Bedi & the Massage: A 10-yr-long happy journey

It takes effort to play all the 24 characters in a play and keep an audience spellbound for two hours. Yet, actor Rakesh Bedi has managed to do this effortlessly for the past 10 years in the two-act monologue Massage. The Hindi play, directed by Harbansh Singh, was originally written in Marathi by playwright Vijay Tendulkar. Massage is the story of an aspiring actor, Happy Kumar, who finds his true calling as a masseur. His experiences of meeting different clients, each with their own idiosyncrasies, is what holds the play. Bedi has performed nearly 125 shows across the world. In an interview to dna, he reveals his journey. 

You have been doing this play for 10 years. How have you managed to  keep your enthusiasm going?
For an actor, every show is different. Each experience is unique because the audience is not the same. Wherever I’ve staged this play, I’ve got different reactions. There are times when people do not react at all. But that’s what this medium is all about. The reaction differs from city to city. Every city has its own sensibilities. Mumbaikars are not a conservative lot and are not known to exercise restraint at home, no matter what they discuss. But in smaller cities, men and women do not talk that freely. A certain decorum is maintained where interaction with elders is concerned. So if the culture is different, the range of receptivity can’t be the same. So we make subtle changes, keeping in mind the venue.

What changes did you make to adapt to the sensibilities of different cities?
There’s a scene where the heroine’s mother almost rapes the protagonist (Happy Kumar) in a dark room. Now, if it’s shown in a small city, it’s natural that people may have some inhibitions. Then there is another scene where the masseur gives a massage to Mr Kohli’s wife. That may not go down well with a Marwari audience. So I’ve to be spontaneous. While performing I gauge their reaction. If I feel the audience is young and are lapping up each sentence, I just go with the flow.

Do you keep the latest issues in mind when introducing ideas in the play?
Absolutely. A few years back, I was doing a show in Guwahati days after a girl was molested there. In the play, there were two to three references to rape. There is a scene where some strangers make advances towards the girl. While performing the play in Guwahati, I got an idea that I must intervene and save her. So I added my bit. I make the goons believe that I am a policeman in plainclothes, and succeed in rescuing her. Deep within, I wished that someone had done the same and saved the girl.

While breathing life into imaginary characters, do you also borrow ideas from people you meet?
Of course. For instance, Pandey’s character (the minister’s secretary) was derived from a sabjiwala who would come to my lane when I was a kid. He would shout so much that his voice would become gruff. We barely understood what he spoke. We would know he had arrived only by his sound, certainly not by his words.

What’s the best compliment you have received for the play?
Around two weeks back, my elder daughter went to a beauty parlour at Pali Hill. A customer there, on knowing that she was my daughter, mentioned that she watched Massage thrice in New Jersey. She even listed out all the characters.

In the version I watched 10 years ago, Happy Kumar’s wife abandons him but it isn’t mentioned why. This has changed in your recent shows.
I had staged the play for a group of ladies at the Russian Centre of Science ad Culture at Peddar Road. After the staging, 400 women surrounded me and wanted to know why Happy’s wife left him when he had supported her in the worst of times. They felt we were not presenting the women in the right perspective. I told Vijay Tendulkar saheb about it. He asked me my thoughts. I felt we should give it a small explanation so we introduced a letter which wasn’t there in the original script. It established her in a new light — her karma had caught up and she did not want her past to ruin her husband’s life.