Ashvin Gidwani’s adult comedy brings out problems faced by modern-day couples. He informs I Kaur that he is now working on adaptations of Robin Sharma's The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and Paulo Coelho's Eleven Minutes
What happens when a traditional Bengali couple spends a night in social engagement with a chic, modern oneIJ lust, lies and infidelity are a few things expected. Ashvin Gidwani’s forthcoming production The Scent of a Man talks all about that and also how to be hot, sexy, naughty and in love. “It is a one-of-its-kind, witty and intelligent adult comedy that exploits emotions of love, hate, jealousy and anger at the same time. It isn’t like you haven’t seen it before because it happens with us all the time. It’s exactly how relationships are today, how people deal with marriages and take their partners for granted,” said Gidwani who is all set to bring his play on October 17 at India Habitat Centre.
The story revolves around two couples Mallika-Nikhil and Ananya-Partho who spend two evenings at Nikhil’s house. Nikhil is an advertising executive, while Mallika is slightly neurotic. The other couple has Tupperware lady Ananya and her husband Partho. The evening is a perfect ‘love-quadrilateral’ gone awry. The play has a star cast of Ash Chandler, Suchitra Pillai, Deven Khote and Bhavna Pani.
According to the director there are only two kinds of plays that can work today — comedy and inspirational. “We cater to a large spectrum of people. We have people right from the age of 18 to 45-50. Everybody today is stressed. So when they get into the auditorium to watch your play, only these two genres can make them happy. They need a lot of inspiration and comedy is the best relief. If you add music to both the genres, nothing like it,” he explained.
The 75-minute play is divided in two acts. “The first scene in act one will introduce three characters and will give an introduce the plot. The second scene will bring in the fourth character and set the ball rolling. The first scene in the second act will be an acceleration of the plot which will eventually get into the final scene to show a lot of sexual tension and physicality,” shared Gidwani.
Getting the script together was a tough task. He said, “The play went through almost 20 to 25 drafts before the final script and it took me almost nine months to finish it. I was very apprehensive about the climax and kept thinking whether the audience will be shocked or not. The casting took long. I held 20 workshops only to select the cast and then put the cast through another set of 10 workshops to add finesse to the acting.”
Gidwani made sure the play was nothing short of perfect. “We got designers from Delhi and worked on every single element that will go on stage. I haven’t compromised on anything. I just want to make sure that when people walk out of the auditorium they don’t have even a single glitch to point out to,” he added.
At present Gidwani is working on two more projects which are book adaptations of Robin Sharma’s The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and Paulo Coelho’sEleven Minutes.