It was  a lovely Sunday evening with friends at St. Andrews Auditorium as we headed to watch the play Jungle Book. It was nice to see so many parents head out for a play with their kids and see how theater takes centre stage in todays digital times.
Jungle Book and Mowgli are not new characters for most kids and it was nice to see the kids all excited to enter after snacking on some chatni sandwhiches and juice. The backdrop comprised of lots of umbrellas of different sizes to create a canopy of trees and long roots hung from the ceiling to create the perfect jungle experience. The sounds, lights, props, interesting costumes, live music, dynamic entries through the crowd made it engaging for the parents and the children.
The dialogues were in Hindi/Marathi & English and it made me feel like wow! Our children are born linguists to comprehend so many languages in one play. But its true they can. The dialogues could have been slightly simpler and the story a little fast paced but for us it was the execution that took the cake.
You could see 2.5 year olds to 12 year olds enjoying every bit of it with parents trying to explain the stories to the younger ones or to those who struggled with the many languages. A trilingual adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling classic puts a madcap spin on familiar characters. Baloo was extremely cute with some great comic timing, Mowgli a sweet boy and very lovable, the 3 monkeys with pink bums and a cute tail hanging. Sher Khan looked ferocious and got the kids attention each time he entered. But the one who made the kids dance and caught the fathers to finally watch the play and leave their phones aside was Hiss Ka the snake.
Soon after the play we dropped in back stage to meet the actors, check out the green room and show the kids backstage and how all the attractive, props, lights and sound just made it all seem so real.
It was indeed a fun watch and we would recommend you try a new medium of communication with the kids today. The play will be running all through this month at various locations so book your tickets soon. To know more about all the other plays & movies for kids CLICK HERE . NCPA is also hosting a Summer Fiesta for kids  which has some great plays to watch out for kids
This is a website for the parents and we would love to know your ideas and feedback. If you would like to contribute and share your ideas please write to us at [email protected] . You can also share your ideas on facebook HERE or follow us on Twitter hereÂ
KSP Team
