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Returning to Bombay via ‘Mahim junction’

Director Sohaila Kapur, in a surprising turn of events, has played peacemaker in what reviews have called “an entertaining mix of nostalgia and cinema”.

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Bollywood and theatre are regarded as old foes. Each medium possessively draws its boundaries — Bollywood preens with commercial success and theatre glows with unbridled creativity. Director Sohaila Kapur, in a surprising turn of events, has played peacemaker in what reviews have called “an entertaining mix of nostalgia and cinema”. Her much-lauded play Mahim Junction has finally made its way to the city that inspired it, and will debut tonight at the NCPA.

The play harks back to the flamboyant cinema of the seventies.

The heroine titters as the villain leers, colourful slum-dwellers and a kind-hearted cross-dresser help the hero fumble his way to a happy ending. Set in a slum, the play sings and dances its way through a Hindu-Muslim romance.

Kapur was the first to marry theatre and Bollywood when the play debuted in Delhi in 2008. The play has had a tumultuous few years — almost the entire cast has been replaced, the script rewritten and they have travelled as far as Dubai and Muscat for enthusiastic audiences.

“I grew up on this type of Bollywood, as did everyone else from that era. It was stylised and enthralling, colourful and completely mad,” comments Kapur. Kapur lived in Mumbai and travelled between CST and Bandra every day. “I was fascinated by the slums I saw on my way; how people survive the hardest of circumstances with a smile on their faces. Mumbai is for those who chase their dreams, and the cinema of the seventies portrayed those stories perfectly.”

Jyotsana plays the simpering heroine Radha, who jumps at the touch of a finger and waits to be rescued from the evil clutches of the moustache-twirling villain. “This play is unlike any other, simply because we were told to act as unnaturally as possible. I watched a lot of Sharmila Tagore movies to understand the character. The play follows Bollywood’s traditions of an erratic story structure and arbitrary bursts of song,” she laughs. “We worked very hard to get Mahim Junction to Mumbai after its successful run in Delhi,” says Deepa Gahlot of the NCPA. “The play can be enjoyed by the whole family, as everyone will relate to the story in their own way.”

Kapur, who has worked with both seasoned professionals and eager amateurs over a long and successful career, bemoans the lack of discipline in actors today. “Enthusiasm is not enough,” she says. “Theatre has to be a passion.” She advises aspiring thespians to soak themselves in theatre and movies to gain perspective.

The play, which will be performed at Tata Theatre on July 22 and 23, touches upon themes such as secularism, and an innocence that Kapur finds woefully lacking in the city today. “There is an intolerance which is completely at odds with the old Bombay, which was synonymous with diversity,” she says. “I wanted to return to the city that I knew as a young woman — a city of dreams.”

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