Hanging upside down from a tamarind tree is a healthy exercise which might also help in seeing the ways of the world as they actually are.

(An observation from “Where there’s a will”)

The Dramatics Cell at IIM Calcutta staged its showcase play “Where there is a Will“, its third of the season. Following the success of the first two plays “Udhaar ka Pati” and “The Importance of being Earnest”, the audience had huge expectations from this play. It would be apt to say that they were met and in style. This play, which also happens to be the first play penned down by noted playwright Mahesh Dattani, was about Hansmukh Mehta – rags-to-riches businessman and patriarch, his wife Sonal, son Ajit, daughter-in-law Preeti and mistress Kiran Jhaveri!

The play turned out to be a dark comedy with deep undercurrents of humour which kept the audience bound to their seats till the end. Set in a typical Indian setting of a joint family, the play was based on the promise of a will that kept a business tycoon and his family together. As it turned out, the cleverly designed contents of the will brought his wife and his mistress together after his death and held the troubled family close. The presence of the ghost of the dead Mr. Hansmukh Mehta added moments of brilliant humour and subtle observations to the play which expertly dealt with the shades of the relationships that he had forged with his late father, son, wife and mistress.

Akhil Mohan Gupta excelled in his role as the patriarch and had the audience in splits with his comic timing. Portraying the role of a confused son, trying to carve out a way of living for himself Aayush Shrivastav did dramatic justice both to the shades of black and white in his character. The initial part of the play was livened up by the father-son interactions and the chemistry in-between them. However the second half of the play saw the arrival of the mistress to the traditional Mehta house. It was here that Vaishali Aggarwal and Radha Ladkani, as the wife and the mistress added an in-depth understanding of relations to the story. While Vaishali displayed fine nuances of her acting both in comedy and in tragedy, Radha added dazzle and grit to the story. The sly, conniving couple of Hansmukh Mehta’s daughter-in-law Preeti and her old friend Deepak was aptly played by Shikha Tomar and Naresh Krishnaswamy.

The fine blend of music and lights made it a delightful evening for the connoisseurs as well as the commoners and much of it could be attributed to the brilliant pair of directors, Shehzad Kazi and S. Srinath and the music director Archish. The sets were innovative and the unusual setting of rooms without any physically visible walls was displayed to perfection. The Dramatics cell at IIM Calcutta has a long history of staging world class plays and with a legacy of successful plays like Sartre’s “Keane” and Shankar Shesh’s “Ek Aur Dronacharya”, this evening added more glory to Dramatics cell’s history.

Shashank Kumar
~Yet Another Drams Cell Member