Playing life on stage

Reliving your life on stage and that too in a dramatised style is not an easy task. But for a veteran like Anupam Kher it is just another act that demands its own set of precision and edge, as conceived by a playwright and formulated by a director. Play Kuchch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai is like an autobiography of an actor like Kher, enacted on stage especially while he is still practising his craft.

Staged recently at the 17th Bharat Rang Mahotsava, annual international theatre festival by National School of Drama, the play is about a journey of a man who should have been a fail in life but he manipulated his destiny and tasted success.

Kher, perhaps, the most versatile and prolific actor the Indian cinema has ever seen was the best man to do the show. At the zenith of his career and crossroads of his life, he pauses to reflect and share his pain, joy, tears and laughter. His struggle, like a Hindi film, finds some coherence by the sheer determination of the protagonist and the interesting twists and turns that life provides in fits of passion.

According to the director of the play Feroz Abbas Khan, Kher's career had touched rock bottom. “A man, who had redefined personal success as an uninterrupted continuity, was now looking at failure as a new companion. He had two choices, live in the past glory or fight for his future. He chose the latter. Kuchch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai is about those who do not give up. Every crisis is an opportunity for them, every obstacle, a breakthrough, every relationship, a magic, and every betrayal is life instructive,” said Khan.

In a career spanning more than two decades, Khan has directed some of India's finest acting talent, both from stage and cinema. His plays have been staged to packed audiences and international critical acclaim. Khan’s English theatre production of Mahatma v/s Gandhi created a sensation wherever it was staged. Some of the best acting talents in India like Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Anupam Kher, Kirron Kher, Farooque Shaikh, Seema Biswas, Satish Kaushik, Boman Irani and others have given their finest performances under his direction.