The Ostrich bird has a tendency to bury its head and neck to guise itself against predators yet pretending to be unaware of its body sticking out. This is the essence of IPTA Mumbai's new play AAALL IZZ WELL WITH SHUTURMURG where the Shuturmurg (Ostrich) is a metaphor of life and the human condition. The play is a comment on contemporary issues like hunger, corruption, power, greed and deceit and each individual's capacity to deal with them. It is also a subtle satire on our politicians or rather 'palti-cians', as one of the character goes on to say, and their scheming ways.
The story revolves around the gay king of Shuturmurg who is accompanied by his three ministers: Media Mantri, Raksha Mantri and Mahamantri. Then there is the common man, a naive wife, a hunger stricken maid and the good man Virudhilal. The king of this land has only one obsession: to build a golden Shuturmurg in memory of his father and in order to do so, he spends the entire kingdom's money thus leaving its people poor, hungry and homeless. When the honest king Virudhilal of the rival kingdom protests against the building of the Shuturmurg, he becomes a representative of the common man. However he is quickly bribed and re-christened as Subodhilal and made into the Vikas Mantri of Shuturmurg. We realize that it takes only a second for money to corrupt absolutely. When the common man learns that their leader has been bought over, he gets very upset and decides to stand up for the poor. We also see that the queen's chamber maid is starving of hunger herself because her family back home does not have food to eat.
Her scene with the queen is the most powerful and poignant in the play. The naive queen has never seen a dying man before and wants to experiment on one to see how their hunger problem can be solved. It is an attempt to tell us how oblivious the rich man is to the poor man's plight. That is when the maid movingly tells her tale. Ultimately the King is abandoned by his ministers and shrewdly robbed of all his treasures. The King then begins to appreciate the value of the common man who only wants to bring justice to the people of Shuturmurg.
Ramesh Talwar's directorial abilities are not new to reckon with and the well conceived script brings out the best from the acclaimed cast. Bharat Kapoor and Rakesh Bedi bring their screen magic onto the stage too. The characters essayed by Vignesh Sinkar, Prashant Padale, Akhilendra Mishra, Rashmi Sharma and Manju Sharma have the audiences entertained throughout. However the play gets a little irritating when we see the main protagonist (played by Aasif Shaikh) go overboard in being gay. But credit should be duly given to him for playing his character convincingly as well.
Kuldeep's Singh's music highlights the themes and the mood of the play. The set is simple and the space is used very cleverly with minimal props. The costumes are relevant yet funny (in the case of the king). All in all, the experience is good and we can only say that all's well that ends well.
*The writer is part of the Mumbai Theatre Guide team.
