"Hai Mera Dil" - a Hindi play staged in Chembur (Mumbai) on 26.8.2023

A kind husband is a bigger danger

( हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए -   यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 30  देखिए )

If someone is husband and he is not skeptic, it means there is a bigger danger to the wife. The sudden disappearance of intra-family stress is something most nauseated by a wife and she turns extremely inquisitive. And you know it better where the inquisitiveness of a wife invariably leads to. 

A 42 years old husband Madan has a charming wife Usha and they live peacefully. The husband is though physically fit but he prefers to a get-up and mannerism best suited to an greybeard pensioner. One day, a male ex-classmate of college days of Usha comes to her house for some work and stays for some days. Usha asks her husband to accompany her and her old male classmate for shopping. But the husband (Madan) is feeling some heart pain and so he allows both Usha and her old male friend to go for shopping together. The same thing happens for some days. Initially Usha enjoys strolling around the city with an unmarried and youthful male ex-classmate but ultimately she doubts the motive of her husband. How a husband cannot object his wife moving out for excursion again and again with another man. There is certainly something amiss! And she concludes there must be some girlfriend of her husband who would be accompanying him in his revelry in absence of the wife. So, an epic fight of husband-wife begins. Ultimately, the husband admits that yes he liked his wife to go out with her male ex-classmate and he really wanted that both should befriend each other much deeply so that both could marry in near future. Hearing this the wife is in full rage but just before she is about to turn horribly violent the husband clarifies that there is no girlfriend of him. He further tells that the doctor has said that he is going to die soon so he wanted that her wife should chose some boy for marrying so that her future is safeguarded. Usha is stupefied over this news but she begins to looking after her husband like a loyal wife. 

When Usha is not at home, the husband calls a monument-builder and orders him to build a memorable civil structure in his memory soon after his death. He has also requests one of his drunkard friends to write his biography which should be published after his death.  One day when Usha is at home, the doctor friend comes at her flat with a big fish in his hook. The moment he offers the fish as gift, Usha expresses anger how a severely cardiac patient (her husband) can eat fish? Then the doctor understands everything and opens the secret that the terminally ill patient he was talking about over a phone call from her house was someone else and not her husband. The whole thing turns a U-turn again and the wife again suspects that this all story of 'dying' was nothing but a hoax which was cooked up only to be used as a subterfuge for debauchery and indulgence with the girlfriend. The husband is again helpless but then the monument-builder knocks at the door to show the designs of monuments for which he has already been paid Rs. 4.20 lakh. The wife now believes that she has got a hypochondriac but a cent-percent loyal husband who not only thinks about her in his lifetime but also cares for her after his life.

This whimsical comedy has been running on stages since 1970s till now and more than 1125  of stage presentation have been made of it.  "Hai Mera Dil" is a Hindi adaption of Broadway play by Norman Barasch and Carroll Moore, also made into 1964 American comedy film, "Send Me No Flowers". The Hindi adaption is made by Ranbir Singh who has been able to reap the best out of the original.

Preeta Mathur Thakur, Aman Gupta, Atul Mathur, Shankar Iyer, Gujan Sinha, Sangam Rai,Sapna Choubisa & Rohit Goswamy were  the artists in this play. The play originally directed by Dinesh Thakur who also acted he lead role  in large number of shows in his lifetime. It was now directed by his wife Preeta Mathur Thakur. 

The whole hall erupted in laughter in two scenes of imaginary thoughts. In one, the husband imagines that after his death, his wife is selling balloons for her livelihood and is deceived by the buyers for her poor mathematics. In another, the wife imagines that her husband is on loving binge with the witch girlfriend.

Preeta Mathur Thakur and Aman Gupta were a good combination as a delusive husband and fun-finder but super-alert wife. The way the husband Madan (Aman Gupta) pushes down the dialogues with a handing face it certainly gives an impression of a dying man. On the other side, there is the agile wife Usha (Preeta Mathur Thakur) with all her sixth sense working who can readily smell a rat in anything. The male ex-classmate of Usha also befittingly an army officer. The drunkard advocate friend was truly in a tipsy avatar. The doctor and monument-builder also did their job well. A dance sequence of hypochondriac with his concocted girlfriend added musical flavour to the show. As a whole, the show was superbly entertaining which made the people suffer from laughter bouts throughout the play. 

The show proves some plays are evergreen and "Hai Mera Dil" is one of them. This is mentioned as the longest running comedy in the history of Hindi theatre.

