Mahesh Bhatt and daughter Pooja will take the stage in February this year and share thoughts through letters written to one another that will be read aloud.
The theatre production by the Bhatts sees them co-producing with actor Imran Zahid, who explains, “In our theatre piece, Mahesh Bhatt reads out excerpts from five letters he wrote for his daughter. A letter from each decade from 1970 to 2017. A letter for Pooja’s birth, her first heartbreak, for her first film’s release and for her first stint as a film maker. In short, we have letters for all seasons. Pooja Bhatt, who incidentally never answered those letters, now replies to each one of them by reading out her letters onstage with objectivity, introspection and truthfulness. The sixth letter or the last letter is a letter from Mahesh to Pooja for today’s times. For a time when she makes her foray into documentary theatre and bares her soul on stage.”
Zahid adds that the piece will cover a range of controversies in the duo’s life, “A father battling alcohol addiction to a daughter accepting an unconventional step-family. From the infamous Stardust photo-shoot to a family facing allegations of being terrorists. But most importantly, it is about our human quest for meaning. A father who is child-like with matters of the heart. A daughter who prides herself in being an old soul. While the father makes a case for meaninglessness and chaos being the only reality, the daughter still yearns to make concrete meaning of this randomness. And they both do that through letters — from the past and present and a few for our collective future.
In a first, Pooja and Mahesh Bhatt reunite, on a completely different medium, with a relatively unexplored genre — documentary theatre.”
Satchit Puranik (directed Mr Ya Miss) will direct the baap-beti duo.
