PARAKH THEATRE GROUP

Abdul Aijaz is fascinated with the power of stories and storytellers. He believes that stories materialize in the form of the worlds that humans navigate and dwell. As a descendant of the pastoral camel-herders of the Punjabi bars, he is invested in nomadic thought and flight of fancy to challenge sedentary and static stories and worlds to clear up space for alternative worlds of collective flourishing. His academic journey reflects his intellectual nomadism as he has regularly jumped disciplinary, linguistic, and geographic boundaries to acquire training in literary studies, history, political science, and geography. He combines his training across disciplines to challenge the fact-fiction binary that informs the disciplinary boundaries of sciences and humanities. He is currently teaching environment and sustainability studies at the University of Kentucky in Lexington where his work pushes against the singular narrative of climate crisis to make alternative stories of the world relevant in imagining postcrisis futures. 

Mudasir Bhat is a theatre artist based in mumbai. He has been working with parakh since over a decade. Apart from doing theatre, he is an actor and model in the film, commercial and television industry. He has also been a national level cricketer (vice caption J&K under–19). His recent work includes two webseries Crackdown and Oh My Wife for reputed platforms. Acting for him is an art and a form of expression and self-empowerment.

Ritwik Chaudhary is a writer and theatre artist. Art is reason to him—reason to live and to seek. His idiosyncratic perspective guides him as an artist and human. He joined Parakh Theatre Group in 2013, and since then every day has been a journey of looking within, learning new things, and adding depth to the understanding. Parakh’s political commitment, which enriches the spirit and allows it to bloom, has taught him how to traverse the paths of art, knowledge, and life itself. With Parakh Theatre Group, he has acted in Kutte, written by Vijay Tendulkar and directed by Tarun Kumar. He has worked backstage in Chup, written by Fawad Khan and directed by Tarun Kumar. His other theatrical experiences include acting in Ajnabi, adapted and directed from Albert Camus’ The Stranger by Anil Kumar Chaudhary. He played a small role in Joon, a film written and directed by Barnali Ray Shukla, which has won numerous awards internationally. His work is published in NINSHAR Arts, among other places.

Ali Jafri is a member of Parakh Theatre Group since 2023. He is a filmmaking student, director, writer, actor and editor. He co-directed and edited a short documentary Abhinay with Apratim Roy. The documentary was about Parakh theatre group’s actors and was made for a college project. He has recorded Chup’s 2 shows in 2023 August. He is editing Tarun Shukla sir’s documentary on Sitapur’s Sangatin Kisaan Mazdoor Sangathan.

Nikhil Jaruhar is from Patna, Bihar, where he studied both theater and literature, and developed a profound love for buying and reading books. That love is still intact today. In Patna, he made his debut with the play, Beti-Biyog, written by Bhikhari Thakur and directed by Harivansh Tiwari. He was associated as an actor with the well known Prerna-People’s Cultural Front, whose street plays were known for dealing with issues of unemployment and corruption. In 2010, he came to Mumbai and learned film direction at the Zee Institute of Media Art. Since then, he has worked in the entertainment industry as an assistant director in: theatre, television series, advertising films, music videos, and feature films. Nikhil joined Parakh Group in 2018 during an acting workshop around Kutte, written by Vijay Tendulkar and directed by Tarun Kumar. He subsequently worked with Tarun Kumar in Amrit Manthan, an invited play for Ardh Kumbh,  and in Fawad Khan’s Chup. Parakh has taught Nikhil to speak, to  keep his word, and to more deeply understand society and literature. As a director, Nikhil has a few independent projects on YouTube. He has made the award-winning short film, Navras (2022). He is working on his first feature film.

Manoj Singh Kaira: I was born in a small town in Uttarakhand State, studied in Kendriya Vidyalaya in Ranikhet, and later graduated in commerce from Delhi University. I began with Parakh Theatre Group in 2015. Initially, I was there to just observe the actors and process in Nagar ki Nagariya, Qisson Ki Atariya,  a play created by Tarun Kumar on the basis of three stories by Amritlal Nagar. Those observations inspired me to become an active student and I learned by heart the lines of every character. Then one day, when the main lead went to his hometown due to an emergency, Tarun ji asked all the twenty people in the room to try to step into that role. When I tried, everyone liked my performance and I was finalized for the character. After that, I became a core part of Parakh and played the main character in Kutte, written by Vijay Tendulkar and then in Chup, written by Fawad khan. In my eight years of journeying with the group, each one of us has worked on every aspect of theatre, including acting, production,  back stage work, lighting, and sound and I believe that this training helps to prepare us for life’s battles. Currently, I am working in production, direction, and acting in the Bollywood Cinema. I have directed, acted in, and co-produced the award winning short film The Invitation. As an actor, my work includes a role in Alt Balaji’s Crime and Confessions. 

Medha Muskan is a poet, farmer, youth worker, and storyteller invested in questions of justice and solidarity, especially in the realms of farm & food, Brown & Queer histories, and children’s development. Her translation of Intifada by Ashok Kumar Pandey can be found here (English) and here (Hindi).

