“What are you here for?” I ask Sushmitha, a first standard student from Park Global School. We are seated side by side at the PSG College of Arts and Science auditorium. “To watch a movie,” she replies. Nimisha her classmate thinks there is going to be a magic show. They are not alone, more than a thousand school kids from the city wait, not quite sure what to expect.
The kids are restless, they have been waiting for over an hour. Teachers shush them, and finally the curtains fitted with lights go up. ‘It won't be scary, no?” asks Sushmitha. It is not, as soothing piano music fills the auditorium and the kids see huge cut-outs of trees and a television set. “Ashwin Gidwani presents Punch-a-tantra,” announces a pre-recorded voice, and the play begins. It opens with a disgruntled dad, Varun, who is reluctant to read bedtimes stories to his son. But as he goes out to get the ‘Magical stories of Punch-a-tantra' from the shelf, something happens and he suddenly finds himself falling through the TV screen into a jungle where he bumps into Mac, a loony monkey!
Varun thinks he is in a weird dream, but asks for help from Mac. Mac introduces him to the wise owl, Acharya Ji. Varun learns through an oracle that he has to fulfil a mission. He has to find the book, ‘Magical stories of Punch-a-tantra', that is now lost. Only when he reads out a poem from it can he go back home. He is told by the oracle, “If the book falls into the wrong hands, the forest will be in grave danger. There is not much time in hand, Varun. You must save the forest before the evil forces take over it completely.” Varun sets out on the quest and every animal that he encounters tells him a story.
Varun listens to myriad stories. A lot of them, familiar ones from the Hitopadesha, the Panchatantra, Aesop's Fables and the Jataka Tales. As he hunts for the book, Kabir, the crow, Jaggu, the jackal and Mac accompany Varun. The journey is fraught with excitement and intrigue. Kabir tells Varun that the lion may have the book. They head to the lion's den and on the way they meet a saadhvi who warns him about a traitor in his group of friends.
She is right. Jaggu is actually the lion's aide and he wants to lure Varun, Kabir and Mac into the lion's den as an offering to his master.
Varun and his friends escape that trap and encounter more hurdles before actually finding the book. Varun reads out a poem from it about the power of magical stories, and is immediately transported back to his home.
Designed and directed by Tejas D. Parvatkar, Punch-a-tantra is a huge hit with the kids.
Interactive and entertaining the production, the audience danced to the great music, shouted out answers to the questions the ‘animals' asked them and shook hands with the characters as they mingled with them.
Walking out, a little girl turns to her friend and says, “It was awesome, no?” Her friend responds, “Oh, yes, it was.”
