Stories about Mumbai abound and have been routinely depicted in our literature, on stage and screen, in our music and even in art. Like the other great metropolises of the world, Mumbai too has always inspired artists of all kinds. Indeed, it is a special city- much loved and much hated, and evokes all kinds of responses in between. Writer-director Zubin Driver returns to the city's stage after a break of seven years with four monologues that make up MUMBAI V/S MUMBAI. He revives two of them- Rathod, the roach killer and Spider, and adds Silence while completely re-working Car Song.
The monologues stand out for their characters; all skillfully played by Denzil Smith. The seventy-minute piece sans interval leaves little breathing time to this one actor who yet efficiently manages his quick transitions, aided by some very good make-up by Sanjay Limbachiya. Once in character, Denzil provides us with a verisimilitude that enriches our appreciation of the narrative. The narrative on the other hand is both inward and outward looking. It is contemplative, poetic, sometimes developed by a stream of consciousness, even as it deals more concretely with Mumbai's locations and its people.
In Silence, the opening monologue, we encounter a man by the sea lost in his thoughts; in CAR SONG, the character is an old man, hard to like but who stands out for his twisted, unapologetic and politically incorrect attitude; Rathod, an ex-army man and a roach killer is Kafkaesque while Spider is about a TV anchor who is sardonic about the banality of television.
There's a whiff of moralising emanating from the depths of three of these monologues, barring Silence and yet the characters are flesh and blood, each rendered distinct. This is a play driven by its text, sometimes obvious but never without feeling. Its production values are simple and in line with the best of minimalist theatre, thus reinstating our faith in a theatre that can very well manage without artifice, when its words ring true and clear.