Director-actor Om Katare's latest presentation - TERI MERI PREM KAHANI - is stuck in the world of Hindi theatre from 10 years ago. It has a hero-heroine, enough sidekicks and a gang of giggly girls to fill the stage. The play reminds one of Bollywood scenes from the 80s-90s. This deja vu is all wrong though. Based on a short story by the celebrated Hindi author Harishankar Parsai, the stage version of TERI MERI PREM KAHANI gets a modern twist with celebrity activists and media-friendly politicians thrown in. These activists and politicians are unbearable on 24-hour news channels; why would they be acceptable on stage?
The play has a rather huge cast. In the lead are Romeo, a roadside tapori, and Tannu, the distinctly married heroine. Then follow the sutradhar couple, who bind the story together. Om Katare plays the Anshan Specialist, Narayan Tiwari, and Paromita Chatterjee plays his bete noir, Renu Chowdhary, the feminist for all seasons. The problem is simple - Romeo has an infatuation for Tanu, who is married to Radhikaprasad. Romeo sees Tannu whenever she steps out to worship at the 'mobile mandir' (a temple-on-wheels), with a special playlist for every god. His infatuation grows stronger with each glimpse of Tanu. In his enthusiasm, Romeo decides to fast for the sake of his love and then unfolds a musical with too many songs borrowed from Bollywood.
With the chant, Om Tannu-aaye Namah, Romeo begins his fast and in seconds a fake-accent spouting media person, who writes for a Hindi newspaper, but does not even understand the language, arrives. The fast takes on a social profile as it has the potential of becoming an inspiration for the thousands who wish to fall in love with married women, and have their love reciprocated. The husband is declared a 'paapi' by a local swami. Both Romeo and Radhikaprasad call Tannu a beautiful 'thing' as they debate who she should live with. Feminism be damned. We, the stupid men onstage, will decide the fate of the women characters around us. And because we live in such progressive times, inspired by TV serials and what not, the heroine will still stand by in the wings to have her 'honour' tossed around like a ping pong ball. The play is filled to the brim with such bizarre ideas.
As the fast goes on, Romeo survives only on glucose, while more and more characters jump into the melee. Even the Prime Minister of the country is called upon to resolve the issue (really!). Tanu regrets the five days she hasn't been to the temple. But she prayed at a portable temple, right? She could have just picked a different spot to meet the bicycle gods. In any case, the husband she prays for just seems more and more useless. When it comes to backing his wife, Radhikaprasad thinks it's a faltu problem. He prefers his wife accept the blackmailing loafer as her husband instead - and you thought theatre didn't come up with jaw-dropping moments anymore. Radhikaprasad is ignored by all, thankfully. Then follows a TV studio debate.
By the end, you might regret the 90 minutes spent on the play, as much as Romeo regrets troubling Tanu in a dream sequence, which is where the actors should have exited the stage. That would have been a better end than one in which Romeo turns into a political leader and Tanu is conveniently forgotten.
*Aditi Sharma enjoys watching theatre and writing about it.
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