Review

SOULMATES

Direction : Rehan Shaurya
Writer : Rehan Shaurya
Cast : Vikram B. Shahi, Lipi Goyal and Akshay Anand Kohli

SOULMATES Play Review


Tanu Mohapatra



 SOULMATES Review

The dynamics in a couple's relationship can lead to be a battle between individuality and companionship. This is the crux of SOULMATES, written and directed by the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) graduate Rehan Shaurya who makes his debut in theatre. He spoke to me about how conversations can be magical and of how this aspect has inspired his script. I have a penchant for scripts that are about couples and their conversations. I had been thinking of the 1995 American movie series 'Before Sunrise' trilogy (noted as 'the great romantic epic of a generation' by The New York Times). The play is unlike the film, so there cannot be a comparison, yet it is a drama focussed on the turbulence that can hit a couple's relationship.

It is love at first sight for upper caste Hindu boy, Vikrant (Vikram Shahi) who tries to pursue his love, Rajani (Lipi Goyal), a Dalit Christian. She is reluctant but Cupid's intervention brings them together. Rajani's troubled past is revealed to us suddenly. There is no build-up to her revelations. She never believed Vikrant would marry her. Later in their arguments and fights over their careers, Rajani constantly feels that her Dalit identity is working against her although she is felicitated as a journalist. For her, the award appears like an act of sympathy just because she is precisely a Dalit woman. Vikrant cannot understand this. He thinks it is an appreciation of her work. Perhaps looked down on in her childhood and adolescent years, Rajani is unable to understand her supportive husband.

SOULMATES

The issue of caste is however not probed and has no lasting insight. The couple's arguments on pressing issues like land acquisition and Naxalism seem unconvincing. Individual quirks outweigh the complexities of caste and the couple grows distant. Predictability sets in. In what feels like an eternally long moment in the play, Rajani challenges Vikrant to hear her description as the cheating wife and teases him to decide if it was fiction or reality.

On the other hand, Anand Kohli with his stage presence, charm and physical energy manages to hold the act together (that otherwise lacks coherence). He effortlessly transforms into four diverse characters. His Cupid is adorable. As Venus he subtly questions gender stereotypes with humour and lightheartedness. His Krishna is poised and graceful. He also plays a modern Vatsyayana. These parts of the show are engaging.

The only element of suspense, revealed at the end, fails to evoke the trauma in terms of either performance or direction although the performance evolves in the second half. The light design by Chetan Chand is artistic. The romantic fade outs are evocative, especially towards the end. The nostalgic effect of secretly reading Rajani's diary was beautiful and succeeded in bringing some variation to the nearly similar frames on stage.

Had SOULMATES had a persuasive script and crisper performances with smoother transitions, and if the costumes, make-up and music could have conveyed the passage of time, it may have been a better play.

Tanu Mohapatra is a management graduate and a blogger with a keen interest in acting. She has acted in short films and is a voice-over artiste.


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