Great Gujarati farce

What is it that has kept it going for so many years through four generations? The play’s writer and director Vinod Jani says that its Kathiawadi dialect, family situation comedy and the language spoken in the Charotar region that has contributed to its popularity. ‘‘You don’t have to involve yourself too deep to understand it and enjoy it.’’

It has often be called Gujarat’s answer to Mousetrap in terms of its popularity but unlike Mousetrap, it has made no changes to its script or even its sets. So, in the play messages are still sent through telegrams—there are no telephones on the sets.

‘‘Though I was a school teacher, it is this play that has brought me in life where I stand today,’’ says Jani, now 65 and a former BJP councillor.

Over 350 artistes have worked in it over the years and it has got the distinction of being played at three different halls simultaneously on the same day. There have even been four shows in a row in a day. Jani remembers how a spectator in Mumbai—Madhubhai Shah—was so thrilled with it that he booked it for a whole year in 1965.

Jani, who has several plays and literary works to his credit, says the popularity of Prit Piyu Ne Panetar has overshadowed all the rest. Actors Deepak Gheewala, Ragini, Manjari Desai, Zankhana Desai, Rajnibala, and Nayan Bhatt of soap Kahani ghar ghar ki fame have played various roles in this play. Those impressed with the play include Asha Parekh, late Sanjeev Kumar, Premnath, Arun Irani. Prof Mahesh Kothari, who teaches at drama department of Gujarat College, puts the play’s popularity to its entertainment value. ‘‘You go and just enjoy it…it’s a bundle of jokes that people enjoy without having to strain their nerves,’’ he said.

The bundle of jokes hasn’t been exhausted quite yet.