"Circuit House"- a Marathi play staged in Navi Mumbai on 15.6.2024

 A rally of frenzied excuses

( हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए -   यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 52 देखिए )

A Minister is hanging out in a circuit house with a lady PA of the Opposition leader for a revelry. Just the moment they begin to enjoy their good time, a spoiler comes. A spy sneaked into the house with the sinister intention of exposing it all. The things worsens when the spy in an attempt to hide himself, completely gets strangled in the window pane and dies. When the minister finds the dead body under his window he is too scared so he calls his PA and asks him to come and solve the tricky situation. When the Minister's PA comes to the circuit house, his (PA's) wife makes a call to the circuit house which is picked by the minister. Till now the nosy waiter of the circuit house has smelled some rat in the relationship of the lady and the minister so to give him a plausible reply the minster tells him that the lady (PA of the Opposition Leader) is the wife of his friend (his PA). So now when some lady asks the minster over phone why a lady's voice is coming, he says the same thing that she is the wife of his PA. But then he suddenly discovers that the caller on that side was the real wife of his PA. So after a while PA's real wife also enters the circuit house to take revenge on her so-called co-wife. 

In the meanwhile, the lady PA's husband also reaches the circuit house searching his better half. And as it be an icing on the cake, the minister's wife also reaches the spot when like an alert wife she comes to know that her husband did not turn up to a meeting and has gone to the circuit house for some other purpose. Now it is not only the minister but all the three present there namely the minister, his PA, the opposition leader's lady PA are all at their wits end. What ensues is a series of prompt improvisation of excuses and false stories. The Marathi knowing audience can have fun here up to the brim.

So, the audience relished the travel through the mess of doubts and excuses. As it reached towards the climax, the cobweb of purposes of presence on the spot left everyone bemused. 

It was primarily the wonder of the playwright Gautam joglekar. The adept director Vijay Kenkare succeeded in taking it out fully. Those who proved their mettle in acting were Sanjay Narvekar, Ganesh Pandit, Ankur Wadhave, Pramod Kada, Namantar Kamble, Krisch Chaturbhuj, Madhuri Joshi, Savitri Medhatu and Sushma Bhosale. The actor who played the Minister gave the incredible performance in terms of his lithe body language and mimics. The spy remained mostly like a dead body as required but whenever he acted he succeeded in stealing his share of the show. The set-design was pragmatic and marvelous.

The height of nonsense humour was really a thrilling experience for me who witnessed it's class.

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Review by- Hemant Das 'Him'

Send your feedback to- hemantdas2001@gmail.com / editorbejodindia@gmail.com

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