If you're a 70s Bollywood buff, we suggest you head to the Mahim Junction. Well that's the name of Suhaila Kapur's new play that will be running today at the NCPA.
If you're a 70s Bollywood buff, we suggest you head to the Mahim Junction. Well that's the name of Suhaila Kapur's new play that will be running today at the NCPA.
Having wowed audiences in the UK, Dubai, Muscat and inparts of India, the play is all set to bring the glitz, glamour and issues of the 70s back to the stage. CS talks to Suhaila to know more: 
No issues!
This play emulates the retro Bollywood films and touches upon some of the issues that they dealt with like communalism, politics etc. It is sad that contemporary cinema doesn't think that they're important enough to be highlighted. The rural angst has been replaced by the urban woes.
Role play
I'm a complete 70s and 80s buff having grown up watching films of that era. In fact I was always very fascinated by the film industry. My mother would bring my brother Shekhar (Kapur) and me to Mumbai on holidays and I would frequent the sets of my uncle's (Dev Anand) films and be left awestruck by what I saw. Once when I was at my uncle's place, I saw a bottle of Brute that I sprayed on my hand. That was the perfume that most stars of that age wore and I was so thrilled to have it on me that I refused to wash my hands for two days. It was my fantasy world and my connection with all the glamour that I saw around me. I would have loved to be a part of Bollywood, but my family was all against the idea since good girls never joined films. I found the next best thing and started writing scripts, acting in plays and directing them.
Telly talk
Frankly, when parallel cinema existed in the 70s, audiences just about tolerated it. By the 80s it was dead with the advent of television. But, the ironic part is that when TV started with all the saas-bahu soaps, it took off from where cinema had left, emulating the films of the 60s and 70s. And I find it interesting to note that modern TV is now going back to rural plots with shows. The actors might still go to bed with jewellery on, but if you ignore all that, you'll find that they do justice to rural issues. And it's heartening to note that there's an audience for such shows just like there's an audience for plays like Mahim Junction. We're gearing up to perform in China next.
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