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In the classroom called life

Sir, Sir, Sarla, Makarand Deshpande's longest running play is going to be staged on Friday evening in the city. The play opened in 2001 with Anurag Kashyap, Sonali Kulkarni and Makarand. Over the years, Makarand wrote two more parts. In the show at Pune, Sir, Sir...will have part one and a portion from part two in it.
The play, which reopened in 2012, now has Sanjay Dadhich, Faisal Rashid, Aahna Kumra and Makarand playing the main roles.
Talking about the play, Dadhich says, “I am playing Phanidhar, who is in love with Sarla. Both of them and Keshav are Hindi literature students of Palekar Sir. Sarla is in love with Palekar Sir, but he says that it's ethically wrong and on his insistence, she gets married to another student. Phanidhar is a little angry with Sir saying that he could have help him win Sarla's love.”
The play starts with a dream, Phanidhar and Palekar Sir are talking about past memories. At interval point, Sarla comes to meet Palekar Sir and then what happens is the crux of the play. Interestingly, when the original play opened to the public, Dadhich was a backstage artist. “At that time I was very new and doing backstage. So it never struck me that I would portray this character sometime in the future. I was happy that I was associated with a great play,” he says.
But he must have observed something, we insist on knowing. Dadhich replies, “The intervening period between the original and the play with the new cast was quite long. If I had absorbed any nuances, I had forgotten by the time I performed Phanidhar on stage.”
Aahna Kumra, who is currently performing Sarla hasn't watched Sonali Kulkarni as the protagonist. Says she, “I haven't seen Sonali Kulkarni play Sarla at that point of time. I wasn't in Mumbai then. But I know that she and Anurag were fantastic in the play. Everyone who has watched the play with the original cast have always praised the duo. So I am extremely glad that I got to work in the play, in a role, which was played by Sonali. Sonali is a fire-brand performer. Her understanding of her character and as a woman in cinema is quite something. These are the women we have learnt from.”
When asked about their connection with individual characters, Kumra and Dadhich share their thoughts. Kumra says, “I connected with Sarla immediately because all of us have been through something like this. We have been in love with our teachers or an older person, who we look up to. That relationship is not sexual relationship; there is so much admiration for that person that you want to spend your life with him. I share a relationship like that with Makarand sir, with Naseer sir. There is a certain love I get from their end as well. They are all about pushing their students, encouraging them, giving them the right direction and so on. I think that's the relationship Sarla shares with her professor. I think this is a very real-life character. The marriage bit and all is a part of the drama. As an audience, you will identify with all the characters. You will say, 'F*** I have been like this at that point of my life'.”
Dadhich, who has acted in movies like M S Dhoni: The Untold Story and Taare Zameen Par and Netflix's Sacred Games says, “Everyone who has fallen in love, will identify with Phanidhar. Especially, if it's a one-sided love.”
The play also talks about mentorship and both the lead actors profess their admiration for their mentors, the people they look up too. Dadhich had met Makarand after his class XII and wanted a role in play. Makarand asked him to complete his graduation and then meet him. Meanwhile, Dadhich assisted on films, worked on other jobs and when he told Makrand that he was bored of assisting, the theatre veteran asked Dadhich to concentrate on plays. “I am not a trained actor. So whatever I am today is because of Makarand sir. I have been working with him for 15 years and he has given me good roles in good plays. He is very secure actor and so is Aahna. Makarand sir is one of the best actors that we have. He has written about 50 plays, and I think 25 plays can be studied as classics,” adds Dadhich.
Kumra, of Lipstick under my burkha fame, says that Naseer (Shah) Sir, Ratna (Pathak Shah) ma'am and Makarand Deshpande are my three pillars in my adulthood, who have taught me everything that I know. “ They taught me about being disciplined on stage, being alert, how you change things, tune things according to each one's performance, how give and take happens. I have had fever, and I have done performance and I felt absolutely okay. Or it might be freezing outside, but on stage you feel the temperature is normal. These are things that you learn from your mentors. You see them doing this day in and day out, and you realise this is how it's done. I think theatre is very healing.”


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