You’ve seen him as a grounded, supportive father in Thappad, as a policeman navigating caste discrimination in Article 15, an abusive husband we love to hate in Lust Stories 2 and a slew of roles across films and OTT that pack a punch to the gut. But for Kumud Mishra, theatre is the space that has let him build a world of laughter between him and his audience, “Although I’ve done a lot of comedy in theatre, I haven’t gotten the chance to do many comic roles on screen. In films, if you do one type of character, you tend to get labeled. In theatre, that does not happen. I find that comedy is a much more difficult, serious practice than other genres in the performing arts.” he says, ahead of bringing two plays, Puraane Chawal and Kaumudi, to Jagriti Theatre, Whitefield on September 5 and 6.
Puraane Chawal, an adaptation of Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys, follows two old friends and comic actors who have had a falling out after decades of working together and are pushed into reuniting for a comeback, the comedy is born out of their relationship. Mishra is both actor and producer in it, being the founder of the theatre group D for Drama. “When we first came across the play, we thought it was just so fun and exciting while also exploring the loneliness of these characters,” he says. When asked if he find anything in common with them, he adds, “I relate a lot because of the senior actors, directors I’ve worked with over the years. That loneliness that comes as you age, where despite being at home, one corner of it becomes your place and the younger lot’s lives keep going on around you – you are both part of their lives and not.”
Kaumudi has similar themes of estrangement running through it, a play-within-a-play following an ageing theatre actor who is asked to step down as the star performer of a theatre and his estranged son is the actor chosen to replace him. As the two perform an episode based on the Mahabharata, tensions unravel. “If you see both, you’ll be able to see two completely different forms and how two different directors approach these two texts. Puraane Chawal is a more traditional comedy while in Kaumudi, with four actors you feel like a whole world has been created because of the magic of the writing,” says Mishra.
While he frequents Bengaluru regularly, Mishra has a longer relationship with Karnataka, one which set him on the path of acting – studying in the Rashtriya Military School in Belagavi. “Those were the best years of my life. We used to have an inter-house drama competition each year but we used to take it very seriously and our teachers used to deal with it professionally. When I saw my seniors’ performances of Greek tragedies, Shakespeare, adaptations of Marathi plays… I was shocked. I got the ‘nashaa’ for theatre here. I went in not knowing what theatre was and came out knowing I want to do it for the rest of my life,” he says. Despite being a military school, he had his share of mischief too. “Even though Belgaum wasn’t a very big city back then, there were many cinema houses and we would bunk school to go watch films. For one Marathi play we did as school kids, Yaha Maut Bhi Sharmayi, I shaved off my head to play an aged character, but didn’t go to school for a week because I didn’t want anyone to see that I had hair only in the back,” laughs Mishra.
Apart from his theatre work, audiences have seen Mishra make his Gujarati film debut this year with a small role in Dhabkaaro, which he says was ‘such a beautiful script that I had to do it’. He was also seen in the critically well-received OTT film Assi, reuniting with Taapsee Pannu whom he’s done several projects like Mulk and Thappad. Speaking of their on-screen partnership, he says, “When you work with a professional like Taapsee, it’s a wonderful experience and a trust and comfort factor is born. But with that trust, you also have to create a distance and think ‘I’m seeing this person for the first time’ because one time you’re playing her dad, another time her jija and sometimes something else entirely. With this trust, you also know what space she is coming from [in each scene]. She’s a very good actor but more than whether you’re a good or bad actor, what matters is how seriously you take your work and she takes her work very seriously.”
