Inside Out 8212; Bharat Dabholkar

No creativity can match the high of watching people break their bones with a few hearty laughs, says Bharat DabholkarIt's a revue -- a ser...

No creativity can match the high of watching people break their bones with a few hearty laughs, says Bharat Dabholkar

It8217;s a revue 8212; a series of take-offs on political and social events, panning everything people have felt strongly about in recent times. quot;I had done a few of them long back. It8217;s an old concept, in a whole new context.quot;

And the new context is?
The themes are based on everything and everybody relevant now 8212; from air hijacks to cricket to divorce. quot;There8217;s a spoof on marital life, called Shubh Divorcecam, which is a celebration of divorce. I8217;m sure many people will relate to something like that.quot;

But more than anything else, the man behind Bottoms Up! and the utterly-butterly Amul hoardings is willing to stretch his ideas to ridiculous, sublime limit to extract a few hearty laughs from the audience.

quot;The money goes to the producer8217;s pocket, not mine. I love to see people laugh at what I create. It8217;s a high.quot; And a first-hand one at that. quot;I never see my plays. I peep through a hole from backstage to see people breaking their bones laughing.quot; He doesn8217;t watch the works of other playwrights either. quot;I tend to gush over any play I see and come back with an inferiority complex,quot; Dabholkar says, rather matter-of-factly.

So, he tends to look for 8212; and stick to 8212; the highs. Forget about serious art. He has no such committment.
quot;I tried my hand at serious theatre, but my audience told me I wasn8217;t cut out for it. They would tell me Why are you doing this?8217; I trusted their judgement and stuck to what I8217;m best at.quot; About eight years ago, Dabholkar directed a play called Purush, a story about a rape victim8217;s trauma. How much more serious8217; can one get?

Doesn8217;t it ever get monotonous though?
quot;For me, theatre is fun. It8217;s like reliving my college days, when sitting in the canteen and making fun of people was life. After you enter a profession and excel at that, people share intellectual sneers, not inane laughs, with you.quot; And for many, his revues serve exactly that purpose.

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But what about experimenting with content even for fun?
quot;My plays don8217;t lack experimentation. I take up new situations in every play. People won8217;t accept me if I don8217;t tickle new funny bones in them. My job is to entertain, which is not that easy.quot;

Besides, why would an adman who owns a cat, a bull dog, four turtles, a parrot, an aquarium full of piranha and a zen office not depend on experimentation to get his creative juices pumping?

8212; SANJUKTA SHARMA