A Fistful of Rupees
by Shiv Tandan Stone Paper Stories Kalaa Utsavam - Indian Festival of Arts 2023 Esplanade Recital Studio, Singapore A Fistful of Rupees feels in many ways a sequel to playwright-director Shiv Tandan's The Good, The Bad and The Sholay, a play which premiered when he was a student at NUS and which subsequently enjoyed a luminous restaging by Checkpoint Theatre at the Esplanade's Kalaa Utsavam eight years ago. Both have titles inspired by Westerns, clean, stripped-down stagings and feature a protagonist with the same name, Raghav, trying to find his place in the world. While Sholay was lit by youthful optimism and wonder, chronicling the experiences of a young man leaving his northern Indian hometown and moving to Singapore for studies, A Fistful of Rupees is an altogether darker, grittier tale. The opening scene introduces us to Raghav, who has just left Singapore and arrived in Mumbai. He's thrust right into the heart of its frenetic energy, cacophony of sounds and rain
