Guide comes to stage now!

The unforgettable tale of guide Raju, dancer Rosie and her husband Marco is back. This time on stage. The play is being adapted from the novel ‘Guide’ penned by late eminent author R K Narayan, in 1958.

The relationship between literature and theatre is long-standing. But there is a special buzz about  ‘Guide’ being adapted into a play. Based on the theme of  love and self-discovery, the novel was also adapted into a film in 1965 with the same name starring Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman. The film did very well at the box office and also won the hearts of cinema goers who still remember the film fondly.

Considered one the masterpieces of the Indian cinema, the film failed to impress the author. Sanjoy K Roy, who is directing the play, says, “R K Narayan didn’t like the film. The book was about debunking the godman who becomes great because people make him so, but the film said something else, according to the author.”

R K Narayan wrote a column in Life magazine ‘The Misguided Guide’, criticising the film and questioning the manner in which his characters had been interpreted for the big screen. The author felt that Rosie and Raju had been portrayed as being very innocent in the film whereas in his novel, Raju wanted to seduce Rosie, and take advantage of her loneliness.

Roy clarifies that the play will be an adaptation of the book not the film though it will incorporate four classical songs from the film including Piya tose naina lagy re; Aaj phir jeeny ki tamanna hai and Tere mere sapne ab ek rang hain apart from lots of bhajans that will come in the end.

The play is being produced by Ritu Saigal of Deva Fine Arts Society and Teamwork Productions.  The idea occured to her around four years ago and the process of acquiring the copyright for adaptation, search for actors and script writing took as many years.

“I always wanted to do theatre. The reason for choosing ‘Guide’ was that everybody can relate to it as it has a universal theme. I presented the idea to Sanjoy and we bought the rights from R K Narayan’s family,” she shares with Metrolife.

Whether R K Narayan had liked the film or not, it went on to become a huge hit and today enjoys the status of a classic. Both, Sanjoy and Ritu, are concerned that people coming to watch the play will have the locations and characters of the film in mind.

“That is our challenge. Guide was a very beautiful film - as a story. We can’t compare the scale of movie with scale of theatre. Everything has to be done in the limited 38 ft stage. So, there is no comparison and we hope that our audiences won’t compare the two either,” Ritu says.

The audience will see Dilip Shankar in the role of guide Raju and Namita Gyanchandani as Rosie. A theatre veteran Dilip read the book first and is great fan of the film too.

For him, the challenge in playing Raju is to switch between the many shades of Raju’s character. “Raju is not an innocent man in the book. My challenge is to find different energies for one character. So my preparation for the role was more internal. I also ended up learning dance,” says Dilip.

The play opens today, 7.30 pm, Kamani Auditorum and will be on, till 21st instant.