A few weeks back I went to see a play. Its hard to believe but I really did go; on some insistence from a good friend. The whole concept of theatre seems old and outdated to me so I am not a big fan of plays. Its not that I hate plays or something like that, its just that I don't feel like going to see a play. I must admit though that there are times when I actually think I should go and watch something similar but its few and far between :).
So I and my friend went to watch a play. A third friend was to join us but he got some last minute work and couldn't come. The play was at some auditorium near Mandi House (oh I don't remember the name of the audi). The play was titled Kanjoos. As we bought the tickets I couldn't help but notice that there were few in fact more than few people who had come to see the play. Most of the people were either more than 35 years old and/or looked artistic (men in kurta, long hair/beard; women with jhola type bags). There were a few like me also - you can call them out of place. Seeing the crowd "Duniya mein bewacoofon ki kami nahi hai" came out of my mouth and my friend gave me one of her usual angry looks. Her reply "Nahi dekhni to mat dekho". The play was scheduled to start at 4 PM but didn't start until 4:20 PM. Everything from selling tickets to lighting was managed by the group. I expected the play to start on time but it didn't which convinced me further that this was going to be boring. But kehte hai na "Okhli mein sir de hi diya hai to mooslon se darna kya" - so I went ahead. As I entered the audi and saw the surroundings it reminded me of an old college auditorium. I couldn't believe that it didn't have ac; it had the big fans (baba aadam ke zamane ke) and when the fans were switched on I thought they are going to fall.
Well as the play was about to start my friend assured me for the upteenth time "Its gonna be good" and I gave her the same smile for the nth time. The play finally began. It didn't start off well and so I started looking at other people - mostly to see if there were others getting as bored as I was. I saw a few young couples enjoying (each other's company and not the play); which gave me one reason to watch a play - watch a play when on a date and you get a place where there isn't much crowd and no one disturbs you :P. The play continued meanwhile in the monotonous way and I wondered if anyone was actually enjoying the play; but one never knows what one likes (in other words there was no way of finding out). As the moments went by I found that even my friend wasn't finding the play good.
The play finally ended and it was the best thing to happen to me in the last couple of hours :). As we came out my friend said "This wasn't good. We will go for some other play sometime". An expression of surprise crossed my face. I said "Isse ji nahi bhara? You are asking me for another one" She just smiled and said "Plays are good and next time I will take you to a better play". I didn't say anything and we came out heading to our respective homes.
The play didn't turn out to be good but the entire episode made me notice that there are people who still watch plays and there are people who have theatre as profession. For someone to actually start liking plays the plays need to be much better. And so needs to be the ambience. Cost is a factor but if plays are to be made popular the ambience needs to be better. As for me, well, if plays are like the one I watched I won't be going for any more plays; but if plays are better I might try it out again.
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