Love, and all that stuff

An earlier online storytelling session by Kommune

While ‘Come fall in love…' remains a memorable tagline from Bollywood's favourite love story Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, brace yourself for a storytelling event that invites you to do the same. These love stories, however, go beyond the usual boy-meets-girl formula. As part of its story slam initiatives, Kommune, a collective of artistes, performers, and creators, will host Kathakar: Ek manch prem kahaaniyon ka, an evening that will celebrate love stories of all kinds.

"While we have hosted multiple story slams before, this is the first one where we have introduced a theme. In the course of our earlier events, we realised that many people were writing about romance, and so we chose the theme of love stories," says Pradumn Chourey, community manager (Hindi-Urdu) Kommune India. "We opened entries on September 22, and closed on October 14 during which we received 220 stories from Jammu and Kashmir and Siliguri, Shirdi, Bokaro, and the metros. The curatorial team first shortlisted 50, then 33, and finally 13, based on uniqueness, structure and writing style," he reveals.

Mehak Mirza Prabhu

Of the 13 storytellers at the event, 10 will present their stories in Hindi while three will speak in Marathi. "This is the first time we are presenting stories in Indian languages apart from Hindi and Urdu. Many chose to speak about love for an object but we picked those with human connection. For example, there's a love story around the 2006 Mumbai train blasts, another where a father narrates his love story to his son, one about the love for mangoes, and about falling in love at an age usually considered ‘too old to fall in love at'. There's another interesting story about a boy who visits Agra and his unusual story featuring the Taj Mahal," Chourey tells us.

The storytellers will perform in the presence of actors Gajraj Rao and Jitendra Joshi, author Divya Prakash Dubey, storyteller Mehak Mirza Prabhu, and casting director Tess Joseph, who have all been associated with Kommune's past events. "I have been associated with Kommune since it began. It's like I went to the first session at Kommune and never left. I come in mostly as a mentor where I work with storytellers to curate some of our bigger shows. Kathakar, however, has been organised by the team at Kommune. The theme was decided looking at what the world needs right now - love that is ageless, genderless, and includes everyone and anyone," says Joseph.

Divya Prakash Dubey and Tess Joseph

"Usually I'm privy to many works beforehand but this time, I hadn't heard any of the stories before, and I'm very excited about that. The good thing is that Gajraj and Jitendra tell stories on screen, Meher is a phenomenal live storyteller while Divya Prakash Dubey is a writer who helps other writers, and his stories have been a part of Kommune. So, every storyteller in the finals is in good hands. They will not only receive praise but also feedback to elevate their stories," she concludes.

On: November 13, 7 pm onwards
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