Venue:India Habitat Centre
Date:06 December, 2014

It’s not everyday that Shabana Azmi performs on the Delhi stage. Consequently, this play generated a lot of excitement among the Delhi audience. So much so that we found many people waiting for others to cancel their bookings at the last minute so that they could get an entry.

The play started late and Shabana Azmi was on stage in the first five minutes. This led to a huge round of oohs and aahs from the audience. Starting on this note, the play soon brought in the other characters. The background is a Punjabi NRI family and how a middle aged mother of two adult children creates new equations in her life. The subject is pithy but the light hearted comedy approach made it a perfect weekend watch.

After the initial euphoria, the others in the cast took over (a son, daughter, daughter-in-law and a friend). The acting, particularly the comic timings, was perfect. We loved the little bhangra number in the middle of a rather intense act. In no time we completely forgot the superstar quotient of the play. We kept thinking who among the son, daughter, and daughter-in-law was the most impressive.

Given that comedies are often deemed to be no-brainers, this play concluded on a note that many of us sitting in India may think of emulating. In other words, this play left us with some thoughts.