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Review by- Hemant Das 'Him'

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"Baap Ka Baap"- Hindi play staged in Bandra (Mumbai) on 13.08.2023

 A mindless romantic competition

( हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए -   यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 29  देखिए )

"Kitne saal laga diye aapne mujh se milne me

  Jaise darji ne bahut waqt le liya meri shaadi ka suit silne me" 

(Hindi dialogue in the play)

A 38 years old woman falls in love with a man of 40 years - No surprise? Then listen to this. An 18 years teenager girl is crazily in love with a 80 years old grand gaffer. Both are true in this play.

A widower father (Asrani)  is very concerned about his son who is not marrying even after reaching 40 years of age. The house is a den for constant little wrangles on this matter. Ultimately one fine day, the man succeeds in persuading a beautiful woman (Padmini Kolhapure) to marry him. He brings that woman to his house to introduce his father and finds out that there is already a new pandemonium in surge. His 80 years old father is romancing with a teenager lass. And to give it a dizzy turn, the teenager girl is identified as the real daughter of the woman brought by the 40 years old man.

In the midst of all mindless awkwardness, a whole lot of clash, arguments and emotional drama follows. Still,  the cynical senescent old man and the heedless devil girl are adamant on going along with their salacious episode . Here comes a new turn to the story. The 40 years old man declines the idea of marrying the woman he brought on the ground that he would prefer a virgin unmarried woman. On the other hand, the 80 years old man and 18 yeas old girl declare that they are going to marry each other. It is only after the revelation of a big mystery that the bedlam goes and a rule of law prevails in the house. What is the mystery? Find out in the theatre house. In the end, 40 years old man and 38 years old woman tie up the nuptial bond.

When two celebrated movie icons of erstwhile are on stage then you see hardly any difference in stage and a silver-screen. Padmini Kolhapure of "Pyar jhukta nahi" fame and "Angerejon ke zamaane ke jailor" of the most successful movie in Indian history 'Sholay" comedian Asrani again rocked on stage. It was a feast to viewers to watch the stage versions of superhit songs like "Aa dekhen zara, kisme kitna hai dam..", "Chali hawa, jhuki ghata, kuch hua kya?..", "Saala mai to saheb ban gaya..". It was absolutely unbelievable that Asrani at 82 and Padmini Kolhapure at 57 can hop around like a adolescents! The group dances were well-choreographed. Doubtless in acting, Asrani and Padmini were as impressive as they are in their hit movies. Naveen Bawa showed his mettle in delivering comedy 'sher's (couplets) leaving the audience with helpless incessant laugh.  Chitranshi Raawat established her authority with her superb devil-may-care mannerism perfectly as required. Her body language impressed all the viewers.

The play was written and directed by Naveen Bawa. The script was tight and the story flew in a seamless manner. Direction was deft though the overacting in body-language of the teenager girl is an area of qualified approval. 

The viewers enjoyed the show in full - the whole gamut of comedy in body-language and humorous couplets, music, group dance, serious scenes and take-away message. The talk on the play can roughly be succinate as "If the youthful middle-aged group does not do their job, the super-older and super-younger duo has to do that.

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Review by- Hemant Das 'Him'

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"Jar tar chi gosht" - Marathi play staged in Thane on 5.8.2023

 Rejuvenated wreckage

( हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए -   यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 28  देखिए )

You can make your future but can't delete your past. The same is true with marital life. Whatever good or bad your earlier spouse had been, he (or she) remains an essential part of your life story. It is always preferable not to touch oneself on the raw but God forbid if If time plays tricks and puts two ex-spouses at a seclusive resort then what happens is a full comedy. Humour soars to the highest echelons of the sky in such a situation what is shown in the Marathi play- "Jar tar chi goshta".

Samar and Radha are doing great in their professional life after their divorce. In the past 3 years they have chosen their new partner and are now settled with that. In normal course, But by chance, they come across each other at a resort. Their (then spouses) are there still they are able to find enough time for private interaction with their ex.

I could not watch the whole play as I reached after the interval. But what I saw looked highly confusing for me. The ex-husband was in conversation with his ex-wife. And it was like a bout of bipolar psychriatic disorder. In one moment he was beseeching the lady to forgive him and show the sympathy but on just another he was there full of accusations and charges for her. The viewers burst into guffaws again and again on every gestures of this dramatic ex-couple. And at the end there was a tuneful song "Tere mere sapne ab ek rang hai" sung by the lady and supported on Guitar by her ex or present partner. 

The play was fully successful in compelling the people to laugh because of it's funny theme and strength of comedy acting. The credit also goes to the scriptwriter Irawati Karnik who imagined and carried out well such a unique circumstance.

