"Tu Tu Me Me" - a Marathi play staged in Dadar (Mumbai) on 13.05.2023

When wives are exchanged ..! 

हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए -   यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 18 देखिए 

The biggest riddle on this earth is wife. You can never understand what she likes and what she doesn't. And the vice-versa is equally true from a women's perspective. So, there are two pairs of husband-wife and I think it does not need any elaboration that both the couples are in deep trouble. In both the case, the wife does not like the husband and the husband does not like the wife. Both couples are the next door neighbours and to add spice to the story, it has already come to the surface that each of the wife is the earlier girlfriend of the other's husband. The disputes rise to a level that police is called. But you must be knowing that police can control hordes of dreaded criminals but not a husband-wife. In this interesting stretch, the two husband-wife keep quarrelling to their own spouses and are seen busy in dreaming rekindling their love stories with their respective old flames. Fun, humour and entertainment is at the peak on this level for both the characters and the viewers. There are many sequences of dances with full original songs for the relish of the audience.

Now, there is no surprise in mentioning that they actually reach a point where divorces seem to be the only solution. Both the couples contact the same advocate who calls all the four to his office. The advocate suggests them that the judicial divorce is a time taking process so it is better to first have a taste of second married life as wished by both the couples. It meant that each of the husbands should live with the other's wife (i.e. his earlier girlfriend) for at least 15 days when the date of court appearing comes. Both the wives and the also the husbands are very excited on the idea and begin living as per the new arrangement. But the problem arises when one of the wives is found 3 month's pregnancy by the doctor. Surprisingly her new partner is very happy that his new wife will give birth to a child and he will be called as a father. He has a reason for it. His actual wife (now living with another man) had  aborted without his consent and so he had been missing his unborn child very much. But this woman who is living with another man is perplexed. Will it be good for the child to take birth in the house of a man who is not his father? So she decides to abort. When this news reaches to her actual husband (living with another woman) he is restless and wants to save his child in any manner. He rushes to the house where his wife has been living now. And a big fight ensues. Let me not divulge further. The viewer should watch the play to know what happens hereafter.

The other woman (who is not pregnant) is a fashion queen and relishes in ordering her husband to bind her shoe-strings. Her ex-lover (now living with her) finds that she has not remained such a woman now for whom his heart throbbed earlier. 

This play is a magic of the script which is marvelous. The script not only keeps the story recharged with full amount of humour from the first to the last point of the story but also raises many many burning and pertinent social issues to the fore. It shows clearly as what could happen when people adopt the wanton course of new marital life with their earlier girlfriends leaving behind their respective wife. The matter of pregnancy is just illustrative and not exhaustive. It actually alludes to the fact that a woman can never feel free of her earlier husband and a man can never cut absolutely from his earlier wife.

The writer Kedar Shinde has also succeeded as a director and the way he showed two synchronous marital stories in single view set-design was superb! I want to cite a scene when the advocate advices the wives to live temporarily with their respective ex-lover then the the wives feel ashamed of social stigma and rush suddenly to their respective husband. They are ready to live with their ex-bf only when it is made clear that the boyfriend will not touch his girlfriend till divorce. The director has been able to show the social barrier at full intensity. 

It is still unbelievable for me that he was a single person called Bharat Yadav who appeared as 14 absolutely different characters like father, police officer, watchman, peanut seller, soothsayer, waiter, advocate, professor, salesman, co-passenger and many more. He is really a genius. Kamlakar Satpute, Nikhil Chavan, Aishwarya Shinde and Ruchira Jadav did full justice to their respective character of husband or wife. One remarkable point about the show is that all the actors did impress with their remarkable dancing skills too. One of the male actors advances his stomach at several occasions as a humour gesture. When there is already a glut of natural humour in the play, what's the use of this artificial fun gesture? Otherwise that male actor has indisputably shown his good acting skills in the show.

Superb pithy songs from Guru Thakur set in music by Ashok Patki were vital to the roaring success of the show. Lights from Shital Talpade and background support from Pradip Mulche also added to the value.

Even though I don't understand Marathi fully still I enjoyed the play thoroughly. And the series of loud guffaws mixed with emotive vocal responses from the viewers were testimony of quintessential Marathi fun.
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Review by- Hemant Das 'Him'

Respond to - hemantdas2001@gmail.com / editorbejodindia@gmail.com

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