Great music , excellent  dancing and fine acting were the hallmark of “Durga Zali Gauri” a famous children’s musical originally produced by Avishkar Chandrashala and recreated under the direction of Aditi Taylor. The New England Marathi Mandal hosted the production and presented it to a packed audience on September 13, 2008.

“This was the first play that I ever performed in” says Taylor, a talented actor and choreographer.  Durga Zali Gauri is a simple story of an adolescent princess and describes how she turns from a feisty Durga into a compassionate Gauri.  This musical showcases the journey of her life and depicts her transformation from a spoilt princess to one who appreciates the work of labor. The original production was created by Avishkar Chandrashala nearly 25 years ago.

Over 70 people young and old took part in this production which was directed and choreographed by Aditi Taylor, Deepa Talwalkar, Maya Tamhankar, Netra Rajnikant, Sharayu Mahale, Vijay Shriwardhankar and Vineeta Puranik.  As the curtain opened one was immediately taken with the wonderful backdrop lighting which projected beautiful scenes.  Sujit Potdar, Mihir Mahale and Runali Patil should be congratulated on the incredible work on props. The show owed a lot to the costume designers Vrunda Dhole, Runali Patel , Manisha Sahasrabudhe, Varsha Mahale and Vidya Bhide whose creative designs helped clothe seventy participants.

The show opened with an introduction to Durga the talented but belligerent princess. Sharayu Mahale as Durga was absolutely brilliant.  Durga’s temper  the spoilt princess,  suffered from insomnia. No bed was perfect and one night she left the house in rage and decided to take a boat across the river in the middle of a storm. The boat shatters and Durga is swept away.

She is found by some villagers in a delirious state.  The illiterate villagers take good care of her.  When she is better, she suggests that they build a levy so that the waters do not cause damage. The villagers are inspired and work hard to build the levy. Durga learns from the villagers that hard work is the secret to a good night’ s sleep. This transforms Durga as she uses her skills to improve the lives of the villagers.  She becomes a  sweet person  and is referred to as Gauri by the villagers. The play ends on a happy note with Gauri being reunited with her parents.

While the lip-syncing of dialogues detracted a little from the play and a couple of fine opportunities to have complicated energetic choreographies were missed,  the stage craft and the talent of the cast and crew made this a delightful show.  Simple but perfectly synchronized movements created a bollywood like effect on the stage.  

It was an event to remember and NEMM  and Aditi Taylor should be congratulated on putting together this grand presentation.

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