Adwait Dadarkar and Ranjit Patil were the directors of the play. Without their apt direction, the actors Priya Bapat and Umesh Kamat in the leads could not have cast a spell. The supporting actors Ashutosh Gokhle and Pallavi Ajay also did a good job.  It was the premiere show and the whole auditorium was packed.

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Review by - Hemant Das 'Him'

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"Hichtar familichi gammat aahe" - Marathi play staged in Navi Mumbai on 29.07.2023

 Matching up the lacunae

( हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए -   यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 27  देखिए )

If a chap with his hooligans gives a full-blown whistle from the window just opposite to that of a young lady, what should be the response? Yea , you are correct. The girl is ready to wage a war against those. Without wasting time, she walks up to just beneath their window furiously. The boys are appalled hearing the toughest warning from the girl. The warning is that the whistle boy should visit her house with a marriage proposal to her. 

In a normal Indian scenario the family of the whistling boy must have been aghast on this development. But unexpectedly it happened totally reverse.  They are glad and oblige the warning uttered by the girl. 

Wow! Such a storyline is possible only in a comedy. Yes it is a comedy but the sequence of acts mentioned above does have a very sombre undertone also. The proposer boy cannot see in night hours and the whistled girl cannot see in day time. Handicaps are also with other characters and it would not be an exaggeration if I say this play a symposium of specially able people. Keeping in view of dignity issue of specially able people in real world the scriptwriter has shown such handicaps that are normally not found in the real world in exact fashion as shown. Physical handicaps shown here are just the representation of societal shortcomings.

The elder brother of the girl is perhaps suffering from short memory who is well looked after by his caring wife. The condition of the opposite family is also not lagging behind. The merit in one boy you already know that he cannot see at night. One of his brother cannot hear most often and the third brother can hardly speak two words at a time. Here also, the wife of the eldest one takes care of all and is like an iron pillar of the family.

The interesting issue is the decision on timing of marriage negotiation. Since both families want to conceal the special ability of one's own ward, both are very sensitive about the time of meeting. One side prefers day time as his ward cannot see at night and so with similar reasons other party prefers night hours as the girl cannot see in day time. In coincidence of their sagacity, the time is fixed to be the evening  so that their shortcoming should not be exposed. But you know unintended revelations are the very gateway of storm of laughter. 

The comic bit of greeting 'namaste' has came out too hilariously! The elder brother of the lad has a hearing loss and he bids 'namaste' to the sister-in-law of the girl and she also retorts with a 'namaste'. But as he could not hear the reply he again offers ' namaste' and the kind lady again retorts in courtesy. But the man never hears the reply of his greeting and keeps on offering 'namaste' innumerable times causing extreme embarrassment to the guardian lady of the bride-to-be. Even the biggest stone hearts will burst into laughter on this episode.

Things seem to go awry during the course of negotiation but ultimately everyone comes to know each other's shortcomings and they all agree to live with and support each other/. Yea sure, a nuptial knot is tied between the whistle boy and the whistled-on girl. 

The play moves on with an feverish speed like a bullet train and you come to be a witness of pace being used as a technique of humour. The whole play is virtually dependent on promptness of action-reaction and the actors have stood astoundingly well on this yardstick. 

The scriptwriter and the director of the play was Santosh  Pawar . The actors were Sagar Karande, Shalaka Pawar, Sayali Deshmukh, Ramesh Wani, Siddhirupa Karmarkar, Ajinkya Date and Amogh Chandan. Music was a valuable ingredient that was provided by Ashok Patki.

Co-existence of the different groups of people with their shortcomings is the takeaway that is successfully laid down by the play in an extremely jocular manner.
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Review by - Hemant Das 'Him'

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"Wada Chirebandi" - a Marathi play staged at Dombivli, Kalyan on 22.07.2023

Sullen family fabric on the test of time

( हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए -   यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 26  देखिए )

It is certainly a cultured joint family with a golden past. The members are also naturally humane. Unfortunately, the whirl of the wily time has brought all cohesive forces to the anvil of adversity.

There is not as much a grief as a sigh of relief over the death of Tatya, the head of the joint family. They all belong to a socially reputed landlord clan While India has been making strides in twentieth century with a modern outlook this tradition adorer still tried to rule his family with all kinds of archaic prohibitions and taboos. The girls could neither get higher education nor could be married off. Now, the gene of zamindari cultural has directly passed into the eldest son.  He is trying to take up the gauntlet of his father claiming the full authority of the estate and other belonging. But see the farce, he has no resources to observe the customary Shraddha rituals with full dignity of a zamindar. Moreover, his wife who is the eldest daughter-in-law of the house has already taken over the charge of the keys of the jewelry and valuables as if her mother-in-law or others have no say.  Two thoughts are flashing in the mind of the eldest son - to ask his younger brother to spend an exemplarily huge amount  on Shraddha karma or to seek a further loan for the ceremony. The hope of getting loan again is a far cry as the earlier instalments of repayments are still due. The girl wants to flee the shambles of a broken castle and join Bollywood. She is eying on her tutor for her elopement.

