Gandh, a story of memories!

Theatre Review: Gandh
Director: Manish Shirke
Language: Hindi
Actors: Geetika Shyam and Jayant Gadekar
Rating: 2.5/5
Life without memories, good or bad, is incomplete. There are things that bring back incidents from the past, be it a certain sound, sight or smell. The two-act play 'Gandh' focuses on the third one – smell.
It presents three different stories in completely different situations and how the gandh associated with certain memories change things.It opens with the story of two school kids, Chitramani and Sagar. The friendly bond that they share reminds one of the good old school days. For Sagar, Chitramani is his source of happiness and the only reason he comes to school. Sagar associates Chitramani with ‘school ki khushboo’, but when Chitramani has to discontinue her education and leave for some reason, Sagar is left in despair. He loses the association of that school ki Khushboo with Chitramani. Things take an interesting turn when the two bump into each other after 10 years and the memories come flying back. The story is innocent, yet, makes a good point about things that a girl has to endure in her life.
The second story is about two strangers, Meera and Manav. Meera is standing on the edge of a cliff, ready to jump off, when Manav comes into the scene and distracts her from her suicidal tendencies. This story portrays a lot about how people live their lives under immense pressure and choose death as a way out.
The third story is centred around a lonely woman who is in search of her lost memories. In the process she finds a man whose smell reminds her of love, honesty and self-respect.
As stand-alone pieces, the stories are good. However, as an entire play, this presentation lacks a common link to make it hold your attention. At times, even before the audience can register one story, the other one begins. Maybe a common character and better transition between the stories could’ve done the trick. Having said that, Gandh is not a waste of time. In fact, if you go with a mindset of watching three different stories, individually, you might like this one.
—Sushmita.Jha@timesgroup.com