“EK TAMASHA” in knots.." Subhash Gupta

Last Sunday on 21st April, on First Anniversary of Nirtya Fourm’s new found Nirtya Theatre Ensemble presented “EK TAMASHA” a  Deccani play written and directed by Amaan Ahmad in its premises. Amaan had earlier put up in February at the same venue a dark, philosophical English play ”Skepticism”.

Ek Tamasha is set in Hyderabad in the 1990s and revolves around a group of medical students. 

The major drama of the play revolves around Chandulal, who loves Chindi Leela. However, Chindi Leela loves Romeo, and there are various twists and turns among them all. 

Mirza Gulab is a poet who’s known for incessantly reciting middle-of-the-road poetry. Chandulal loves his poetry, or pretends to love it, but Shivanna, a wannabe gangster-medical student, always questions Mirza’s poetry. 

A scene from Ek Tamasha

Chandu’s father is a butcher and his mother is always irritated. 

Chandu decides that he’s going to marry Leela, and declares their marriage without asking her consent. When Leela confronts him, Chandu says that he had thought that she loved him because she had talked to him a few times with a smile. Chamki, Leela’s friend, takes her side and defends her. Chamki is Shiva’s love interest, but Chamki doesn’t love Shiva either. 

In the end, it is revealed that Romeo neither loves Leela nor Chamki, but Mirza Gulab. 

One expected another master piece from Amaan but it was a run-of-the-mill kind of a play which was further marred by overacting by most of the characters. Whether Amaan kept it deliberately or not but it seem that the actors went out of his control.

Honey Singh as Shivanna, a wannabe gangster-medical student and Bob Christo as Mirza Gulab (LGBTQ+ type character) had no reins to stop them. At times their dialogues were even lost. Kedar Subhedar as Chandulal when not with them in the scene was better. Vinaya Sharadha as Chamki and Roushna Zai as Chindi Leela performed their roles with understanding. Ayaz Pasha as Chaiwala and Romeo, though he is a good actor, would have been much better if he had restrained himself a bit while acting particularly as Romeo. The surprise of the evening was Neha Jain who essayed the role of Amma as an irritated mother of a young boy.  The highlight of her dialogues was “nakko maroji bacche ku, abhi khanna bhi nahi khaya”.

Lights & Sound were controlled by Kumresh Taxi.

Though the audiences enjoyed the play, it could have been much better with controlled acting. Amaan, expectations are high from you after “Skepticism”.

Something about the Reviewer: #Subhash Gupta is a veteran Stage, TV and Radio Artist. He started his drama journey in 1967 in Delhi and has performed in many films, serials and over 500 theater performances. He had been honored by Delhi Natya Sangh on World Theatre Day for his contribution to meaningful theatre. He has directed several plays in Delhi & Hyderabad and has worked with many a legendary actors.