CULTURE LAUGHTER WITH A MESSAGE

A play revolves around the chaotic activities that take place in an acting class

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Vickey Prasad, who hails from Buxar, Bihar, started singing from the age of three. He then started writing poetry. In 2001, while in class eight, he felt that he wanted to listen to some new music and started composing his own music and singing. Soon, he was playing the flute and recording his music, though on a Walkman. In 2010, he moved to Delhi to study sound engineering, and two years later, shifted to Mumbai to look for work. Five years down the line his lucky break came in the form of the Akshay Kumarstarrer Toilet: Ek Prem Katha. I think a lot of things worked in harmony. It is surely a combination of hard work, perseverance, a very good mentor, a director having faith in young talent, and luck itself. In August 2016 I was about to visit my home for Raksha Bandhan. For my visit, it was crucial that I got my dues from my previous project. But, that got delayed, and I had to stay back in Mumbai. In October, my mentor, actor Manoj Rajdutt asked me to meet a film director for a potentially big opportunity. Shree sir (Shree Narayan Singh), director of the film, Toilet – Ek Prem Katha, gave me some base lyrics to work with, and that was the beginning of this incredible journey. Right now, it’s important for me that people like the music of Toilet – Ek Prem Katha. Quality matters a lot to me, regardless of the size of the project. ‘Toilet ka jugaad’, ‘Hans mat pagli’ and ‘Bakheda’ have been wellreceived and that gives me motivation. I am already working on another film named Exchange Of Var, and there are a few other projects lined up as well.

Returning to stage after a gap of almost two years, The Class Act is an English comedy play based in an acting classroom where people from different communities of the country come to learn acting. “They are stereotypical at one level, and the exact opposite of what you would expect from that community at another level,” says the writer-director of the play, Meherzad Patel.

Patel, who has directed several popular plays in the past, such as The Relationship Agreement, Fools and Like Dat Only, talks about The Class Act. “You have this very angry Hindu theatre veteran actor, and then you have this loud-mouth 50-year-old Parsi bachelor, who literally I was three when I sang Kishore Kumar’s ‘Chalte chalte’ at a farewell party for a teacher, who gave me ` 5 for the performance. I loved listening to music cassettes. I used to listen to all the latest songs to the extent that I got bored of them. So, one day, I took out my poetry book, and started my first attempt to put music into a poem. I sang the song again and again that day. The next morning, to my dismay, I could not recollect the tune I had composed the day before. I had to do something about this problem. I knew to play the ‘sargam’ on the flute, and started writing my compositions in ‘sargam’ with the help of my flute. That was my first recording apparatus — my poetry book, my flute and a notebook. Getting a project was difficult in Mumbai, and my financial condition did not allow me to continue. I thought I would get any job to sustain myself and then gradually again start pursuing my dream. KFC is where that job was, and with no disrespect to all who work there, the job was not meant for me. I worked eight to nine hours a day facing customers. This was really tough for me. I quit my job and promised myself that every penny I earn, I will earn by the way of doing what I do best – music. I have seen my fair share of ups and downs. In 2013, it was four years since I had met my mother and my family. Two meals a day was a luxury. Even my deposit for the rented house was over. I made a decision to go home for a month, stay with my family and hopefully come back refreshed and ready to begin anew. There is nothing quite like the moral support of your family to boost your confidence. I returned to Mumbai and continued with renewed hits on anything and everything,” he says.

UNITY IN DIVERSITY

Talking about other characters in the play, he adds, “Next, you have this young boy, clean-shaven and innocent; then there is a Muslim boy, who due to his religion, gets victimised in the class. Everyone makes fun of him because of who he is. And then a Christian too, who is this happy-go-lucky man who works with a shack in optimism. Toilet – Ek Prem Katha was a turning point in my life. So, definitely, life has changed for the better. Yes, of course. If I can make it, I see no reason why other talented people can’t do the same. Talent and hard work always find a way. Goa. His name is Victor Rodrick, who is happy by making the extra bit of money every day.” The story takes a twist when Dolly, a very famous television actor, walks into the class. She has got a movie offer for which she has been forced to come to this acting class. The plot of play is that the director of the movie, whom Dolly has never met, is in the class, disguised as one of the students and is observing her. Patel, who is also enacting a character in the play, adds, “The character that I’m playing is of the acting teacher. He is a prim and proper fellow, and that’s where the humour comes from because contradictory to what he is, people around him are all over the place.” Patel jumped in to play the part at the very last minute. Stating the reason, he says, “My character was being played by someone else. In the last minute, he had to pull out for some movie commitment. That’s when we realised it’s not sensible to be ambitious, and try to expand your base or do something which is only good on papers. When you are doing a play and performing to a live audience, you cannot take any risk.”

ACTOR FACTOR

But as there are hardly any auditions happening for theatre actors, how do you select your actors? “Honestly, it’s a matter of loyalty, and it works across the theatre community today as much as people would like to deny it. People would love to say, ‘Oh yes! We are auditioned actors’. In reality, it’s become a situation where the people you have already worked with are the ones who will be there with you through your thick and thin. The actors who have been there in my previous plays are literally an automatic selection into my future plays.”

Surprisingly, five out of the six actors in The Class Act, including Patel, are from the same school. “Actually, three of us from the play were in the same class, and we passed out together in 2003. I trust all

SHOW TIME

Watch the play at the Tata Theatre, NCPA, Nariman Point, on August 27 and on September 10, at 7pm. of them with my life.”

Through this play, Patel’s main aim was to highlight the concept of “unity in diversity” of our country. “Honestly, I did not expect it to be a funny play. Yes, I knew it is comic but never thought it’ll be a laughter riot. I wanted to highlight how there is unity in diversity in our country, which is very important. Whether it’s a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian or a Parsi, everyone has got issues in their life; everyone has got their insecurities, their heated moments of anger where they want to shout at the other person, everyone has got that little bit of mischief in them, and everyone loves being a student at some level, but at the same time they hate being taught.”

The Class Act stars Danesh Irani, Sajeel Parakh, Danesh Khambata, Maanvi Gagroo, Afshad Kelawala and Meherzad Patel.