Life in the City

For crores of youngsters with starry eyes,Mumbai is the capital city of all possibilities. Every hour,the trains — both local and long distance — eject budding actors,directors,scriptwriters,lyricists and other cogs of the giant cinematic wheel into Mumbai. Many of these stars-to-be will find cheap board and lodging in MHADA in Andheri,in whose bustling hub Nadira Zaheera Babbar’s latest playYeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan is based. The play,which premiered in Mumbai in May,will now be staged in Delhi as part of the Rang Festival on July 20.

“It’s the story of strugglers,” says Juhi Babbar Soni,a member of Babbar’s Ekjute group,“The characters are all youngsters of roughly the same age,except one character who wants to be a lyricist. Amid their stories,veteran Ekjute actor Hanif Patni enacts the role of Mumbai itself. He appears in different roles that symbolise the city — a dabbawala,a policeman,a bouncer of bodyguard of the kind that stars now favour,a Parsi doctor and even the share bazaar.”

The two-hour-long play is — unlike a contemporary preference for physical theatre — heavy on dialogues. Juhi adds that conversations among characters convey a gamut of emotions,not only through words but also dialects as characters speak in accents of their home states in South India,Bihar and UP among others.

Yeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan will be staged at Shri Ram Centre on July 20 as part of the Rang Festival. Contact: 23714307