Direction : Atul Kumar Writer : Nick Whitby Cast : Gagan Dev Riar, Ayesha Raza Mishra, Bimal Oberoi, Eklavya Kashyap and others
BAAGHI ALBELE Review
When the first film version of To Be Or Not To Be by Ernst Lubitsch (who also co-wrote the story with Melchior Lengyel) was released in 1942, World War II was on, and amidst the atrocities unleashed by the Nazis, there was a grim satisfaction to be had by lampooning Adolf Hitler. The film was remade in 1983 by Alan Johnson, and also turned into a play by Nick Whitby in 2008, among its many avatars (including a terrible Hindi film, Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam in 2008).
It is this play that has been updated to BAAGHI ALBELE (lovely title) and the action shifted to Ludhiana, where minions of a mysterious "High Command" are targeting writers and performers, shutting down theatres and forcing anybody who is anti-establishment to go into hiding. A team of hammy actors from a theatre company run by a swollen-headed Johny Makhija (Gagan Dev Riar) and his wife Minnie (Ayesha Raza Mishra) are unwittingly caught up in the intrigue to save the names of dissenters from falling into the hands of the cops.
The Makhijas switch from a satire called KALAKARON DA KABRASTAN, now forbidden, to a cringe-worthy production of HAMLET, hoping that nobody would object to Shakespeare! Then Johny notices that as soon as he begins on his To Be Or Not To Be soliloquy, a man noisily exits the theatre (an actor actually does in the auditorium). The man, Sukhwinder (Eklavya Kashyap/Girish Sharma) sends flowers and flirts with Minnie while her husband is caught up on stage.
As it turns out Sukhwinder is a resistance fighter, and has to somehow prevent a secret list of names from being delivered by a Prof Dharampal (Ujjwal Chopra/Danish Husain) to the wicked Inspector Kilmadi (Bimal Oberoi). He requests the help of the team to retrieve that list. Then begins the giddy farce or disguises, impersonation and scenes being played out frenetically quickly on the revolving stage.
This fictitious High Command may not have the evil, history-altering influence of Hitler, but the point Kumar is making, about authoritarian governments targeting artistes (during British Rule, the Emergency, or in the present) comes through clearly. The actors get into the spirit - with Gagan Dev Riar, Ayesha Raza Mishra and Bimal Oberoi in remarkable form, supported by the buzzing energy of the rest of the team. The set design, lights, music, and costumes are all excellent.
However, that balance between what Lubitsch called "a tragical farce, or a farcical tragedy" is not quite achieved. There is humour, for instance-- that mustache sequence brilliantly done, also the great escape--but at no point does one get that heart-in-the-mouth feeling of the disaster that could occur if they got caught. Still, these days it is brave to say anything even mildly subversive. Also, perhaps to make the play more accessible to audiences outside of Delhi and Punjab, the language could be simplified to more Hindi and less Punjabi.
Deepa Gahlot is a journalist, columnist, author and curator. Some of her writings are on deepagahlot.com)
