Films remain his first love, but theatre has begun to entice Khalid Mohamed, a self-confessed workaholic, whose first play Kennedy Bridge, produced by Ashvin Gidwani Productions, hits the stage this weekend
Films remain his first love, but theatre has begun to entice Khalid Mohamed, a self-confessed workaholic, whose first play Kennedy Bridge, produced by Ashvin Gidwani Productions, hits the stage this weekend
Even as I ask him if Kennedy Bridge ufffd Where Emotions Dare is autobiographical, journalist-screenwriter-
film director and now, playwright-theatre director Khalid Mohamed simply nods. 
Tawaif ke adab: Richa Chadda plays the role of Shehzadi, the courtesan
in Khalid Mohamed's first theatrical production, Kennedy Bridge, to be
staged in the city on Sunday and later this week. Chadda, who acted as
Dolly in Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! besides other theatre productions, got a
call from Mohamed a year ago, to act in his play. "Shehzadi witnesses
the culture of a country that has just come into form, changing. Not only
was it a challenge to go from 18 to 50 years in two hours, it was also
emotionally draining. Getting into the skin of a courtesan required
constant self-imagining," says Chadda.
The immediate question that follows then is, is Rizu (a character from Mammo and Zubeida) back? He smiles, "Rizu, or Riyaz, a character in Shyam Benegal's films, was inspired from incidents in my life. As is Kennedy Bridge, but I have changed the name and called him Jehan. The names are smokescreens. If I gave the character my own name, it would sound pompous."
The first-time director, whose play will be staged at the National Centre for Performing Arts in Nariman Point, and St Andrew's Auditorium, Bandra, today, and later this week, has collaborated with artist Chintan Upadhyay (who has worked on the backdrops), composer Himesh Reshammiya (who has composed a mujra for the play) and fashion designer James Ferreira, among others, for his first theatrical production.
While Nida Fazli's Urdu poetry finds its way into his script, Mohamed points out that his best work has evolved from his own life stories. Sounding suspiciously like Bapsi Sidhwa's Lenny Baby from Ice Candy Man, Mohamed tells us the play harks back to a time when he'd watch the goings-on in Kennedy Bridge, a South Mumbai neighbourhood, from a playground, while the family driver met his lover nearby.
"These are stories from within me. Some of my personality echoes in everything I write but it's not reality to the dot. I have taken a bit of creative license but there is nothing false in the play," he says.
Like every first-time playwright, the 'Bollywood child' finds it difficult to spell out a synopsis for his play.
Eventually, using filmy jargon, he shares, "If I have to summarise it in one line, it's a love story between an eight year-old boy and a 20 year-old courtesan. The story is viewed in three different stages of their lifeu00a0-- when he's eight and falls in love with her, when he's 14 and she gets married, and when he's 35 and he finds her again."
We've seen characters based on Mohamed, played by Rajit Kapur, in Mammo and Zubeida. However, in both films, the focus was on other people in his life. With Manav Gohil's Jehan, the audience will get a clearer view of Mohamed's own personality, as the boy (and later, man) is the narrator of the play.
"The boy, who I've modelled on myself, narrates the story. It's only in the last portion, when he goes to meet the courtesan that he actively participates in the play."
Kennedy Bridge, however, is not just Mohamed's story. It also traces the decline of the glorious kothas that the area was famous for during the British Raj. The play spans four decades and the story begins in 1959, when the kothas still retained much of their former glory. It then charts the cultural and social disintegration that set in.
By 2000, when the story ends, the kothas have been replaced by beer bars, theu00a0 tawaifs, by disadvantaged prostitutes. "I can't tells stories that are aimless. I explore larger issues including women's empowerment through the course of the play. I'm also trying to trace the fading kotha culture. The tawaifs and their adab (manners) turning into beer bars," says Mohamed.
If he is nervous about the premiere, he doesn't admit it. "I don't know if I'll sell. In the zero show, I saw a lot of people crying because it's quite emotional. I don't want to raise any expectations. The play has humour but it's not something predictable. Aap dekhiye..."
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At: Tata Theatre, NCPA, August 14, 15 and 21 at 6.30 pm; St Andrews, Bandra, August 20 at 7.30 pm.u00a0
Call: NCPA on 22824567; St Andrews on 26459667
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