Renowned film, theatre & television director Raman Kumar brings a play on comedy of errors — Wrong Number — to Delhi. SHAlINI SAKSENA caught up with the starcast to bring you a report
Gone are the days when theatre was all about serious drama. Today, the line that separates traditional theatre from modern-day theatre has blurred, thanks to a plethora of reasons. First, people are looking for different platforms of entertainment. Earlier, the audience were all ‘invitees’. Today, they book tickets in advance. Second, many film actors have started acting in plays.
Raman Kumar, director of the Wrong Number, tells you that theatre is doing well. “What has helped is that people are buying tickets. People see the ad and book tickets. It is no longer theatre of ‘invitees’. There is an emergence of commercial theatre in Hindi too. The emergence of film actors doing theatre has given a boost to commercial theatre. Musical theatricals like Mughal-e-Azam, Balle Balle and Alladdin have contributed as well,” Kumar explains and tells you that theatre today is no longer a loss-making venture. “It covers the cost and gives the satisfaction of good work being appreciated,” he says.
The script is a take off from a short English play. “One can say that it is inspired from the play Comedy of Errors. The play has been performed over the years in many languages including Marathi (Chhupa Chhupi) and Gujarati. It dates back several years and it was always at the back of my mind to adapt it for the Hindi audience. But it took me almost two years to bring it to the stage. This is because there were several elements that had to be incorporated. Today, the audience is smart. One can’t take them for granted. Hence, I had to adapt it to prevailing situations,” Kumar tells you and says that he chose comedy because he loves the genre and enjoys doing it.
The reason for the large dose of Bollywood glamour starcast — Rakesh Bedi, Tanaaz Irani, Delnaaz Irani, Avtar Gill, Kishwar Merchant, Rajesh Puri and Rahul Bhuchar — is because Kumar knew them personally and professionally and had been following their work. It just happened the characters fit these people.
The play, by the production house, Felicity Theatre, follows three married couples whose lives are entwined with confusions and suspicions. It juggles time and space to present the lives and loves, passion and panic of three married couples in a play of love, laughter and mayhem.
Interestingly, the play before coming to Delhi ran to packed houses in lucknow and Kanpur. The reason why they chose to go to lucknow and Kanpur before coming to Delhi was something that happened organically. “The dates came first for lucknow and Kanpur before we opened in Mumbai and Delhi. Thank God, we went there first. The way the audience lapped up the show was brilliant. We heard that some people saw the first show and then bought tickets for the next one too,” Kumar says and tells you that they are going for the fourth and fifth show when they will be performing in Delhi today at Kamani Auditorium.
Why he chose to do a play and not a film is because the script demanded a stage format. “The play has two sets on a single platform and performed at the same time. This can’t be shown in a film,” Kumar says.
Bollywood and Television actress Delnaaz Irani who plays Ranjana Khanna, the firebrand wife of on-screen character Avinash (Rahul Bhuchar, a theatre personality and producer of the play), tells you that her role is challenging since involves a lot of energy. Not that it is a hatke play but would say that the play is brilliantly written. Rohini Hattangadi (in Marathi) had played the role that I am essaying. My character is funny since I have gone beyond the script and an added element of Gujju girl married to a Punjabi. With all the other things that are happening in the play, my role gets funnier. The way she talks, she can’t speak in English, her movements and the way she speaks Hindi adds a lot more energy as opposed to the other characters who appear to be normal in front of Ranjana,” Irani tells you who is at warring ends with her off-stage sister-in-law (Delnaaz Irani) who plays her sauten on-stage.
“We had lots of fun when we were off the stage and had a good laugh and our relationship is like what one would see in any other family. On stage, I abuse her and are rivals. We had lots of fun. She plays and up-market Page 3 kind of a person. I am a small-town girl from Rajkot who has fallen in love and married a Punjabi,” Irani says and adds that the script didn’t have this Gujju element. Theatre has always been my first love. Hence I was able to bring this to my character,” she says for whom the funniest moment is she comes out with a belan and runs after her husband.
Kishwar Merchant, who plays Poonam and married to an on-stage character of Natwarlal Chaurasia (Avtar Gill), says that her role is that of the dumb blonde, a role that was tough to play since she is not this kind of person in real life. “To play this role, it took me time to get the expressions correct, my intelligence would get reflected or come out while saying my lines. I had to really work on this aspect. But I got it right in a week’s time and now have the expression pat down,” Merchant says who says that doing theatre gives her a break from doing daily soaps.
Anything and everything makes Merchant laugh. “I am a happy-go-lucky person. I keep cracking jokes, and laugh at them,” she says and recounts a particular scene that cracks her up. ‘Towards the end of the play my husband goes to Tanaaz’s place with a bottle of detergent and says that he will wash off all the spots in the room. The entry and the expression on Tanaaz’s face is so funny and I always end up laughing. This has been happening from rehearsal days,” Merchant says.