Hidden debut
Anuvab made his pro acting debut at Bombay’s storied Prithvi Theatre tonight in a play called Hidden Fires about the Gujarat massacre. His monologue, ‘The Wish’ by Manjula Padmanabhan, envisions a ravishing female, devilish like Liz Hurley in Bedazzled, Krishna-like with the universe in her eyes, offering a banker a Malthusian choice. The lighting is done Kaun Banega Crorepati-style; when each sacrifice is offered up, all lights shut off except for tight blue and red spots upon Anuvab’s face.
He’s a buddy, a marvelous playwright and a hilarious teller of stories, but I’d never seen him act before. He done good. He’s very on, sharper and more focused on stage, and still a good storyteller, with a talent for comic lechery (King Leer?). We’ve often suggested he try standup.
Rehaan Engineer (the psychotic hairstylist in Everybody Says I’m Fine), Mandira Bedi (Extraaa Innings) and Ayesha Raza performed the other three monologues. Engineer is very British and was saddled with a stunt piece, a reading of 1,000 last names as a tribute to the riot victims. That took around 40 minutes and was even more boring than it sounds. As Amit Varma says, Bedi’s gyaan-to-cleavage ratio leaves something to be desired when it comes to cricket. With respect to theater she was decent, though her piece was inane. Raza had an interesting piece about how the rioters see Muslims as subhuman, but Padmanabhan’s problem is that even the monologues with interesting themes are first shown, then told, then pounded in with a sledgehammer until you’re so bored with being talked down to that you exit stage left. Padmanabhan also wrote Harvest, which was performed in NYC.
The theater itself is small, intimate, with matte black walls, good lighting, comfortable padded bench seats and high risers with excellent visibility. Outside a naatak group was performing a play about a king with the most minimal of props on the steps to the main entrance. The tiny bookstore was well-stocked with play scripts and a high-end, literary fiction-centric selection of novels. While Bedi held court with café admirers, we ran into Shernaz Patel, who played the mom in Black.
Anuvab:
Bedi:
Engineer:
The theater courtyard:
Hanging lamps with old movie posters:
Naatak:
Lamps shaped like a sponsor’s logo:
The approach to the theater:
on Friday, November 17th, 2006, 12:13 am in Bombay, Events, Photos, Profiles, Theater › 
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Wow - debut - at Prithvi - the holy grail of theater in Bombay. Very nice! Did you have the Irish Coffee?
Yeah, the virgin Irish coffee, and the baked beans on toast!
Seriously. It’s like debuting at Carnegie Hall :)
I have to say, for me, the idea behind the monologue that Rehan performed was quite interesting. Padmanabhan was (again) using elements from Hindu mythology and converting them to become relevant to the contemporary context. The 1000 names is an obvious modernisation of the Vishnusahasranaam. The problem lay in the facts that both writing and structuring of the piece were bollocks (e.g. if you’re going to hypnotise your audience with 1000 names, the last thing you want to do is tell them there are 680 names left to recite). Kudos to Rehaan. I can’t imagine too many people being able to hold people for as long as he did manage with that piece.
most appalling though was the audience for the 9 o’ clock show. the number of people who kept talking through rehaan’s piece was disgusting. just leave if you don’t like what you’re saying. to stay in there and chatter is disrespecting the theatre. absolutely vile behaviour. blech.