My audio artist Nicholas Kharkongor unexpectedly gave me passes of his play Salaam India. He had written the play, inspired by Pawan Verma’s best-seller Being Indian. I am avid lover of plays. So naturally, I was thrilled.
I went to the play with my favorite partner. The play narrated story of four different families. These stories had vignettes of real India. They covered all classes of society: poor laborers’ family, middle-class business community trying to handle MCD sealing drive, a urban family’s tyrst with relationships and finally a national meeting of representatives of different communities to decide on a National dish that will be tax-free. 🙂 Hilarious thought, isn’t it.
Well, the play honestly revealed the hidden ironies in our society. There was a laborer family with their set of problems. Economy may have risen, but they wonder why it didn’t impact their life. Bribe in India, but don’t be sure if that gets you returns. 🙂 A software professional dabbling in astrology web site. and politicians drag, don’t they? This play is “essentially India”. Whatever that means. 😛
This play had very interesting medley of characters. A gujju businessman with firang wife. A argumentative south-Indian lady. A boisterous Punjabi. An America-return desi.
A still from Salaam India (image source: Hindu)
The actors? Very talented lot. Before coming to this play, I had heard of only one actor: Lushin Dubey. Lushin also happens to be the director of the play. But after watching the play, I would vouch for all four actors in the play. They portrayed four different characters each. In all, we saw 16 characters in the play. Sometimes, they had to switch in to other character within minutes. They pulled it off with ela’n. Their costumes fluidly changed with their characters with simple effects of accessories such as dupatta, kashmiri topi, etc. I thought whoever had planned it, planned it well to keep the play screening smooth. After it was a play staged live and not a movie where you had retakes. I was impressed.
Nicholas, it was a great play, nicely written and staged. Thank you for inviting me! 🙂
Read More:
Visceral Observations 
I like , good article