Holi, the performance..

2^nd of March, 2011. Reporting time was 10 am at Prithvi. We had packed up by 11.30pm the previous night so we had enough time to rest and get back. However, I don’t think many of us slept well. Like Nikhil told us the next day, he kept waking up every 15 minutes to see if it was time to go yet.

I picked up Bhardwaj and reached Prithvi by 10.30am. The Prithvi café was as pleasant as it is on other mornings. No crowd, no noise, just Prithvi and us and the lovely morning. There had been several times when I had reached Prithvi early in the morning with nobody else having arrived. I loved to just sit in the café and look at all the posters of classic plays on display. It is the ideal time and place for creative thoughts! This time, Anuj and some others were already there. Soon after we reached, we began with all the pre-performance work – arranging the props, setting up the stage and the set, helping Anmol who was to do the lights. This is when I rushed to a shop nearby to get an eraser and photo copies of the light design for Anmol.  I was surprised when I saw Sanjay Khan with his grandson in the shop buying a huge blue-coloured toy car! The kid looked just like his parents Hrithik and Suzaane – very cute and adorable! Anyway, so I bought the eraser and rushed back to Anmol, then continued with the rest of the production work and before we realized, it was post lunch time and nobody had eaten a thing since morning. People were hungry but there was no time. Also, the anxiety had taken over the hunger as it was getting close to performance time!

We spent a considerable amount of time placing the props where Anuj needed. There was a whole lot of crap in our set – drums, dry leaves, old sacks, benches, and several other stuff we picked up from the streets and the rehearsal space. We also had to use all of this to set up the tapri in one part of the stage. All of this with and Quasar and Anmol crying foul for not giving them the stage for lighting yet! So we quickly helped them with the lighting cues and just when we thought we’ll get some time to grab a bite, it was time for the first bell! Now, usually first bell means we have another 15 minutes to go on stage and begin performing. But in Holi, we begin performing right from the first bell. So Sohail and me did not get to even go to the loo. We rushed to our respective positions where I had to start laughing and Sohail had to start brushing his teeth(as part of our performance that is). And then rang the first bell…and in came the audiences – most of whom were my friends!!!

I started laughing my lungs out…was not difficult as I kept seeing some friend or the other of mine staring at me wondering what I am doing and that made me laugh further. On third bell, I ran to change my costume and take my position for the beginning of the play. After that, nothing was in anybody’s control..the performance had started..I wasn’t feeling anything that I felt before the beginning of the show..The character of Basant and mood of the scenes took over everything!!

Everything went well till the scene that shows a rift between Basant and Pandey (played by a certain terrific actor named Amol Parashar). The rift led to a collapse of the tapri..the tapri we took almost two hours to set up! However, Nimesh who played the tapriwaala and Anuj covered it up brilliantly with their performance! There was a line goof-up in the last scene of the play due to which things dragged a bit but the actors improvised and brought about the effect that was required. By the end of the show, everyone knew that there were goof-ups but it was still a satisfying performance. The 9pm show could only get better!

 I met my friends after the show – 62 of them! They had loved it and appreciated my performance. However, as it always happens with me, they liked other actors better! The winners were – Nikhil Pandey a.k.a. Srivastav and Rajat Sharma a.k.a. Ranjeet for their cuteness…and Abhishek Bhardwaj a.k.a. Gopal for his performance! They also appreciated Amol, Mayur and Nimesh for their respective performances! And it goes without saying that Anuj got not just the sympathy votes but also the credit for pulling off such a beautiful performance in addition to directing the play. There wasn’t much time to socialize as we had to get ready for the 9 pm show. The tapri had to be reconstructed..Oh dear!! What a task that was!! So we all rushed back and got at it…Quote amazingly, the tapri was ready in no time..we had a little pep-up by Quasar and Anuj and we were all ready for the 9 pm show!

Once again, I was back at the starting position and the laughing began. My closest friends and their families were coming for the 9 pm show so this one was special too. I had asked Dad not to attend these shows because of the nature of content in the play. I wouldn’t have been comfortable performing it before him..not yet!!:) But everybody else was there and once again, I was nervous. However, the show started and took away all of the fright! This show, in my view, was much better than the 6pm one! We were more confident, the tapri didn’t fall, no one forgot lines, the audience laughed at all of my jokes..Wow!! I couldn’t have asked for more!! Everyone was happy after the show – the actors, the director, the band, Anmol. The audience was not really HAPPY but I would like to believe that they felt what we wanted them to feel.

By the end of all this, I felt really proud of Anuj. He deserved every bit of the acclaim he was getting. His direction, execution, acting were all spot on! He got beaten up to an extent one can’t imagine..but he was smiling and laughing at the end of it all..because I think it went exactly as he wanted! Anmol did a brilliant job at lights considering he was not given a technical run-through with the actors! And how can we forget the BAND?!?!?

They played, they acted, they conquered everybody’s hearts!! People have been asking me for the songs since the day of the play! Arjun has his own female fan- following…Dimitris (don’t know how to spell his name) seems to be the new cute-kid on the block!! Nidhi was her usual best. A friend of mine said to me – “Woh ladki koi bohot badi actor hai kya?? That girl looks like a brilliant actor, I am sure she does much more in other plays.” Considering the length of her role, this is commendable!

 As for me, I was on cloud 9 when while packing up, Quasar said that these shows were dedicated to me..he acknowledged that I had auditioned for 4 Thespo plays and finally got to perform in one! I was really happy to know that Quasar actually knew me by my name and that he remembered that I had performed in those 4 plays! I also felt a bit sad that I wasn’t being appreciated as much as some of the others..but then I thought – it’s a part of every actor’s life. There will always be senior actors who will be appreciated more. There will be performances that will overshadow mine. I just need to try and do the best I can in my role and make sure every performance is better than the previous one. It is that graph that will lead me to the actor I want to be! I won’t deny that the greed to be the best and get the best remarks, the best comments, the biggest fan following still exists in me. However, I would like to believe that it’s human and if I really want all of that so badly, I will get them some day! And it’s not that I got nothing!! My office friends gave me a lot of compliments; my best friends messaged me appreciating my work and my courage to pursue my dream! I haven’t heard from Anuj about my performance yet but I think he might have liked it this time round! 🙂 All of these are enough to keep me going for a while..

Till the next one then..

Love