"Sammy" - A word that broke an empire

Watched an excellent play today. Called Sammy.

Written by: Pratap Sharma
Original Music Score: Mahesh Tinaikar
Lighting Designer: Inaayat Ali Khan
Directed by: Lillete Dubey
The Cast:
Joy Sengupta – Mohan Gandhi
Ravi Dubey – Mahatma
Neha Dubey – Kasturba Gandhi
Anu Menon – Sarojini Naidu
Zafar Karachiwala – Jawaharlal Nehru
Vikrant Chatturvedi – Jinnah




That's Joy Sengupta as Gandhi and Neha Dubey as Kastoorba




Yes...so...after a break of 2 days...as I was saying...

Excellent play! I'd gone for a shoot, and everyone can see the story on Subah Savere tomorrow morning. True, that this was yet another play on Gandhi, but what was wonderful was that it wasn't like "yet another play on Gandhi"! What I liked best about it was that neither were any of the characters black or white, nor was the play. It had everyone's points of view - Gandhi, Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, Kastoorba Gandhi, Gandhi's eldest son (through a scene with Joy and Gandhi's inner voice), Jinnah, and even Nathuram Godse. I just loved that each character had the opportunity to give her/his reasons or explanations to what happened.

Another thing was that the play was so realistic. For once, like Lillete said, Gandhi was not a larger-than-life character who we are only meant to look up to. Instead, he was just an ordinary man, and the play traces the journey of a man who goes from being Mohandas to becoming the Mahatma. I just adored the scenes with Gandhi and Kastoorba. They were...so...personal maybe...intimate...real perhaps. And, Kastoorba's character was given as much emphasis as was Gandhi's. And, it was played wonderfully by Neha. I mean, this character had its own motivations, its own thought process that it goes through. As was Nehru's character, which was done by Zafar Karachiwala. There was this whole growing up in Nehru from being an Oxford returned "dandy" (?!), to being someone who didn't necesarily always agree with Gandhi, but was still inspired by him. Sarojini Naidu's dialogues were just so intelligently written. Anu's character uses words just like a poet like Sarojini would've.



And, in the whole play...there were...5-7 maybe...actors, with some of them playing multiple roles. And, it was so smooth. Full points to the lighting designer too! Also, I loved Zafar's accent as the South African officer! :)

Attn: Anvita
Now, these guys have had about 10 shows in Bombay already, and whenever they have the next one, you HAVE to watch it, woman! Seriously.