HYDERABAD: In its 10th year, Hyderabad-based Darpan Theatre continues to treat theatre lovers with the finest plays. Coming back to perform live on stage after the pandemic, the group presented Pati Chahiye, a laughter-filled thought-provoking play at Lamakaan last weekend. Written by Rajeev Tiwari, the play was directed by Ali Ahmed.
The narrative of the young girl Mandu could be anybody’s. In her quest to have a perfect partner, she eventually realises finding perfection in your partner is the best bet. The play shows Mandu, after having a petty quarrel with her husband going to bed in an angry mood. She then has a dream where she places an ad in the matrimonial columns and ends up having a lineup of suitors at her doorstep.
Through a series of hilarious interactions with them, Mandu realises they are all far from what she wants in her partner. She wakes up and faces the reality — that her husband is not bad after all. Despite the sultry and humid evening, the venue was full of a crowd which was seen enjoying the play thoroughly. When the sister characters keep calling out to the house-help, ‘Jhaadu laa’, what ensues is a laugh riot.
Apart from the main actors Mubeen, Chitra, Shaurya and Chand, the cameos by Niklesh, Sandeep, Srikanth, Suraj, Kedar, Shafi and Akber do justice to their well-etched characters. Lending to Lamakaan’s modest ambience, the stage props too were kept simple and the characterisation of the roles was convincing.
Talking to CE backstage, director Ali Ahmed says that though they performed online during the pandemic this is the first time since then that they’re performing live on stage and are very excited. “Performing on a virtual platform doesn’t give you the true feeling,” he points out.
Ahmed started working on the script just a week before the show. “We had another plot for this title but somehow it didn’t work, so we quickly came up with this story and pulled it off,” he shares. Ahmed who directed Munshi Premchand’s Kafan and another Urdu and Deccani comedy Time bomb last year hopes to bring more meaningful and entertaining plays to the Hyderabadi audience through Darpan Theatre in future.