Mahabharat,Prithvi and a day out in Mumbai

I am writing after a very long time. Actually my father motivated me to write another one after reading my first blog.

Fun is when you read blogs on your own and not when the blog writer drags you and make you read his/her scripts which might be happening right now. Anyways, try to manage.

So i wish to talk about Mahabharat as i recently saw a related play at Prithvi and found it quite interesting. Reasons were many, and are detailed below:

- I have been a regular at 'Prithvi' since last August and the ambience of the place is very soothing, even though at times the plays don't live up to the hyped expectations

- Since my employment, my dear cousin had come for the first time to Mumbai, and I sincerely wished to give her a good time
- Also, my office often reminds me of the plays i see. People wearing masks, enacting scripts to perfection, trying hard to prove a point they have never made and emoting with effortless ease.

This is fascinating if you try to view it from the top. But if you are in it, you know someone else is enjoying it for sure

So the play came in to picture once me and my cousin(from now own - Pihu, although Akansha is her 'school name', but Pihu for us is always more comfortable) were done with a Bowling session and a visit to Shah Rukh Khan's main door. We met the celebrity guard who had previously told a Punjabi aunty that 'Sir' is out shooting.

I tried to entertain my sister who was by now looking visibily disappointed majorly because of three reasons, again detailed below:

- One, we got access to Shah Rukh's main door only
- Two, I had already irritated her through one of my poorly timed jokes- Why the latest Shah Rukh's movie was not named 'My Surname Is Khan'
- She had already spent half a day with me with no significant entertainment, I had even taken some of her shots in the bowling session

So, inorder to best utilise the rest of the evening, Prithvi seemed a safe option. And as three is always a company, i invited one of my friends to share the spoils.

The play was named 'Andha Yug' and as my flat partner had previously given a decent review, i asked him to get three tickets booked. And immediately, we were driven into the 'Andha Yug' as only half of 'ticket confirmation' sms displayed on my mobile. I had a gut feeling that this will go either ways - Either Pihu won't like the play or both Pihu and Anu (my friend) won't like it. Finally, the play started with a bang. It was a fusion, hence there was music combined with intermediate dialogues.
It revovled around Ashwatthama, who led a devastating campaign against Pandavas in Mahabharat. The various means of deceit adopted by Pandavas in winning the war had deeply aggrieved Ashwatthama and he revenged this by tragically killing draupadi's five sons believing them to be the Pandava brothers.

While the show was great and the direction/acting everything touched perfection, i noticed two anomalies:
Anomaly 1: Almost after every five minutes in the play, there were actors shouting 'Ashwatthama , Ashwatthama' in unison and running all around with great urgency and anger

Not that it was a complete shocker, we have seen serials/movies like Shaktiman/Spiderman, but no one ran in those..

At one point of time, we even had our good old blind Dhritrashtra shouting 'Ashwatthama' as he ran in great fury through one of the doors.


The only explanation which i could derive was that as the actor who played Ashwatthama was also incidentally the director/producer as well, he might not have paid the other actors satifactorily, as a result of which their disappointment was coming out in this form

Anomaly 2: Although the set was deftly made and the actors wore rich ancient uniforms, yet almost all of them were wearing SPORTS shoes. Now, either you don't provide uniforms or if you do, have some sense. Even bare foot would have been alright.

See, you get my point, a play at Prithvi, with such good actors, performances, sets and crowd..
You give so much emphasis on details and then you wear sport shoes.
Although Pihu and Anu did not notice it, or may be they did but were so engaged that didn't mention, i realised that there can be one logic.
And yes, wasn't that logical...!!!
All the lead actors, be it Aswatthama, Dhritrashtra, Vidur etc. wore branded Reebok, Nike and Adidas while the supporting cast like Kripacharya, Jatayu and others had worn Bata/Action/Non Recognisable local shoes.....
It is amazing that even fighters of the glorious Mahabharat era discriminated, or else the efficient 'Andha Yug' playwriters would not have allowed such a mojor rip off.

Finally, after convincing myself that the 'Sport Shoe' inclusion was a well thought 'play within the play' like the one in Shakepeare's Hamlet, we strolled out.
Finally, we had to eat something after the gruelling two hour 'Ashwatthama' session, so we moved in to a 'Class' restaurant which served 'Executive Veg Thali'. I could not comprehend how a hotel can name itself as 'Class' and serve 'Executive' food.
The realisation came pretty quickly, when we came to know that it is mandatory to order separate thalis for each individual and you can't share food. However, we were told that unlimited food system is applicable which was quite exciting for us hungry souls.

So, non sharing and individual ordering was the 'executiveness' and 275 bugs for a 'Veg' thali was the 'Class' act.
However, the food was quite good and the waiters gave extra attention to the ladies while I was somewhat ignored. They cajoled Pihu and Anu to eat extra while I was told that Gulab Jamuns are served only once. Seemingly, their unlimited food theory had certain limitations.

The day was coming to an end as we dropped the now yawning Anu at her home with the famous lines of Nida Fazli in my mind:
'Kabhi kisi ko Mukammal Jahan nahi milta,
Kahin Zami to kahin Aasmaa nahi milta...'

Quite clearly, in my case, Gulab Jamun was my 'Aasmaa'.....!!!