Venue: Kamani Auditorium
Date: 8 Feb, 2016

Bharat Rang Mahotsav this time presented a host of celebrity plays. Most of the artists in these plays are from movies or television. Consequently they are based out of Bombay and watching them in plays in Delhi NCR is a rare treat. The tickets for such plays were most sought after. However we were vigilant and online when the bookings opened. Our perseverance paid off when we landed tickets for “Dear Father” featuring Paresh Rawal and “Mera woh matlab nahi tha”.

Directed by Rakesh Bedi, this play features Neena Gupta, Anupam Kher and Bedi himself. We fondly remember him as Raja from the age old sitcom “Yeh jo hai zindagi”.

The plot was simple. A middle aged Hema (Gupta) and Pritam “Kher”, old flames, have met after a long separation of 35 years. Sitting on a park bench they communicated various incidents that they had gone through in the interim period. Some bits of this were smartly designed flashbacks where Gupta also played Pritam’s deceased wife.

While the story is not uncommon, the performance of these seasoned across made the mundane memorable. Although  it was packaged to be a comedy, many a parts made the audience emotional. It was with seamless ease that the actors moved on from comedy to sorrow and took the audience with them.

There are some video clips on the backdrop with Satish Kaushik. It was refreshing to see him as part of the play albeit not physically.

This play is already widely recognized in Mumbai theatre circles and we are glad to have another feather in the cap of the rather nascent Delhi theatre scene.