After the roaring success of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s theatrical adaptation of the movie Arth, he saw the same potential for his 1989 film Daddy. That it could be brilliantly adapted for stage was not only an inkling, it was an unwavering surety.
The story of Daddy is one of role reversals. It is about a princess and her father and how her courage breaks an evil spell to make them live happily-ever-after. Without making too many changes in the original script, Bhatt tells us he plans to tweak the story a little. ‘‘We won’t digress from the original plot. Of course, the situations and storytelling could be a little different. I have given the protagonist Imran Zahid full liberty to make interpretations. Only when he unshackles himself from my work and finds his own fingerprint, can he flourish as an artiste. I will leave it to Dr Danish Iqbal, the director, and Imran, to mould the story according to their fertile imagination. That is the role of a good gardener,’’ says Bhatt, who confesses that the play was born in those turbulent times when he was struggling to combat alcoholism. The audience, he says, wants to witness naked truths. Daddy definitely has all that.
Date: August 4 and 5
Time: 7 pm
Venue: Sri Ram Centre, Mandi House
Duration: One hour, 15 minutes
Booking: www.bookmyshow.com or at 9999918988.