Date: 7th April 2018
Venue: Sirifort Auditorium, Delhi

We still remember Karamchand – the detective Pankaj Kapur brought to live on screen during DD days. His heavy voice, quirky action and the carrot (do look up old episodes) made many of us emulate Karamchand. As children we had no idea who Kapur was then, but  he gave us one of our first dreams – to become a detective.

Organised by The Event Boy, Dreamz is a series of plays and the first in this series Dreamz – Sehar was recently staged at Siri Fort, New Delhi. The theme had us all excited and we were not alone in our dream journey. Serpentine queues at the Siri Fort entry proved that we had enough co-passengers sharing our aspirations.

The story is based in Kasauli, Himachal where Dr. Sanjay Mishra assayed by Kapur meets a mysterious woman Sehar played by Supriya Pathak.  The next 50 minutes or so is an enigma on the beautiful set depicting homes and the Mall Roads of the yester years colonial hill station Kasauli. Is it realistic? Is it abstract? That is questionable and Kapur the director leaves each audience to form his or her own conclusion.

Needless to say Kapur is a pro thespian. We have marveled every time we have seen him in films like Ek Doctor ki Maut or Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro; TV shows like Karamchand or Teacher Teacher and the play Dopehri.  Hence the ace theatrical production of Dremz Saher is no surprise. He is ably supported by Supriya Pathak and the other cast in this play.

But at the heart of this production is the story telling style. One might wonder if there is a proper climax to Dreamz Sehar. But at the end of the beautifully moderated hour long production, Kapur the director and Kapur the actor collaborated in carrying the audience to the juncture between reality and dreams.

The play beautifully used the track “Chamba kitni door” from movie Rishton Ki Saanjh sung by Mohit Chauhan. Incidentally we attended the launch of this album some time back.

We went home dreaming about another trip to the beautiful Kasauli that always beckons us with promises of a blissful break. Sitting in today’s digital era, Kasauli is in a time warp – deliciously simple and yester era. No surprise Kapur based his dream play Sehar in this location.

Move over Bollywood, it is for theatre now to make us dream. Dreamz – Sehar has stoked our curiosity and we are so eager to travel through the rest of the dream series.