Bollywood stars bring tears to the Bangkok stage

LEKHA J SHANKAR

SPECIAL TO THE NATION

 Dazzled by the glitz of several spectacular Thai productions, I almost missed the glint of an Indian play on at M-Theatre. "Aapki Soniya" ("Your Soniya") was produced by Benetone Live, who are raising the curtain on a new era for Thai theatre by bringing Indian plays to Bangkok on a regular basis.

 Benetone Live is the theatre branch of Benetone Film, who coordinate the shooting of all Bollywood films in Thailand. Thanks to their connections, they've been able to secure Bollywood stars for the Bangkok stage.

 Last year, they brought the excellent whodunit "Double Deal", starring Bollywood actors Manjesh Manjrekar and Sandhya Mridul. For "Aapki Soniya", seasoned Indian-movie actor Faroque Sheikh and gorgeous actress Sonali Bhendre made the trip.

 Bangkok theatregoers witnessed something unusual: a two-hour play with just two characters, limited props and nothing but an avalanche of words to keep the action going. But the result was emotionally powerful.

 The words -- from a barrage of letters read out by the two protagonists -- were not in colloquial Hindi, which is one of the most-used languages in India, but in chaste Urdu.

"Aapki Soniya" is a sequel to "Tumhaari Amrita", which was made famous with Faroque Sheikh and Shabana Azmi playing the lead roles and is still touring the world almost 20 years after it debuted.

 Thanks to another brilliant script and outstanding performances from its lead pair, "Aapki Soniya" has created as much of a stir as its predecessor since it opened in Mumbai, a year ago.

 "Tumhari Amrita" was loosely based on the life of Hungarian-Indian painter Amrita Shergill, and traces the love-affair between a Paris-based Indian painter Amrita Nigam and a Lucknow-based lawyer Zulfikar Haidar, through a series of letters. The play ends with the death of Amrita.

 "Aapki Soniya" picks up from there, and centres on a chain of letters written from Paris by a young girl named Soniya, to the same Zulfikar Haidar in India, now sick and ailing in hospital. Not knowing who she is, Haidar is intrigued and confused by Soniya's letters.   She, in turn, is angry, agitated and accusatory, and demands to know more about his relationship with Amrita. Haidar patiently answers all her questions, asks his own, and slowly the jigsaw falls into place. Haidar is both happy and distraught to discover that Soniya is his daughter and sets about laying bare his life to soothe her sense of abandonment. The two lonely individuals cling to their newly-discovered family tie, knowing that Haidar's illness means it cannot last for long.

 The last letter has a broken Soniya calling him "Abba" (father) for the first time, and signing off, for the first (and last time) as "Apki beti Soniya" ("Your daughter Soniya").

There were few in the audience with dry eyes after the emotional climax, superbly acted by Sonali Bhendre in a performance made all the more impressive by the fact that this was her first play, and that she was pitted against one of the most versatile actors of the Indian stage and screen.

 Faroque Sheikh rose to fame with his boy-next-door image in '80s romantic comedies like "Chashme Buddoor".

 Since then, he's worked with top Indian directors from Satyajit Ray to Hrishikesh Mukherhee. He said in Bangkok, that he was still involved with cinema but that theatre was a  "welcome outlet".

 Though often overshadowed by her stunning looks, Sonali Bhendre's talent came to the fore in "Anahaad", which was screened at Bangkok's World Film Festival.

Recently married and a new mother, the actress said in Bangkok that she totally enjoying being  "out of the rat-race, and beyond all the pressures of stardom".

 She described the play as a "welcome break" and confessed that the most difficult part was mastering the Urdu script.

 As for director Salim Arif, he said that he was delighted with the small but intense audience in Bangkok.

 "It's not the quantity but the quality of audience that we are looking for," he said.

Hopefully, Benneton Live will be bringing more quality Indian theatre, which has the potential to reach out to all sections of Bangkok society.