Ashvin Gidwani’s new production, The Big Fat City, captures the madness among people struggling to live up to their cosmopolitan imagery in Mumbai, in turn exposing the emptiness of their lives. Navneet Mendiratta reports
This could well be described as the new genre of Indian theatre — one that observes the life from real up close and presents it to the audience just as it is. No, there is nothing surreal about it. It is just the way life is — hard and hitting. Alternatively, you could liken it to the urban bane that we are so living in. Ashvin Gidwani’s new production, The Big Fat City, brought to Delhi and NCR a striking similarity in the lifestyle and stress that exists in the two metros.
Written and directed by Mahesh Dattani, the production that was staged at Pullman Gurgaon Central Park recently, put up a scenario that popped up interesting posers, some dark and other satirical, as it captured the madness about people struggling to live up to their “so upper middle class” imagery and in turn exposing the emptiness and deceit about them.
Set in Mumbai, the play that starred Achint Kaur, along with Nasirr Khan, Pooja Ruparel, Ivan Rodrigues, Sonal Joshi, Aadar Malik, Gagan Singh Sethi and Shashi Bhushan, started off with a young couple hosting a get-together at their flat in lokhandwala for a long lost Facebook friend. Over the course of the evening, the plot unfolded with the truth about a mysterious ‘sister’, the ageing diva from the penthouse upstairs, a jealous lover turned murderer and a surprise visitor, who joined the party towards the end of the evening. The night got bizarre with every passing minute and concluded with the unexpected.
As Dattani played with a bunch of vulnerable emotions and dark side of city living, he brought out the moments that the audience well connected with. These were the sequences where the characters could be seen interacting with people, who were not on stage, through text messages. This SMS exchange was brought out through a screen for the viewers, giving them some really light moments.
The play was originally conceived for Mumbai audience, but fits equally well in cosmopolitan set up of Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Kolkata where the production house plans to take it. It’s something the audiences would well relate to.