Recently, a play was so well-received that the entire Pink City talked about it and was literally in splits even after it was over. We are talking about ‘Bechari Amrita’, the Hindi adaptation of the renowned English comic play, Blithe Spirit.

The play was such a hit that it ran four shows in Jaipur and one in Bikaner and will soon come up with its Season Two.

Bechari Amrita was adapted in Hindi and directed by Saurabh Srivastava. The play revolves around a writer, Sanjeev Chaudhary (Saurabh Srivastava), who invites a tantric, Madhu Malti (Neekee Chaturvedi), to his house to conduct a séance. The séance is conducted in the hope that Saurabh gets some inspiration for his next novel. However, the scheme backfires when he is haunted by the ghost of his annoying and temperamental first wife, Amrita (Surbhi Mathur) who died seven years ago. Amrita then attempts to disrupt his second marriage with wife, Ritu (Susmita Srivastava), who cannot see or hear the ghost.

The other characters involve, the household help Pushpa, played by Chaarvi Puri, and couple-friends of Sanjeev and Ritu, Mrs and Mr Gupta, enacted by Nishtha Puri and Shashi Karan.

JWB met the women of the play at the cultural hub of the city, Jawahar Kala Kendra, where they also hosted one of their shows. Along with the actresses of the play, Ishani Srivastava, the sound designer and coordinator for the play also joined us.

The conversation had just started, and I could see Neekee and Chaarvi sharing some inside joke and laughing hysterically. I couldn’t stop myself and asked, “Share your little joke with all of us, too.”

Neekee said, “So, there was a dialogue by Mr. Gupta, ‘I am deeply interested,’ and he had to dramatically say it with hand gestures. Chaarvi, however, did it like dhak- dhak of Madhuri, and so, whenever Shashi Karan aka Mr Gupta said this dialogue, all of us went crazy ad it became so difficult for all of us to contain our laughter when performing in front of the audience.”

Yeah, like this!

Me: Now, I am deeply interested *everyone laughs* to know other backstage and rehearsal secrets.

Nishtha: We all had a great time rehearsing for the play. We all have jobs and used to meet after our office hours. The rehearsal time was 6:30 to 9:30 and in these three hours, we used to forget all our problems and fully immersed ourselves in our characters.

Neekee: Of course, our director, Saurabh, was fed up with all of us as we used to question him so much and cracked jokes and laughed incessantly.*giggles*

Ishani: And also, Chaarvi is dead scared of Lizards. So, we used to pull her leg a lot, on that.

BTW, during our chat, I got to know that Nishtha, Chaarvi, and Surbhi were acting in a play for the first time.

Wow!

Me: Susmita, as you have been doing theatre and plays for a long time now, do you think women are being stereotyped here also, like in Bollywood?

Susmita: Absolutely not! Theatre is not driven by money like commercial cinema but purely by talent. Theatre is about free expression of the community. See, as there’s no or little money involved in it, it gives the actors, directors, and writers, greater freedom to be creative. Theatre is only about the passion of people like us who want to express ourselves and the stories we believe in through a live medium.

Me: Because it’s a live medium, mistakes are bound to happen, right? So, how do you all deal with that?

Surbhi: In plays, actors have to be spontaneous.

Susmita: The art of acting in a play is not just about delivering your dialogues, but, to be aware what is happening around. Even if one person makes the mistake, others have to find quickly a way to cover it up.

Neekee: I have also worked in several plays and have seen a lot of plays, something or the other goes wrong with almost every play. So, it’s just how you manage it.

Me: So, tell us about the funny incidents and things that went wrong during ‘Bechari Amrita.’

Neekee: One time, Saurabh stood up from the chair, and the chair fell. In an instant, I just reached out and said, “Sanjeev ji aap theek toh hai, laiye mai madad kar du apki,” and just placed the chair back. People thought it’s a part of the play. So, like others said, spontaneity is the key.

Nishtha: Once, the stage went dark after the completion of a scene, and we were about to take positions, but, the light man focused the lights on the stage at the wrong time. There was nothing we could do, so we just enacted like we were doing something, and quickly took our positions.

Interestingly, there were no tickets for Bechari Amrita and it was on the first-come-first-serve basis. Susmita explained the reason for it,

“Right now, Jaipur has no self-sustaining theatre regarding money. Through plays like ‘Bechari Amrita,’ we are trying to build a market for the theatre. We want to put forth top quality plays which the audience will enjoy. Only, after creating a strong base of people who love to watch plays, can we ensure a ticket- based audience.”

“The only thing I feel should be taken into consideration is the hall charges we have to pay for hosting a free-for-all play. I want the administrators of the halls to support our cause. We are trying to build a sustainable market for theatre, which in future will benefit the entire community. So, it irks me when we are charged a hefty fee for staging the play,” she added.

The beautiful evening with the charming actresses came to an end, and soon, it started to drizzle hinting of the much-awaited rain showers.

P.S.- Are you excited for the next season of ‘Bechari Amrita?’ I know I am!

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