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Dr. Anandibai

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The first woman to perform a solo role in a Manoj Shah production — and the first Indian woman to earn a medical degree. Two firsts, separated by 131 years. Dr. Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi was married at nine, widowed of her infant son, and told by every institution around her that a woman's place was in the home. In 1886, she sailed to America and earned her MD from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania — the first Indian woman to do so. She returned to India to serve as the physician-in-charge at the Albert Edward Hospital in Kolhapur. She was twenty-one. She died of tuberculosis the following year, at twenty-two. Written by Geeta Manek and directed by Manoj Shah, the play uses the conceit of social media — Like, Comment, Share — to draw parallels between Anandibai's 19th-century struggles and the pressures facing Indian women today. Are they still defined by the likes they receive? Still waiting for male validation? Still weighed down by domestic duty disguised as devotion? Manasi Joshi performs the 75-minute monologue alone on a bare stage — no props, no set, just Kabir Thakore's spatial design and Hemant Joshi's lighting carving the world out of darkness. The play premiered at NCPA's CentreStage Festival on 2 December 2017, was later staged in Hindi and Marathi, and was selected for the 8th Theatre Olympics in 2018.

Adbhut

The Wonder Within

A solo Gujarati adaptation of Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe — one of the most performed plays in the world — reimagined for Indian audiences by Satchit Puranik and directed by Manoj Shah. The original play premiered at the Ludlow Fringe Festival in 2013 with Donahoe performing, before transferring to London and an HBO special. It has since been staged thousands of times worldwide. Puranik's Gujarati adaptation transforms the play's cultural texture — Doordarshan evenings replace Saturday morning cartoons, garba nights replace school dances — while preserving its radical theatrical form: the audience is the cast. From the moment the play begins, the boundary between performer and audience dissolves. RJ Devaki guides the room through the story of a girl who, at age seven, begins a list of every brilliant thing worth living for as a way to pull her mother back from the edge of depression. The list grows as the girl grows, through adolescence, heartbreak, marriage, and the quiet weight of adulthood. With nothing but a chair, a Daffy Duck sweatshirt, and extraordinary presence, Devaki turns strangers in the audience into co-performers, drawing out laughter, silence, and tears in equal measure. Adbhut is not a lecture on mental health — it is a lived experience of it, told with the warmth of someone who understands that sadness and wonder can occupy the same breath.

Sikka Ni Triji Baaju

Sikkani Treeji Baju (The Third Side of the Coin) is a 110-minute thriller-comedy in Gujarati, written by Naushil Mehta and directed by Manoj Shah. Adapted from Chazz Palminteri's play Faithful, it is a sensuous thriller on the fragile themes of marriage, men, and money — with unexpected dollops of humour. Madhvi is the wife of multimillionaire diamond exporter Arvind Kothari. She lives in a secluded sea-facing bungalow in Mumbai. On a rainy day when she is home alone, Dhiru ‘Sixer’ — a top hit-man — manages to enter and overpower her. As Dhiru waits impatiently for his client's signal to kill her, Madhvi sits tied to a chair, realising she has only moments to save herself. Who wants Madhvi dead? Why? Is Madhvi able to find a way out of this predicament? Is Dhiru really the killer he claims to be? Is Arvind really Dhiru's client? The answers arrive with increasingly slippery footing, and the play slides between thriller and farce often in the same line. The third side of the coin, the one no one looks at, turns out to be the only side that matters.

Bhav Prapanch

The Soul's Journey Through Worldly Illusion

Based on the Upamitibhavaprapancha Katha by Siddharshi Gani — a 10th-century Sanskrit text that Hermann Jacobi called the first allegorical novel in Indian literature, predating Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress by seven centuries. The play follows Dramak, an ordinary soul trapped in the city of Adrishyamool Paryant — a place that stands for the world as we know it, governed by greed, attachment, illusion, and desire. Dramak lives a bestial existence, wasting his time in futile efforts to preserve his meagre possessions. Caught in the bonds of attachment and illusion, believing the worldly illusion around him to be truth, he accumulates infinite karma and moves further from liberation with each birth and death. But there exists a Maharaja's royal temple — maintained with skill and devotion by servants who guide souls toward spiritual liberation through dharma, renunciation, compassion, and mercy. Their hands are always extended. The question is whether Dramak will take hold. The concept was distilled from Siddharshi's 16,000-verse original by Dr. Jitendra B. Shah, Director of the L.D. Institute of Indology, and dramatised by Prathang Dave and Raju Dave. Kabir Thakore designed the sets and Kanhaiya composed the music. The tagline reads: the end of sorrow is the beginning of peaceful happiness.

Karl Marx In Kalbadevi

Revolution via Entertainment

What happens when Karl Marx returns from the dead and lands straight into the buzzing chaos of Kalbadevi, Mumbai’s most unapologetically capitalist neighbourhood? He is furious. Not just about capitalism running wild or billionaires launching rockets — but because people have twisted his words, misused his ideas, and turned ‘Marxist’ into a punchline. He wants to set the record straight. But Mumbai is not in the mood for lectures. So he adapts. He rants, he jokes, he dances Gangnam Style, he reviews a Gujarati thali at Bhagat Tarachand, he learns Gujarati because of his admiration for Mahatma Gandhi, and he tries to visit Mani Bhavan only to find the gates shut. Written by Uttam Gada and directed by Manoj Shah, this one-man play has been Ideas Unlimited’s calling card for over twelve years. Satchit Puranik — who looks the part with his wild hair, beard, and a tilak on his forehead — brings a manic energy to Marx that makes the philosopher feel less like a historical figure and more like your most opinionated uncle at a family wedding. The play premiered at the NCPA Vasant Gujarati Natya Utsav in 2013, has since been performed in Gujarati, Hindi, and Hinglish, and staged at Wilson College for the 150th anniversary of Das Kapital, at Aligarh Muslim University, and at JAINA conventions in the United States. As Time Out Mumbai’s Deepa Gahlot put it: the play is ‘enough to provoke the audience to go back thinking, this Karlbhai was one clever dude, eh?’

Hu Chandrakant Bakshi

I, Chandrakant Bakshi

The story of Gujarati literature's most controversial writer, told by the man himself — or rather, by Pratik Gandhi inhabiting him with a ferocity that made audiences forget they were watching an actor. Chandrakant Bakshi (1932–2006) authored 178 books, served as Professor of History, became Sheriff of Mumbai, got his short story 'Kutti' banned by the Gujarat government, publicly defied Bal Thackeray and refused to apologise, and wrote an autobiography so incendiary that parts of it could not be published. His writing style — Gujarati laced with Urdu, Hindi, and English — was as deliberately provocative as his public persona. He was, by every account, an incredible egoist. He was also, by every account, adored by his readers. Written by Shishir Ramavat and drawn from Bakshi's autobiography Bakshinama, the play premiered on 15 June 2013 at Prithvi Theatre. Manoj Shah uses a ladder throughout the production as a metaphor for Bakshi's obsession with being on top. Gandhi — years before Scam 1992 would make him a household name — delivers what CreativeYatra called a 'cautious yet fearless' performance, bringing the bold and egotist protagonist to 'flawless perfection.' This play, along with Mohan No Masalo two years later, is credited with solidifying Pratik Gandhi's reputation as an actor of immense talent.