शशिकला राय — सावित्रीबाई फुले यूनिवर्सिटी, हिंदी विभाग में अध्यापन। ‘ज़िंदा कहानियाँ’ सहित नौ किताबें प्रकाशित हैं। मैं धर्मवीर साहित्य सम्मान से सम्मानित हूँ, मुझे प्रसारभारती द्वारा बेस्ट डाक्यूमेंट्री पुरस्कार मिला है। हंस, कथादेश, कथाक्रम, पहल, पूर्वग्रह, बनास, वागर्थ, अक्षरा, समयांतर, विविध पत्रिकाओं में मेरा लेखन प्रकाशित है। 

Teaching at Savitribai Phule University, Hindi Department. Nine books including ‘Zinda Kahaniyan’ are published. I am honored with Dharamveer Sahitya Samman, I have received the Best Documentary Award by Prasar Bharati. My writings are published in Hans, Kathadesh, Kathakram, Pahal, Purvagraha, Banas, Vagarth, Akshara, Samayantar and various magazines.

Anchit Prakash Saxena is a resident of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. After completing his graduation, he stepped into the world of theatre. He knew then that he could not move ahead in life without theatre. The love for acting and drama took him to Mumbai, where he joined a theatre group to dig deeper into the nuances.e That is when he met Tarun Kumar, and began with Parakh Theatre Group. He has acted in five plays with Parakh and twenty-five plays with other groups. Theatre work led Anchit to work with other media as well. To date, he has done two feature films, two short films, three commercial ads, and a web series. His film, ADD TITLE, is due to be released; a short film, ADD TITLE, is in post production; while a web series, Sunflower, will launch its second season soon. Despite these engagements, however, it is theatre that fires his creative spirit.

Sudeepta Singh is an Indian actor, who has been working in television and Hindi films since 2007. She predominantly works in Crime based shows for TV. She was a part of the feature films – ‘Mee Raqsam’ (ZEE5) and ‘Chalk and Duster’. She has acted in the short films ‘My Pot of Gold’ (Pocket Films – 2018) and ‘Seher’ (2018), receiving international accolades for both. She acted in ‘Soni ki Scooty‘ (2023) and ‘Raan‘ (2023), and has worked in the Doordarshan series, ‘Yeh Kahan Aa Gaye Hum’, inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Nauka Doobi’, with Azmi Pictures. Her stage debut was in Chup with Parakh Theatre Group, directed by Tarun Kumar and written by Fawad Khan. Chup is her first experience as an actor in theatre. She was included in the play through a friend, Manish. She was nervous initially, but with her mother’s backing and support from the saathis of Parakh Theatre Group, she could grasp the essence of theatre. To connect with a live audience and, simultaneously, connecting with one’s own character is a unique feeling. Chup taught her how silence resonates, impacting individuals as well as family units. 

Momita is a Mumbai based writer, director and actor. Born and raised in Kolkata. Growing up amidst art lovers helped ignite her passion for the creative field. She also had a keenness in science and pursued electrical and electronics engineering from WBUT. Soon found herself immersed in the world of fine arts, she started her journey from theatre and eventually started acquiring knowledge in acting, writing and filmmaking. She co-founded an ad-production house called Zephyr in Kolkata in 2015, under which she directed her first music album “Sona Rode” by Gourab Sarkar, that helped her find the zeal for film-direction. In the course of learning she has also assisted writers and makers, written screenplays, edited films, collaborated with directors like Pankaj Parashar and T.J.Hall. She has been a part of commercial ad-making of brands like Veeba and Dollar. She also has a keen interest in painting and poetry, with a few of her works finding homes in various published works. Been in multiple theatre-productions in Kolkata and Mumbai, she later became a part of Parakh Theatre Group in 2019, with a play called “Kutte” by Vijay Tendulkar directed by Mr. Tarun Kumar, where she played the character of a widow. Momita’s recent directorial endeavour, “Not Friends, Not Strangers” , a twenty-minute film has garnered widespread acclaim. Produced for a reputed channel named HumaraMovie, it has one of the highest viewership on YouTube, which has also been screened at UPG College (Mumbai) along with a session where she shared valuable insights on various aspects of short-filmmaking with the students. Her journey to explore new horizons will continue as she believes art has no limits.

Members of Sangtin Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan (SKMS) – Tarun Kumar and Richa Nagar’s close collaboration with Sangtin between 2002 and 2004 led to the collective writing of Sangtin Yatra: Saat Zindiyon Mein Lipta Nari Vimarsh, a book in Hindi by Sangtin Lekhak Samooh or Sangtin Writers that was first self-published by Sangtin in 2004. Based on the personal narratives of grassroots activists and penned together by nine women, Sangtin Yatra entangles the dominant practices associated with NGOs and women’s empowerment with the politics of knowledge-making and intellectual disempowerment of rural communities. It dreams of ways in which empowerment can be radically redefined and owned by ordinary people on their own terms and in their own languages.

The ongoing collaboration with SKMS saathis has found expression in several plays based on saathis’ struggles; in the issues of the newsmagazine, Hamara Safar; in writing and reflections about ethics of collaborative research; and in short films that document key moments in the journeys of SKMS.

For more information about SKMS, click here.