Puneet Issar, Sharon Chandra star in Hindi thriller, musical play ‘Dhappa’

Team L&M

Come June 18, and Bandra’s St Andrew Theatre will be abuzz with activity. A thriller Hindi  play, Dhappa starring actor Puneet Issar will be staged here. Presented by Aum Theatre Mumbai, Dhappa is a meaningful and realistic musical play set in 1950s, in which apart from Issar, actress and Kathak dancer Sharon Chandra is playing a pivotal role. The play is written and produced by Akshay Mishra and Sharon Chandra. Mishra has also directed the play.

Stating that he always wanted to be a part of this kind of project, Issar says, “When Akshay narrated the script, it immediately made me feel that this would be my opportunity to possibly portray a writer and director of the 1950s and show the real pain that the filmmakers of that ear felt. And coincidently, when I read the script, there was a line about ‘Duryodhan’. It just clicked! I knew this script was destined for me!”

“Directors like Ritwik Ghatak, Satyajit Ray, Bimal Roy, V. Shantaram, Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor, Mehboob Khan, and Vijay Anand have speckled our lives with the most realistic souvenirs showcasing the pain and struggles faced by real people. Each of these directors fought with patriarchy, wept with the unfortunate, and rebelled against the unkind,” he adds.

Talking about how he envisaged Dhappa, Mishra says, “I am besotted with the kind of dance, music, costumes, and sets that were used in great films like Mughal-e-Azam, Jalsaghar, Pakeezah, Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje, etc. I wanted to recreate some of that time through a play.”

But it was a tough feat, says Mishra, who did a lot of research on the types of thumris that were played during that era, ad then came out with the new thumris that would resonate with the audience of today. “We took inspiration from the 1950s and styled our costumes, a magnificent setting with a staircase and chandelier, vintage props, and soulful music and dance to give our audience a sneak peek into our version of the unheard stories of the 1950s. IN a way, we have tried to recreate a little sprinkle of the golden era,” he adds.

But, isn’t it a huge gamble, he is playing? The play may or may be accepted by the audience!

“As against that, I feel using the of writers like Saadat Hasan Manto, Ismat Chugtai, Nirmal Varma, Harishankar Parsai, Kafka, Maupassant, Sharat Chandra, Dhanveer Bharti, Tolstoy, Gorkhi, Bhishm Sahani, etc. more or less guarantees a certain percentage of the audience. Also, I actually feel that there is a dire need to tell original stories by these gems of bygone era. Our generation should take inspiration from these writers and attempt to write original stories and plays that would later become a pathway for the upcoming generation of writers,” says Mishra.

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