Retelling

Ratna Pathak Shah is sporting a new haircut. She tries out different outfits,before she decides on a pair of silk pants and a flowing jacket.

Ratna Pathak Shah is sporting a new haircut. She tries out different outfits,before she decides on a pair of silk pants and a flowing jacket. Anand Tiwari struts around in four-inch high heels with his legs waxed. Faezeh Jalali has covered her beautiful frizzy hair in a scarf while Puja Sarup slips into the role of a 38-year-old mother who has just lost her son.

At the rehearsal of All About My Mothers stage version,the actors are working on adapting themselves to the world of its writer-director Pedro Almodóvarwhich is charged with emotions and melodrama. Pathak Shah plays the role of an actor Huma Rojo while Tiwari is Agrado,a warm transsexual prostitute,Jalali is cast as Sister Rosa who contracts AIDS from a transvestite and Sarup is Manuela,the central character of the play who goes to Barcelona in search of her sons father. Though the story of All About My Mother revolves around her search,it talks about varied subjects like actors and acting,homosexuality,transvestism,drugs,prostitution,fatherhood,loss of faith,surrogate families,Tennessee Williams and more.

Considered to be the best work of the Spanish filmmaker,the play scripted by Samuel Adamson premiered at the Old Vic,the UK,in 2007. Almodóvar allowed the stage adaptation after years of persuations and even worked closely with Adamson for the play. The script remains true to the film though the grammar is different for the stage production, says director Akash Khurana,who terms it as a play of a different genre. The play offers interesting challenges. It tells a simple story of ordinary people in an extraordinary way, adds Khurana,who has seen most Almodóvars work.

Pathak Shah found the plays treatment of theatre as a living entity fascinating. Thats probably one of the reasons why the actress,who is rarely seen in a production other than Motleys,took up this assignment. I had seen the film nearly two years back and was surprised to find out that there is a play based on it. Its a difficult play to stage. I chose to play Huma,who in the play acts as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, she says. Tiwari and Sarup admit that they are still discovering the characters they play respectively. I have just been introduced to the world of Almodóvar, says Sarup,who is on a diet of Almodóvar movies these days. Tiwari,however,has desisted from watching more of the Spanish directors movies after watching All About My Mother once. Im concentrating on being more feminine, he says.

Theatres in Mumbai are not familiar with stories like this. But Khurana is confident that it will touch the audience. Echoes Pathak Shah,Its a strong emotional story and can strike a chord with the audience. The verdict is likely to emerge this weekend when the play is staged in St Andrews Auditorium,Bandra,on Saturday,and Tata Theatre,NCPA,on Sunday.

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