In conversation with the cast of Shabana Azmi’s new play 'Happy Birthday Sunita'

Shabana Azmi’s Tejpal Joha is in for an awkward evening. She’s been toiling all day to prepare for her daughter Sunita’s (Clara Indrani) 40th birthday. But just when the balloons are in place, the champagne is in order and the food is done right, Sunita is nowhere to be found. Worse, Sunita’s sister-in-law Harleen (Goldy Notay) has forgotten to tell her husband Nav (Ameet Chana) to pick up the birthday cake, and the shop has now shut for the day.

The introvert Sunita, unknown to the whole family, has quietly gone upstairs to her room. This is going to be an evening of uncomfortable revelations. “There comes a point when Tejpal decides she’s had enough. She’s cooked and cared for the family her entire life, and has been no one but a mother,” says Shabana of her motherly, affable onstage character. “She decides to be her own person, in turn acting as a catalyst for the family to drop their pretense and follow their own dreams.”
Shabana’s newest stage production Happy Birthday, Sunita finally comes to India after a prolonged tour of UK, Australia and Dubai. Staged at Mumbai’s National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) as part of the Experimental Theatre and Centerstage Festival and in Delhi at the India Habitat Centre (IHC) this week, the play has opened to packed auditoriums.

Directed by Pravesh Kumar of Rifco Arts, which produced the popular musical Britain’s Got Bhangra, and written by Harvey Virdi, who acted in the wildly popular Bend It Like Beckham, the play was inspired by Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party. Virdi talks of her immigrant mother and her group of friends who sound excited at the prospect of going to a new cafe downtown and wonders: “What would these ladies say if one of their group formed a ‘special’ friendship? What would happen if one of them stood up and challenged society, challenged her family and dared to follow her heart? We wanted to flesh the characters from people like them.”

Scenes from the play

Pravesh, who wanted to equate his ‘chicken tikka masala generation’ with his parents, held workshops with actors to come out with the story-line and the characters. “I have known Shabana for a while, and had discussed a feature film project with her that never took off. But I did not have the courage to ask her to be a part of the play because she would have to be away from home for a long time,” says Pravesh.

Shabana, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy exactly that. “I mean, I had my apprehensions. I had to be on my own in a two-bedroom flat and fend for myself. I am the kind who has no idea what is inside the fridge. But I enjoyed making my way to the malls, buying my own food and travelling in the tube,” she says.
For a stage production, the kind and number of viewers that turned up for the play in UK was unprecedented. “I think Rifco’s biggest contribution was that it attracted an audience used to the usual Bollywood fare. By keeping the tickets cheap and telling the stories in the way he chose to, Pravesh has got in a new audience,” says Shabana.
The veteran actor says she would recommend him to everyone in Bollywood. “I hardly go wrong with directors,” she laughs.

The play also has racial undercurrents as portrayed by the builder’s character Maurice (Russell Floyd). He’s taken by Tejpal and yet lets out words like “your people”, a faint reminder of the difficulties of the British Asian community.
As the curtain comes down, ‘Tum Jiyo Hazaaron Sal’ from the Jitendra-starrer Farz plays in the background, a song after which the play is named.