Saurabh Shukla’s play Barff is a thriller set in the backdrop of Kashmir and narrates the events that a family goes through in one night. He tells Shrabasti Mallik that the Indian audience is not only opening up to lesser explored genres but are demanding more of such plays
Theatre is a magical platform indeed. Not only does it give artistes a place to express themselves but also gives the creative greats to delve, experiment and play with various contexts, themes, stories and subjects. The Indian theatre, in particular, amidst controversies, restrictions and tabboos on certain aspects, never fails to amaze us. Not because it dares to explore bold subjects and discover new talent but mostly because of the numerous original stories that are written.
According to actor-director and writer Saurabh Shukla, the kind of plays we do in India is interesting. “Broadly there are two kind of plays — experimental, which are based on an ideology, thought or an idea, and commercial, which is largely comedy,” said Shukla who’s next theatre directorial Barff belongs to a genre rarely explored in India — thriller.
The best thing about the play is the fact that it is not adapted. Shukla told us that in the West, there is a tradition of writing thrillers but Barff is one of the few plays in the Hindi thriller genre. He originally wrote it as a script for a movie, but converted it to a play for the Bharangam festival at NSD.
“The reason is that film is a very visual medium and demands more visual experimentation. A play, on the other hand is more realistic so it required realistic visuals. Since the play is set in the backdrop of Kashmir, on a wintry-snowy night, we created machines to support the vision of snow falling. It created an illusion of a realistic image,” Shukla elaborated. Very aptly, he named it Barff because of the place the play is set in. “It justifies the ideology and the physical state of the play — snow,” he said.
Barrf narrates the event that happen in one night to a family. Desperate parents of an ailing child and an unsuspecting doctor are the three lives caught in the whirlwind of conflicting questions of truth, reality and belief. The play raises many questions — ‘Is truth what we all experience collectively or we all have our own different truthsIJ’ ‘Does truth lead to belief or it’s the belief which constructs the truthIJ’ ‘Does truth actually existIJ’
Speaking about the play he told us that he has always been interested in the genre and that the story is not just about crime. “There are great thrillers made in India,” he said and gave us the example of the movie Badlapur. “It is a thriller and talks about the human psyche. I believe that we can make thrillers but the same things talk about deeper things in life. It serves a bit of everything,” he pointed out, adding thatBarff talks of beliefs, which gives a wholesome feeling.
Essaying the role of the doctor is actor Vinay Pathak, while the mother and father of the child is played by actors Sadiya Siddiqui and Sunil Palwal, respectively. Shukla pointed out the minor difficulties that the entire cast faced, because of the actors’ busy schedule and said, “But at the end, everything worked out because we put our hearts to it. We used to rehearse at 6 am in the morning everyday before we set off to work.”
We asked him if the audience is opening up to new genres and he said that people are not only accepting new ideas and genres but are also demanding more of such plays. “People make the mistake of thinking that thrillers are very serious but with this play, we will portray that the genre can be both serious, funny and thought provoking,” said Shukla who has worked on the play for three years and is happy about the fact that “the product has come out very nicely.”
Barff will be staged in Kamani Auditorium from March 11-13.