The younger brother has come from Bombay after many days of the death of his father but thankfully before the Shraddha ritual. He who is supposed to spend aa hefty amount for the last rituals of his father has himself cherished many plans to get his large chunk from the estate and valuables of the house. Tatya's wife is the only person who is really sad on the departure of Tatya. Tatya's mother is  lying on the bed without the eyesight or hearing capability for gerontological reasons.

There is a male character with bandaged foot. Perhaps a tractor crushed his foot. One of the son just loiters around the village with no work in his hand.

This drama is not about putting a storyline but to show you how the fabric of a joint family is dismantling because of hard realities mainly of economical nature.

The gloom loomed large all around the set for the most part of the second half. I admit to have missed the first half of the play. The set-design was truly a statement of the adversity faced by the lineage of the lost zamindari. It was specifically designed as if to no ray of hope should trickle in onto the set giving a full bloom to the gloom. The set-designer has done a marvelous job.

"Wada Chirebandi" is the first of the trilogy by Mahesh Elkunchwar, a well-known name in Marathi dramas. Chandrakant Kulkarni was the director of the play. The actors were Nivedita Sharaf, Vaibhav Mangle, Ashish Kulkarni, Pournima Manohar, Pratima Joshi, Dhananjay Sardeshpande and Akshay Patil. 

Such a realistic depiction was impressive. This play works like a slow but effective medicine that heels your wounds of gloom if creeping inside. It gives you a sense of belonging and you feel you are not the sole person facing the harsh realities.  You never startle over the performance even for a single chance but actually you feel to be a part of the story moving on. To show you the harsh details of the family is the  sterling work of the playwright but to let you feel to be a part of it is the success of the director and the actors.

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Review by - Hemant Das 'Him'
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"Partner mast tohh life jabardast"(PMTLJ) - a Gujarati play staged in Tejpal auditorium, Mumbai on 16.07.2023

Catharsis of conjugal frustrations

( हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए -   यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 25  देखिए )

There are three states of matter - solid, liquid or gas and so are that of relationship- marriage, live-in or  friends. The problem is not as how to keep it solid, the problem is how to save from becoming it a gas. PMTLJ is a dauntless interesting commentary on nowadays relationships. It ends up being somewhat ahead of the time. Just imagine, a young man in thirties ring up from abroad to his parents to wish on their fortieth wedding anniversary and in the process it is revealed that the young man and his wife are final on their divorce. The young man conveys his father that now his divorce is only a matter of timing when the little daughter is psychologically prepared to come to terms.

A debonair couple hires a classy well-furnished flat costing forty-five thousand rupees per month. The girl is a corporate executive and the boy is a struggling scriptwriter. The house belongs to a typical elderly Indian couple the members of which are the poles of conservatism and modernism respectively. The nosy elderly landlord would not allow any remission on the observance of orthodox cultural values that might be totally outdated for the renter couple. Everything is questionable- how a man can participate in household chores? How can a woman dare to carry her maiden name in post-marriage life? And far more importantly, how can man-woman live together without the sacred ceremony of marriage? Later it is reveled that whatever was being imposed by the house-owner on the dainty renter couple was in fact a catharsis of his personal frustration in his own family life. 

The unusual presentation style gave an elbow room to the director as well as a new taste to the viewers. The ideological thrashing of modern values carried up in the first half with the raison d'etre of it in the second half. The readers would be amazed to know that the first and second halves of the play are in fact two synchronous pieces shown separately.  

The script analyses the institution of marriage with an incredible finesse in modern context. It's not a matter of holy duty, neither of societal sanction or prevalent tradition, it's just a matter of saving the lives turning into a hell. Without any sort of mutual appreciation and understanding a marriage can take a couple nowhere other than to a noose.

The climax is incredibly unorthodox that makes you think even more after the show is over. The senior man happily books flight tickets for a foreign trip with his wife on the call of his son abroad. Why son called his parents? Guess.

