Two back-to-back shows on Saturday and Sunday, December 12 & 13 of the comedy play ‘Mere Samne Wali Khidki Mein’ brought laughter to the august audience and theatre lovers of Auckland. 

The show was a treat to the theatre lovers witnessing beautifully decorated stage with apt props, witty dialogues and comic-timings with a touch of Bollywood and a series of dance sequences.

The laughter did not die even for a while during the entire play. The audience was glued to seats even after the curtain call, which speaks for itself about the impact of play on the audience.

The play is written by young aspiring writer Avani Kothar based in the USA that addresses issues of fake journalism, evils of social media and struggle of youngsters to climb the ladder of success.

“It was a challenge to develop a story which addresses such serious issues with a factor of entertainment, and comedy,” director of the show Jayesh Bateriwala said.

Jayesh Bateriwala is known in Indian theatre fraternity of Auckland as an actor, producer and director, and has played a lead role in Gujarati and Hindi plays produced in New Zealand since 2010.

‘Mere Samne Wali Khidki Mein’ was presented under the banner of Rangmanch NZ Inc. Rangmanch has been bringing such thought-provoking plays in New Zealand since 2008 in different languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi and also organized an international theatre festival earlier last decade.

The star cast of the show included renowned actor Rupal Solanki, Vijesh Nangia, Santanu Ghosh, Nirmita Ghosh and introduced two aspiring actors Aakar Vyas and Jheel Pandit.

While Ritesh Vaghela and Shweta Duvekar were in a guest appearance, two special characters were performed by Ann Gerstenmeir, as a fitness trainer and Jayanta Bhaduri as a don.

Although Ann Gerstenmeir came from a non-Hindi speaking background, her performance was lauded by one and all.

The play had a number of Bollywood dance sequences which were choreographed by Ritesh Vaghela, the set along with props was created by Santanu Ghosh, and stage lighting was arranged by Malsha Ghosh.

The play received hoots, whistles, audience participation choruses, and later thunders of clap after every scene change.