Seema Bhargava Pahwa, known for her role in Hum log, amalgamated theatre and cooking to address the pain and anguish of the class IV staff. She spoke to Karan Bhardwaj about the inclusion of interactive tools in her future projects
live kitchen has been a fashion in city as many well-known chefs nowadays are giving live demos of their culinary skills. But an actor doing the same in front of the theatre audience was quite unexpected. At first look, we anticipated some cooking class by Seema Bhargava Pahwa, well-known for her role (Badki) in Hum log in 1980s, as she stirred the cauldron to prepare some saag. However, a well-written narration was not about the recipe, but the pain and anguish of the class IV staff, which is often overlooked by the society. Saag Meat, a play written by Bhisham Sahni, is a satire on the middle class which doesn’t value the class IV staff. It was recently performed at Bakheda’s Experimental Theatre Weekend to a packed house.
The character (Sumitra) belongs to a well-off family and she is talking about her daily household chores and domestic help. She is praising her servant and points at his absence just because of the good work he had done. “After an incident, the servant took his own life. Though the family is responsible for it, they don’t consider it as a big issue. They remember him for the services he provided. They have nothing to do with his feelings, pain and trauma. She again and again says ‘chala gaya bechara’. I am aghast to see how insensitive society has become. We get to know about the atrocities towards the servants by all kinds of people, be it rich, professional or middle class,” the actor told us adding that she wished to enact the play before every house. “That’s the need of hour. I wish I could forcibly ask people to watch the play to make them realise what they do to other humans. By the end of the show, I was also teary-eyed along with the audience,” she said.
Bhargava staged the play first in 1981. The idea of including cooking in narration was introduced recently. “I wanted to experiment with the style. So I added cooking which bridges the gap between the actor and the audience,” she said. In the end, the audience was also served. “It was interesting to see people’s reaction while I was adding ingredients to it. Since they knew they would be tasting it, they would ask me if I correctly put salt and pepper. I think I managed a decent dish,” said the actor, who treated some 250 people during the recent show.
Bhargava is now working on Sahni’s another story Phoolan. It talks about the loneliness of a woman who is obsessed with her cat. “She doesn’t have kids so she is in love with her cat. However, one day, the cat also runs away. So the lady is talking about her fondness for the animal and how she was dependent on her. Interestingly, till the half of the play, you don’t even know she is talking about the cat,” she said. For this, she is again planning to perform along with cooking. “I am thinking to interact with the audience in a new style. I will ask them to assist in the cook-out session. They can chop ingredients and be part of it,” she said.
The actor was last seen in Rajat Kapoor’s Aankhon Dekhi. Her forthcoming projects include Yash Raj’s Dum laga Ke Haisha and Umesh Shukla’s Mere Apne. For the past five years, she has been part of Naseeruddin Shah’s Motley theatre group. “We staged Saag Meat in lahore too where people were bowled over by the tasty food,” she said. Though she continues to bask in the past glory of Hum log, she expects some admiration for cooking too. “I cook a lot for my family, so why not for the audienceIJ I hope someday people would come to me and say, ‘maine aapka saag chakha hain, autograph milega kyaIJ” she quipped.
