Deepa Gahlot: Until stress do us part

A major bugbear of urban living mdash stress mdash has found itself into a play A new Marathi production Donrsquot Worry Be Happy written by Mihir Rajda and directed by Adwait Dadarkar is packing them in because it reflects the lives of young working couples in Mumbai And who hasnrsquot experienced the ravages of stressUsually plays or films portray marriages cracking up under the strain of infidelity violence financial worries inlaws in this play the loving couple Akshay Umesh Kamat and Pranati Spruha Joshi are afflicted by stress Both have demanding jobs mdash he in a marketing company she as a creative director of a daily TV soap They have been so busy that three years into the marriage they havenrsquot been able to go on a honeymoon One of the reasons is lack of time and another is that Pranati canrsquot bear to leave behind her pet dog SnuffScenes from a marriage In Donrsquot Worry Be Happy the loving couple Akshay Umesh Kamat and Pranati Spruha Joshi are afflicted by stress They have been so busy that 3 years into the marriage they havenrsquot been able to go on a honeymoonAs the play opens Akshay is packing for that long delayed trip mdash both have managed leave from their places of work with some difficulty and Snuff has been given away to a dog lover so they are assured of its well being The dog has been the cause of some strife mdash Pranati insists on vegetarian health food for themselves while the pampered dog gets to eat chicken All this is confided to an omnipresent friend Chintan played by the writerStill there doesnrsquot seem to be any indication of trouble when Pranati announces after a visit to the gynaecologist that she has been diagnosed with polycystic ovarian disease PCOD which requires treatment and a pregnancy as soon as possible if she is to ever have a childThe pressure of conceiving to a lsquodeadlinersquo takes its toll on them and Pranati blurts out that her ailment is caused by stress and that he is the cause of itIt is generally accepted that marriage required a degree of adjustment or compromise mdash when a couple lives away from the buffeting of an extended family even seemingly tiny problems can implode Pranati has insisted on living apart from her inlaws but when problems arise there is nobody to advise calm except Chintan who because of his unmarried status is not the best person for the job of counseller Also it is rather rare in Mumbai to have the kind of friend who has the time to listen to rants try to solve problems and hand over his ATM cardPranatirsquos rage has been simmering and it boils over with searing bitterness Akshayrsquos reconnecting with an old flame his online flirtation his untidiness and the worst mdash he does not share her love for Snuff He has explanations for it all mdash and this part is quite funny mdash but Pranati is not to be placated easily and demands a separation Akshayrsquos life starts falling apart in other ways and he has to deal with terrible stress too which he accuses her of causing by constantly waving the feminist flag This is reminiscent of the Aziz Mirza film Chalte Chalte where a wet towel flung on to a bed is the final straw in a marriage that has little resentments building up to a volcanoThe act of falling out of love is painful and only the couple going though it can decide the level of heartbreak Incidentally another recent Marathi play Samudra again starring Spruha Joshi with Chinmay Mandlekar writerdirector too was also about a troubled marriage the problems escalated by the wifersquos confession of a past affair Yet another twohander Gujarati play Blackout written by Sneha Desai directed by Dhiraj Palshetkar was also about the strain in a marriage caused mainly by the inability to communicate It went on to be a big hit which perhaps shows that todayrsquos audiences do not necessarily believe in lsquohappily ever afterrsquo endingsDonrsquot Worry Be Happy is not able to carry this cleareyed contemporary scenario to the very end and brings everything built up till then down with a Bollywoodian thud Maybe commercial considerations came in the way maybe they didnrsquot want to shatter romantic illusions completely Still theatre is reflecting a reality that is all around us Marriage is no longer the emotional cocoon that everybody believes or expects it to be and the breakup of a relationship maybe distressing but not necessarily cataclysmic For the stronger partner it might even provide a sense of liberation with more options available to spend that freedom from marital bonds Hindi films are still caught up in the walking into the sunset kind of conclusion to romance and rarely entertain the idea of love not culminating in marriage or that marriage not being successful even though urban Indian society has moved away from Valentinersquos Day clicheacutesDeepa Gahlot is an awardwinning film and theatre critic and an arts administrator She tweets at deepagahlot