TERI AMRITA Play Review

In a candid interview before the India premier of his play TERI AMRITA, actor Om Puri admitted that he picked the play for two simple reasons - a no-frills production and Punjabi being his mother tongue. Therefore, suggesting that the play would be ideal for his stage comeback after 25 years, as he would be in a comfort zone. There are pitfalls to being in a comfort zone - one could become lackadaisical. But not seasoned actors like Om Puri and Divya Dutta, who play the protagonists Zulfikar and Amrita in the play. The two bring a fresh energy to the play that has been performed in its English and Hindustani version well over 500 times in the past 20 years. So when Zulfi gets invited for Amrita's eight birthday party and Om and Divya begin to read the letters, the exchange of letters begins anew, this time in a new language.

Amrik Gill, who has translated the play from Javed Siddiqui's adaptation of AR Gurney's original LOVE LETTERS, has kept the essence of the Hindustani version more or less intact. So there isn't much of a difference between TUMHARI AMRITA (directed by Feroz Abbas Khan) and TERI AMRITA, except for what the actors bring to the table. Divya Dutta like Om Puri is very comfortable with the language and that's very important because, after all, this play is all about words. Om Puri brings a vulnerability to Zulfikar's character that hasn't been seen in TUMHARI AMRITA or even LOVE LETTERS (directed by Rahul DaCunha), and that is refreshing.

Production-wise too, TERI AMRITA stuck to the format adopted by the Hindustani version of the play. The actors however read the letters off laminated pages. While lamination may seem practical and helps preserve the pages through several performances, the reflected light from the laminated pages was glaring and disturbing. Plus, rummaging through yellowing sheets of paper brings a sense of the times gone by, and this impact is lost.

Perhaps the fact that the play is in Punjabi kept a lot of the audiences away on opening night (though the ticket pricing might be blamed too). However, Bollywood has trained us well enough to understand basic Punjabi and that's about enough to enjoy this production. Although the auditorium was far from being packed to capacity, Om Puri expressed his gratitude to those who came to encourage his new beginnings in theatre. Hopefully, the next show will see a larger audience and Om Puri's fear of having to perform in Sion-Koliwada (for an only-Punjabi audience), will be unfounded.

*Aditi Sharma enjoys watching theatre and writing about it.

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