THEATRE: LI LETTE DUBEY
The most charming story in actressturned- author Twinkle Khanna’s bestselling The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad centres on two widowed sisters, Noni and Binni, in Mumbai. Along with captivating readers, Khanna’s warmth and wit appealed to actress and theatre director Lillette Dubey, who approached Khanna to adapt the story for the stage late last year.
“Twinkle has this very wry sense of humour which I love,” says Dubey, who plays elder sister Noni in Salaam Noni Appa, which premiered on October 28. “She has a lovely, sharp gaze at the minutiae of life. I love that nothing dramatic or earth- shattering happens here.”
The story also resonated with Dubey because it paralleled her own life. Dubey lost her husband two- and- a- half years ago. She’s close to her sister, Lushin, who is also a stage actor and director. And like Khanna’s characters, she has independent children. “It must have been a subliminal thing,” says Dubey. “The idea that life is full of infinite possibilities, that it can surprise you, so be open to it, should appeal to anybody. It also talks about how much we are constantly living for other people and caught up in perceptions of society.”
For Dubey, the production continues her theatre company’s ( Primetime’s) mantra to bring Indian writing to stage. “I try not to do the usual suspects,” says Dubey, whose productions include works by Mahesh Elkunchwar, Mahesh Dattani and Girish Karnad. “In fact, I walk a much pricklier path, because these are not Broad way hits or have won a slew of awards. My point is, if we don’t tell our stories, who will?”
To adapt it, Dubey roped in Adhir Bhat, the META award- winning writer of Dhumrapaan, to bring a young, male perspective to a story about the elderly. “I wanted someone with a good sense of comedy. He has a different style from Twinkle, his humour is a little more out there.”
After a five- city national tour, Dubey hopes to take the play, which also stars Jayati Bhatia as the younger sister Binni and Darshan Jariwala as the Gujarati yoga instructor, Anandji, abroad. “I want to see how people respond to Indian material... it’s very Indian in spirit but like Monsoon Wedding transcends its cultural context.”