Striking A Special Bond with children

A play based on stories of Ruskin Bond opens to packed house and rave reviews

Devanshi Joshi. Vadodara/DNA
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
A play based on the stories of Ruskin Bond was performed by Akvarious Productions at CC Mehta Auditorium on Thursday. Called A Special Bond and directed by Akarsh Khurana, the play opened to a packed house, fantastic feedback and rave reviews.The play revolves around Ranji who is sent to visit his grandfather in Mussoorie against his wishes. The first thing he does is make an attempt to escape and come straight back to his video games in Mumbai. But a chance encounter in the forest makes him change his mind. In the vacation that follows, Ranji has many unforgettable adventures with the local children, a former wrestler, two crazy aunts, a mischievous monkey, and among others, a romantic ghost!As proprietor, producer and a director of Akvarious Productions, Khurana is, by profession, a script writer and has been involved with theatre from a very young age. He began directing his own plays in college for inter college festivals and Thespo (an annual youth theatre festival), where he had won the Best Director Award twice. The hugely successful A Special Bond is his most recent childrens play. His feature film writing credits include Krrish (on which he was also an assistant director) and Ajay Devgans directorial debut U, Me aur Hum. He is also working on screenplays for Anurag Basu and Rohan Sippy.“This play is based on the stories of Ruskin Bond. We have interlinked the three plays based on Bonds stories. We have tried to add all flavours of humour,” says Akarsh. The cast of A Special Bond includes Hiddayat Sami, Trishala Patel and Shivani Tanksale.