Mukhosh

In Jan 2003, a group of young people in IISc came together to put up the annual Bengali play on the occasion of Saraswati Pujo organized by Spandan, the Bengali cultural association on the Indian Institute of Science campus. This was an age-old tradition, upheld by generations of Bengali students at IISc. But these new faces who appeared on stage that year were drama enthusiasts who were not satisfied to put up one comedy a year. They wanted to do more with theatre, and they decided to do at least three plays a year, and a new trend evolved. Over the next two years, this group did four short plays ("Monikaanchon", "Shoorpanakha", "Maajhraatire" and "Aajo Shombuk") and five full-length plays ("Tulkaalaam", "Ebong Indrajit", "Honeymoon", "Parobaas" and "Baaki Itihaash") on IISc campus. Two of these plays ("Tulkaalaam" and "Honeymoon") had been staged on invitation at Jaymahal on the occasion of Durga Puja. The plays had been well applauded by an audience comprising of people from and outside IISc.

With time our passion for theater became stronger and we felt the need to expand our horizon and reach out to a larger audience in Bangalore. So we have now given ourselves a new entity, mukhOsh, a full-fledged drama group that is interested in doing plays inside and outside IISc at regular intervals. We are limited by the fact that our primary occupation here is research, which is a 24-hour job. But we still manage to find time (usually over the weekends and in the wee hours of the night) for rehearsals and group meetings. Being in this institute also means that people have to leave in some years, and at times our group shrinks faster than it grows in number. But our love for theater keeps us going.

Starting from October, 2005, we have a total of seven professional shows to our credit.