAY INDIA 2009: Women and Men ending violence ‘all together’.
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April 16th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
[...] like Springsteen to be a rockstar, this is Bollywood after all) he’s reciting poignant poetry in support of battered women or playing Word Twist on Facebook. Just a regular “Dil Chahta Hai” type of guy, you [...]
April 26th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
watched the vagina monologues and think it shd have been called the vulva monologues but kudos to the actresses who came out with such a hilariously passionate performance esp Akerkar Sonawane and Bhatia I am a little critical about the aspect of soaking up in sensuality and perversion in the story of the coochie snotcher and the incomprehensible parts in the village monolgue which tended towards the boring when the aspect of genital mutilation did not get the focus it shd have. thanks but overall a great attempt to give voice to the whispering woes of women over time!
May 14th, 2009 at 2:56 am
Excellent review Mary. (And just out of curiosity if you saw the same show I saw, what was up with the little bald dude singing Mariah Carey songs?!)
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Thanks for the reply…. guess we were at different shows …. I saw the one at Fame adlabs Vashi and there was no baldy singing Mariah Carey whatsoever! Well do correspond…. it’s truly nice to interact with like-minded women
May 22nd, 2009 at 6:32 pm
[...] Khanna, Shaheen Abbas, Anita Vaswani, Priya Ailawadi, Parizad Kolah Marshall, Mahbanoo Kotwal(fabulous lady by the way), Nayantara Thacker, Anaita Shroff Adajania, soon-to-be-mum Arshiya Eappen, Nisha [...]
June 8th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
[...] up regular folks showing their support as well. Whether it’s for the mentally handicapped, physically abused or creatively combating [...]
July 22nd, 2009 at 8:03 pm
[...] up regular folks showing their support as well. Whether it’s for the mentally handicapped, physically abused or creatively combating [...]
August 21st, 2010 at 12:38 pm
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