For those who have watched Satyajit Ray's Ganashatru(1989), a movie adapted from Henrik Ibsen's 1882 play, AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, the play THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE WATER, adapted and directed by Akarsh Khurana from the same Ibsen play, may evoke a strong sense of déjà vu.
In THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE WATER, the protagonist, Dr. Parth, performed wonderfully by Mantra, is an honest doctor and a society leader, who wants to draw attention towards a new variant of cholera being spread from a very popular temple premises which has been built on a dumping ground. This temple is not just a place of worship any more, it's also a place of business with many powerful people behind it.
His attempt to educate people about the dangers posed by the contaminated water sets in motion strong objection from people with vested interests. One of the beneficiaries is his own uncle, who's a politician and another is his friend, Armaan (Adhaar Khurana) who manages public perception and engages in social media manipulation on behalf of the government. Armaan is torn between the love for his friend and loyalty towards the government and perks of his job.
It soon turns into a fight between the good and the bad, us and them. The only difference is that in this fight it's really difficult to distinguish the others from ourselves. It's all interlinked in this new world order. For Dr. Parth, it becomes a lonely fight as his own people quickly decide to take sides and he gets minimal support from people he looked up to, or expected any sort of help from. Everyone wants him to back down from the fight with powerful people, either worried about his safety or their own interests. Some assert themselves more than others, like his cousin Tejas, representing his father's interests, who plays a more aggressive role in bringing him down.
When he decides to take it to the media and finds a willing journalist after the mainstream media rebuffs him, the authorities quickly send the journalist on an all-paid-for foreign trip. He decides to take the help of his friends. While Dr. Parth does get support from his friend Yasser and his girlfriend Fatima (Mansi Multani); his friends Koel (Richa Kalra) and Aditi (Garima Yajnik) try to spread the message at the grassroots level and on social media. But the enemy has infiltrated those spaces as well and his message is lost in the chaos that follows. Dr. Parth, his family and close friends face the cumulative wrath of the society and their voices are stifled.
Watch THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE WATER to find out the ending and if the protagonist is actually successful in his mission against all odds, to save society like Dr. Ashok Gupta in Ganashatru. The performances were all wholesome and powerful, and it was good to see Akarsh Khurana in a brief cameo. The play will surely leave you with a lump in the throat and maybe your heart will skip a beat as well, as it so accurately depicts our society today. Interestingly, in the original Ibsen play, written in 1882, it was mentioned: 'policies of expediency are turning all our standards of morality and justice upside down'.
*Pritam Roy loves movies and plays, in no particular order.
