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A dialogue with god
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"... And Now She Says She is god" is an interesting display of relationship between man and god
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God (Tom Alter) comforts Cyrus (Dastur) Photo: D Gopalakrishnan
TOM ALTER was right when he said ... And Now She Says She is God is a "serious play. It is not the regular romantic comedy or a bedroom farce. It has all the fun ingredients as in song and dance and all that but the topic is serious - it deals with god's relationship with man."
So the play, the first in a series of three of the McDowell's Signature Theatre Fest (the other two are Love Hua Once More and Beyond Therapy) has the song and dance and Mumbaiyya slang and also deals with serious issues.
Cyrus, is an investment banker trying hard to write his novel in a local café which seems to be the haunt of every sort of weirdo. One fine day as Cyrus is quietly nursing his whisky, an old gentleman comes by, sits on his table and makes himself completely at home with Cyrus' whisky and peanuts.
Puzzled by the old man's behaviour, Cyrus protests indignantly only to be calmly told by the old man that he is god. Starting by scoffing at the man's claims, Cyrus turns believer only to be told awful home truths like human beings in general and himself in particular have no purpose in life.
God kindly tells him that he is not alone in his purposelessness - "the octopus, jelly fish, none of them have a purpose in life." When Cyrus demands that god change the state of the world, god insists that "evolution takes time and does not help as the basic nature remains the same. Human beings are mass-produced. The designer ones are the result of karma."
When god decides to smoke a cigarette, Cyrus asks if he is not worried about the damage it would do to his lungs and god blithely replies that he does not have any lungs! "How do you breathe?" Cyrus asks to which god replies that he breathes when the world does, "Can you imagine the amount of passive smoking I have to do?"
God insists that "mujhe dharam se koi mutlab nahin (I have nothing to do with religion). I am a secular god!" As he leaves, he gives some advice to Cyrus - "live cosmically and act comically."
A girl then walks into the café and strikes up conversation with Cyrus. Though resisting the intrusion into his space initially, Cyrus strikes a bond with Maya and horror of horrors discovers Maya is god as well. Maya leads Cyrus on a voyage of self-discovery.
Anurag Kashyap wrote the play originally as a one-act play which has been expanded to its present form. And one wishes that the play had been kept in its original form as the punch is in the first act. The seasoned Tom Alter who plays god with a kind of avuncular cheeriness goes a long way in contributing to snappy dramaturgy.
Director Cyrus Dastur plays Cyrus with a winsome charm while Rouble Nagi makes for a perky bombshell of a god. Keisha Lobo who is also a radio jockey sings some wonderful Sixties and Seventies melodies. Vikrant Sakhalkar, who also produced the play, has the best lines as the waiter. The play was entertaining and thought-provoking without being too heavy.
MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER
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