The senior couple played their roles to the majestic delight of the viewers. The chemistry of the beau and belle in their sixties was supreme. If on one side, the elderly man was in full swing with his conservative tantrums and cynicism then on the other side was also suitably populated by the dancing beautiful  aged woman with an outlook far ahead of her time. the man-woman relationship among the house-owner and renter couples look absolutely anti but in the core of ideology both are same. Both men are suspicious about their lady and carry a will to control. The difference of generation reflects only in the reaction of the females. Whereas the elderly lady bears every tantrums of her old hubby the new-aged lady is always ready to react aptly and this is why their relationship also is on the verge of collapse. How it is saved? For knowing it, see the play in the theatre. The actors playing young couple maintained the tempo and tension well-set by the older actors. With emphatic dialogue delivery, the young husband impressed in his drunken scene.

The pragmatic set-design consisting of doors in the lateral position in the background and two adjacent flat's inside view without a demarcation allowed the actors to use the floors of other couple seamlessly. The director should also be appreciated for the parents-son phone conversation scene and the delicate treatment of the aftermath sequence.

The dance of the elderly nymph was so impressive and the kind actor obliged the viewer's "once more" demand with her repeated dance presentation.

Feiroz Bhagat, Apara Mehta, Prithvi Pancholi and Kervi Udani were the actors playing different roles in this play. This was directed by Feiroz Bhagat.

The show was a wholesome entertaining piece filled with contemporary message. The viewers including me enjoyed it fully.

Divorce is a poison that kills normal pleasures of one's life but at the same time is also a pill which keeps one alive at the cost of one's normal pleasures. An organ (sorry, a relationship) transplant, no matter how painful it is, prolongs life.

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Review by- Hemant Das 'Him'
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"Sumi aani Amhi"- Marathi play staged in Vashi (Navi Mumbai) on 8.7.2023

The dilemma of a professional unmarried girl

( हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए -   यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 24 देखिए )

You can break everything in this world but the bonding between a father and daughter. The play "Sumi aani Amhi" does not merely vaunt the super-special relationship between a father and daughter but also encompass the wrathful patches of it. 

Sumi is the darling of her parents since early childhood. Her parents make a middle-class family and raise their daughter with their best of resources. The daughter becomes an IT professional and after some time she plans to pursue her Masters in Science from California University, USA. The retired couple for whom even a ten thousand of rupees is a significant amount arranges somehow rupees ten lakh for her foreign education. One of the colleagues of the girl promises to help her in arranging further expenses and all the foods and lodging In California. Sumi writes a letter from her workplace in Bengaluru to her parents in Mumbai. This missive falls like a bombshell on the parents. Actually, she had mentioned about her boyfriend who will give shelter to her in the foreign land. Which Indian father has such a widespread heart that could accommodate such a digression from their culture? Both parents are in doldrums after reading the letter. The family doctor who had helped the girl in arranging the fund is also upset with the boyfriend string of the matter. On top of it, the girl makes a call to convey that she would catch the flight for USA from Mumbai but would not get time to visit her home. So her parents should come to the airport to see her off.

In the midst of the darkest gloom which also affects their health severely, the parents witness the surprise arrival of their daughter Sumi. In fact she could not resist herself from meeting her parents. Now she is in huge dilemma how she will go leaving her parents. Then a phone call comes from her boyfriend who has hired a beautiful well-furnished flat for living together with Sumi. But on a certain statement made by the boy the girl is flabbergasted. There is a dramatic change at this juncture. For knowing about what was the statement made by the boyfriend and what happened thereafter you should go to the theatre and watch the play.

As is evident from the collage of photos, the beauty of the set-design can be appreciated and you wonder whether occupants of this residential unit should face problem in arranging further 40 lakh rupees as required for Sumi's education?

Mohan Joshi as the father was in his excellent performance. The whole gerontology was epitomised by his demeanor and dialogue-delivery. Savita Malpekar in the role of mother was also well noticeable with all her caring attitude of a cultured Indian family. She provided a strong support to Mohan  Joshi. Shraddha Pokharankar in her lead role of Sumi did justice with her character. The dance on the child-song "Twinkle twinkle little star" was well-conceived and executed. The synergy between the director, music-composer and actor was stunning. Purushottam Berde was in dual charge of director and music composer and therefore the perfect symphony was visible. other actors namely  Uday Lagoo, Rajesh Chitnis, Pradeep Joshi and Chandrashekhar Bhagwat also did flawless work.

Shital Talpade did astounding work in terms of creating the natural scenes of morning, evening from an inside view of a residential flat. The script was written by a seasoned writer Rajan Mohadikar, 

And the quintessential message was that a relationship of father and daughter lies deep in psychology and not necessarily in the biological fertilisation of molecules. Also, a live-in relation with some boyfriend can solve practical problems but how to deal with the emotional problems? The evocative power of the show must be praised.

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Review by- Hemant Das 'Him'
Send responses to - hemantdas2001@gmail.com
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