The Indian Weekender, 04 June 2021

The Indian Weekender Friday, June 4, 2021
NEW ZEALAND 7
Rib-tickler Boom Shankar
to stage again this month
DEV NADKARNI
Boom Shankar, a two-character ribtickling
comedy, will stage in downtown
Auckland June 8-12 at the Basement
Theatre.
Originally a five-minute piece in the wellreceived
anthology show First World Problems
2.0 staged in 2019, writers Aman Bajaj and Bala
Murali Shingade have now expanded Boom
Shankar to an hour-long standalone show. It
was staged at the NZ International Comedy
Festival where it had a sold out season.
Boom Shankar tells the hilarious tale of
Shankar Shinde, star graduate of BDSM or the
Bomb Defusal School of Manukau (acronyms
can stand for different things, you see), as he
navigates his high-pressure job of defusing live
bombs. Shankar’s journey explores love, life,
and the importance of selecting the right type
of dahi (yoghurt).
He is forced to tap into all his training,
unconventional coping mechanisms, divine
intervention, and sheer dumb luck in an effort
to make it through alive.
Speaking to The Indian Weekender about
how Boom Shankar came to be, co-writer
and actor Aman Bajaj said, “The five-minute
snippet [in First World Problems 2.0] was
extremely well received and audience members
and critics alike saw the potential of it being
developed as a full-length show which got us
thinking of developing it further.
“Originally a monologue, we set ourselves
the challenge of crafting it as a two-hander
NZ Police urges public to plan ahead to
keep safe over Queen’s Birthday weekend
IWK BUREAU
Police has partnered with Z Energy and
250 bottle stores to encourage drivers
and drinkers to plan ahead to keep safe
over Queen’s Birthday weekend.
“As a Road to Zero strategy partner, we are
committed to reducing death and injury on
our roads, and we work alongside partners to
do this,” says Superintendent Steve Greally,
Director National Road Policing Centre. Z
Energy and bottle stores have come onboard
to help share our road safety messages to their
customers.
“Z Energy is committed to supporting the
Road to Zero initiative and proud to partner
with Police on encouraging all motorists to
stay safe on the road as they travel around
Aotearoa,” says Z Energy’s Head of Safety and
Wellbeing, Andrew Shand.
“We have a number of our team on the
road on any given day, including fuel delivery
drivers, and we want to ensure that they, along
with any other motorist, can return home
safely at the end of each day.” Z Energy will
be putting road safety messages on their coffee
cup covers and 250 bottle stores throughout
the country will have posters in store asking
customers to think about how they are going to
get home safely after their night out. The three
Z Energy messages are - Always wear your
seatbelt, Slow Down Arrive Alive, and Drive
without distraction.
The bottle store poster messages include ‘Get
a ride from your mate’s mum, probably in her
PJs’ and ‘Plan your ride home before you head
out’.
“These partnerships allow Police to reach
drivers and drinkers in a new way, allowing our
road safety messages to get right to the ones
comedy play with a narrative that gave us the
liberty of exploring a range of topics.”
Bajaj and Shingade have always wanted to
collaborate on a show together and co-wrote
and Boom Shankar.
They both also play the only two roles in it.
Well known theatre director and performer Ahi
Karunaharan was the dramaturge and mentor
who helped in the development of the show for
the NZ International Comedy Festival.
Asked whether the play would appeal
primarily to the Indian/South Asian sensibility
Bajaj said, “As Kiwi Indian creatives, we
definitely want to showcase our unique
perspective and celebrate our communities,
but at the same time, our show will definitely
resonate with all audiences.
we are targeting,” says Greally. Before you get
behind the wheel make sure you are well rested,
have eaten and hydrated.
Plan your journey to avoid
congestion.
There will be a lot of traffic on the roads so
be patient and keep a safe following distance.
“Travellers may also hear our radio and
Spotify adverts asking drivers to drive safe and
have a good one. How you behave on the road
affects you, your passengers, and everyone
around you, so stay within the speed limit, make
sure everyone is wearing their seatbelt, put the
phone down and drive sober to arrive alive.”
Police may also pop into a Z Energy station to
remind drivers to make good driving decisions
and into bottle stores to ask if customers have
planned their way home.
“Getting out in the community sharing
prevention messages is a great way of
minimising harm on the roads.”
Aligned with our road safety Partner Waka
Kotahi, who is sharing road safety messages in
over 150 sports clubrooms and provincial pubs,
Police wants everyone to have a good weekend
and enjoy their Queen’s Birthday plans with
friends and whanau wherever you are, and of
course to be safe.
“Police has no issue with people drinking
responsibly.
What we want is for you to have a plan sorted
to get home safely ahead of time so that you
don’t make a bad decision later on and drive,”
says Greally.
“Organising a sober driver, having money
put aside for a taxi or uber, knowing what time
your bus or train is, or arranging for mum/dad/a
friend/your partner to pick you up later are all
great ways to ensure you can enjoy your night
and get home safely.”
“Though we do have a couple of jokes that
are for specific audiences, the show’s story,
characters and ideas are accessible to everyone,
no matter their ethnicity, age or gender. Our aim
is to make sure that everyone has a good time
as we can all certainly do with a laugh given the
challenging times that we are living in.”
Given that Boom Shankar was extremely
well received in its run at the New Zealand
International Comedy Festival too, where it
was described as ‘hilarious’, ‘phenomenal’,
‘heart-warming’, ‘amazing’, its second run this
month gives another opportunity for theatre
lovers to have their funny bone tickled with
refreshingly original humour delivered by an
extremely talented duo.
Actor-writer-director Bajaj has worked in
theatre and on screen since starting his journey
as a writer and performer for Tom Sainsbury
‘s The Foreign Monologues in 2011. His short
play, Dhoti Baba, won the Best Comedy Script
award at the 2015 Short + Sweet Festival in
Auckland.
He next wrote ‘AI East’ directed by Tom
Sainsbury which won the Emerging Artist
award at the 2016 Short + Sweet Festival. His
most recent writing credit was for the short play,
‘Manpreet’s Degustation Menu’ which was a
finalist at the 2019 Short + Sweet Festival and
was also a writer and host for the youth current
affairs web series, ‘DBrief’, that was funded by
Radio New Zealand for The Wireless. Aman
also directed ‘Guards at Taj’ and ‘Know the
Truth’ that were presented as part of the 2020
Prayas production Yatra.
Shingade has an MA in Screen Production,
and is a writer, director and actor in film and
theatre. Recent screen credits as a director
include 800 Lunches and Perianayaki, both
funded short films.
He has also written and directed
several pieces of short form theatre. Acting
credits include a number of shows with Prayas
Theatre, such as Dara, Yātrā and A Fine
Balance. In 2020, Bala was one of six recipients
of the Arts Foundation’s inaugural Springboard
award, which recognises emerging artists with
outstanding potential in their fields.
Boom Shankar runs for 5 nights from 8th-
12th of June at The Basement Theatre:
https://www.iticket.co.nz/events/2021/
jun/boom-shankar