I could have stayed for few more days at home in Chennai but I simply had to be back in Kochi, in time for the much acclaimed play by Paresh Rawal called shaadi@barbaadi.com.
What a name! Quite ominous I must say. Does shaadi really have to be barbaadi??…well I will take that topic up in my subsequent blog posts. For now, let me share with you my experience of the show.
What an entertainer! That compliment is not only Paresh Rawal who was the main protagonist of the play but also his team whom we have seen on small screen at some point or the other. They had the entire audience in splits and to be able to hold the audience rolling with laughter for whole 2.5 hours of the show is no mean task.
Written by Umesh Shukla and directed by Paresh Rawal, this play has been presented across the country for 134 times before they came to Kochi. I was hoping to see Paresh Rawal’s wife playing his wife in the play; that’s what I had heard that she would be the leading lady ….but on stage we had another artist doing that role and made a good job of it.
The story revolves around a Gujarati family where there are parents and their only son (Paresh). Seems like the Gujarati moms never let their kids grow up. It was hilarious the way the mother toilet trained their son who still ran on the count of 1, 2 and 3…and to add to the misery she was always after their grown up son to drink milk. LOL. The best part was we had a Gujju friend with us. So everything that happened on the stage was related back to him, which added to the excitement 
The story goes like this. Paresh Rawal meets a girl at the bus stop and gets talking. One thing leads to another and they become friends. Paresh secretly falls in love with her and reveals it to his boss, who gives him ideas on how to propose the girl. After a few ups and downs in their life they eventually tie the knot. Things are hunky-dory for sometime before the mother-in-law and the new bride turn against each other on typical house matters. Caught between mother and wife, Paresh Rawal bears the brunt of the family feud till in the end things are salvaged only to repeat the entire cycle once again. Sounds like a typical Bollywood flick but it was purely fun, no melodrama.
Thanks to JTPac, the world-class performing art centre in Kochi that has been organizing various concerts and plays ever since its inception. I have been lucky to attend three out of the four performances so far. All these shows had international diplomats as special invitees. Hopefully we will have exchange of not only information but an exposure to the art and culture from various continents.
Mohanlal and Jose Thomas, whose collective dream and vision brought forth JTPac, were present at the show and felicitated Paresh Rawal and his team at the end of the show by presenting them the Aranmula mirror.
Watch out for the next show at JTPac – Rock concert by the Malayalam Rock Band – AVIAL on 6th June at 7:00 pm. Online bookings can be done at www.jtpac.org.
To read about the past shows at JTPac click here -> Dr. L Subramaniam & Kavitha Krinamurthy / Usha Uthup (didi)
Recent Comments