While one made you angry with her convincing portrayal as Rati Agnihotri’s insensitive mother in Ek Duje Ke Liye (1981), the other’s chachi act in the comedy tele-series Dekh Bhai Dekh evoked your love and sympathy for being so dumb. The respective repertories of mother Shubha Khote and daughter Bhavana Balsaver have compelled audiences to perceive them as two creative individuals rather than mother and daughter. About 40 years ago, to broaden their professional horizons, Khote and Balsaver formed a production company called Shubhangi Kala Mandir, which went on to produce Hindi plays such as Mera Naam Joker, Hum Dono and Hera Pheri; English plays such as Let’s Do It, Bachelor’s Wife and It Happened One Night; and Marathi play Rukmani Rukmani Lagnanantar Kai Zhala. Their latest Hindi production, titled Kitne Aadmi Thhe?, written by Balsaver and directed by Khote, will premiere in Pune today at Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir. The story revolves around Swarg Se Sundar, a shabby lodge run by Annie with the help of her manager, PK, and an inefficient worker Yesu. One day, Annie hears a rumour that an inspector is making incognito rounds of all the hotels in the area. As luck would have it, that very day, a rat enters the lodge. Scared that the hotel will lose its licence, Annie places pieces of meat smeared with rat poison on the floor. When Yesu finds the meat while cleaning the floor, he puts it into the freezer with the remaining meat. As PK and Yesu try figuring out if any of the guests have ingested the poison, one of the guests collapses. “Amid all this confusion, Annie and PK have to hide an unconscious guest, chase out the rodent and impress the hotel inspector. It is an out-an-out comedy, which is our forte,” says Khote, who made her debut in 1955 as Putli in the film Seema, post which, she featured in numerous Hindi and Marathi films. Khote was praised most for her roles in Gharana (1961), Sasural (1961), Paying Guest (1957) and Ek Duje Ke Liye. Apart from being the play’s director, Khote also plays a character called Mrs Bahry in Kitne Aadmi Thhe?. Other actors in the play are Sheetal Maulik, Yaman Chatwal, Hormazd Chesan, Sachin Gersappa and Roshan Tirandaz. Balsaver got the idea for the play last December when she was busy shooting for the TV serial Gutur Gu. “The story was always clear in my mind; I just had to add punchelines and dialogues. As the team gathered together for discussions and rehearsals, we kept improvising on the plot,” says Balsaver. Acting, she says, happened to her by chance, in spite of coming from a family of actors. While her grandfather Nandu Khote, veteran actor Durga Khote’s brother-in-law, was a noted silent film actor, her maternal uncle is actor Viju Khote. “When I was about 17 years old, I had gone to see my mother’s play Bottoms Up. One of the actors didn’t turn up for the final show; the director asked me to replace her. As soon as I got on to the stage, I knew it was my career for life,” says Balsaver, who plays Annie in Kitne Aadmi Thhe?. The group plans to stage the play in Mumbai and Delhi too in the near future. garima.mishra@expressindia.com
