A STUDY OF FEAR Play Review

Deepa Karmalkar	Host-A-Performance \| Schedule

Direction : Atif Ally Dagman Writer : Atif Ally Dagman Cast : Arman Khan, Gargi Datar, Aaryan Tandon, Vvansh Sethi, Vidur Khullar, Shumaila Shaikh, Sanskar Agarwal , Arvind Nair

A STUDY OF FEAR Review

Welcome to a funny funeral! That too a Muslim burial. In the times of volatile religious intolerance, here's a playwright who defies all inhibitions and fears to pen a normal, situational comedy. The plot of A STUDY OF FEAR (part of the Thespo Festival) itself is so spontaneous that you won't realize when you reached the burial ground to witness a blind maulavi performing the last rights - reciting Quranic prayers.

So here's how the audience gets to the cemetery. Amit Srivastava (Aryan Tandon) learns over a telephone call that his childhood friend, Amir, is dead a day before his 25th birthday. Although he hasn't been in touch with Amir for years, he decides to attend the funeral. Right from the word go, when Amit invites his other friends to join the funeral with him and they decline smoothly, nevertheless saddling him with the task to pass on condolences to the family and also compose a speech for the occasion - the comic undercurrents are palpable. Then Amit wonders what to wear for the funeral and ends up buying flowers and incense sticks to offer - his hesitancy is endearingly clownish.

The household is peopled with siblings of the dead - the sassy sister Arshi (Shumaila Shaikh), her doting husband Shoaib (Arvind Nair), quick tempered brother Arshad (Vvansh Sethi) and philandering cousin Zakir (Sanskar Agarwal). While Amit tries to fit in the situation, his awkwardness over wearing the skull cap and covering it up with a sports cap - spotlights the silly prejudice. The jocular references to circumcision by Zakir and Arshi's quick dash for a smoke dissipate the unseen tension in the atmosphere. Clever digs like "Hindu khatre mein hai…” by Zakir as Amit steps into the grave to lower the deceased, prompts instant guffaws.

Aryan Tandon lends complete credibility to his role of the companiable Hindu friend Amit, through his sincere performance while Shumaila Shaikh as the sister shines in her relatively short stage appearance. Sanskar Agarwal is impressive as the witty cousin. So there are some loose ends that the writer leaves us to unravel - why was the dead person's heart missing? Perhaps, a metaphor for his untimely exit from a heartless world.

At the heart of the play is the mysterious death of a Muslim youth and yet it is the circumstantial comedy that overtakes the narrative. Very delicately, the play also nudges at the inherent prejudices that society nurtures. The writer director, Atif Ally Dagman earns brownie points on all counts including music arrangement. A valiant comedy that shows how to take it easy and laugh off the biases.

Deepa Karmalkar (A senior journalist, features writer and reviewer who is now an ardent yoga saadhak.)

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