“Life and death pose several questions. Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.” Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood.
This is the theme of Some Times directed by Akarsh Khurana. It stars Adhir Bhatt, Hussain Dalal and Patrick Graham. The story follows Paramjit Singh aka Pammi who has problems with his competing expectations from his family, boss and his girlfriend and his affinity for weed and alcohol.
The play centres around the societal pressures he faces from his family, boss and his relationship with his girlfriend Shreya. His family wants him to have a steady job and settle down, his boss underappreciates him, and his girlfriend wants intimacy and commitment. These societal pressures also cause him to have a weed and alcohol addiction.
Paramjit is the son of a Mumbai-based Sikh transporter and a doting Punjabi mother, who fusses around him with parathas, marriage proposals, yearning for grandchildren and family wedding talk. The father can't understand why his son won't join the business instead of working for someone else. Paramjit isn't too happy in the mornings with such talk, and he rushes off to work.
At the office, he has to contend with deadlines, a hyperventilating boss and an insecure colleague. At day's end, he chills out with his friends and girlfriend, sharing a heady mix of alcohol and drugs; the girlfriend too has her set of demands.
Paramjit's life is a roller coaster ride, with substance-induced highs and crashing lows.
The next morning, it's the same old story. Snapping at the family, girlfriend and even the boss, leads to a burnout of sorts.
One night, the heady mix still stirring in him, Paramjit vents his anger and frustration on an auto rickshaw driver, because of a disagreement over the fare, which leads to a full blown fight culminating in a tragedy. Death has the young professional realize that he had never really cared to understand and appreciate the sentiments of all those who really loved him.
The play crackles with humour and lines, which have the audience in splits after every few seconds; but towards the end it leaves one tinged with sadness. Young, intelligent and sensitive people are not meant to get frustrated and die from an overdose of stress, where expectations - imagined or otherwise - aspirations, ambitions and unspoken words leave no scope for a fulfilling life. The futility of Paramjit's life and death dawns on the audience towards the latter part of crafted, mature performances by a group of young and talented actors. The performances are exacting, especially Karan Pandit's who shows remarkable intensity in his performance; at the same time, the fast-talking disorder (so true of go-getters) comes naturally to him.
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