Touch & Go!!! Sweating it out for Nostalgia’s sake…
The Ballroom at the Secunderabad
Club. My God, the place has as many memories as it has steps leading up
to them.
For those of us who grew up in the club in the
1960s and 70s, the Ball Room was a place where dances were actually held every
week. And those of us who were interested in acting, the early and mid 70s were
fun days. We were part of the first version of the Secunderabad Club Dramatics
Society (SCADS) which was later revived in 1988 (after the bulk of us
dispersed around the globe).
My first Club play (Not with my
Daughter, I think) was actually put up on the lawns. It had Sanjay
Khanna, I remember. And Hashim Tyabji. And the late Mr. T. Chandrasekhar Reddy
was in charge. Was he President then, or just a Committee Member? He
was so elated with the audience reaction to our play, that he signed off several
bottles of liquor and cartons of cigarettes for us to ‘Cast Party’ in the rocks
of Jubilee Hills.
Then we put up a play with Tarun Dhanrajgir and
Anjali Bhushan (now Ramayya). This was in the mid 1970s. In the 1990s, we put
up a play with Hari Pai, Poornima Rishikesh and others. Then for some strange
reason I stopped directing plays for performance at the club and also stopped
climbing the stairs to the Ballroom.
Health issues in most of the latter part of the
2000s made sure that the Ballroom was out of bounds for me. And even when I kind
of recovered, that venerable stage remained a distant dream.
But today, I was determined. I would attend the
play. My dear friends Aarti and Ranga were involved. And I wanted, so wanted to
see a SCADS production once again.
As I walked in towards the formidable steps, I was
reminded of a friend who had once commented that the club made him feel that he
was in an old colonial environment and he half expected a Brit to jump out of
the trees, and pull him up for the way he had knotted his tie…or not.
The Club does have that sense, that feel. Even I
who have grown up in its portals, felt it today. There was a distinct ‘Burra
Sahib’ feel to the whole evening. And it was not because it was insanely
hot.
While the stage had been done up to look
contemporary and the light fittings helped, as did the floor mikes and so on,
the Ball Room itself remained the quaint old place. With the wooden doors and
windows. With the large French Windows, and the huge balcony.
Even the fans looked like they had been installed
before the Second World War. And they were swinging widely.
I felt that I had entered another
century.
So perhaps it was fitting that the play
‘Touch & Go’ was from an ancient genre.
So reminiscent of the Bedroom Comedies and Farces made so popular by Dramatic
Circle Hyderabad in the 80s and 90s, the play was a hilarious set of
moves.
Actors came on stage, were surprised to be there,
were surprised to be found and even more surprised when solutions were being
offered. Lies led to more lies. And the play was all about an entrapment of
words.
Of the actors, all of them who were good, two
deserve special mention.
Avinash Matta as George. As the
man who’s de-trousered in the play. As the helpful friend who lends his flat and
covers up the indiscretion with an embarrassment of lies. Avinash reminded me of
a young Ranga (maybe because of the beard and role). Except that he did not have
Ranga’s clipped brit accent. But his body motion was vintage stuff.
Aarti Karmakar as Jessica was a
case of an actress refined. Everything from Line Delivery to Stage Movement had
evolved. There was maturity yes, but more importantly there was pleasure and
ease. Especially her last line, when she twinkled amazingly on
stage…wow!
But I must be fair. I lived the experience of
being in the Ball Room after a decade or so…more than I enjoyed the play. In
spite of the sweat, the intense heat and the discomfort, I slipped back in time
and into the comfort of memories. I mean there WAS a time when we used to run up
and down the stairs…
There was a time when we used to shout for bearers
from the rooftop and arrange for snacks and drinks to be served in the privacy
of the terrace. There was a time when the Ball Room and its surrounds were host
to a young, ‘in-hiding’ band of smokers. There was a time when young love often
blossomed in the heights of the high ceilinged hall.
But all said and done, SCADS would do well to plan
winter productions. Any performance, good, bad or ugly, deserves to be seen in
comfort. Then and only then can an audience genuinely react to the performance.
Last night people were fighting for a spot under the fans…at the cost of
ignoring the performance of the people under the lights.
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