JOIN USWe are at such a crossroad of our lives that there is no room for emotional and personal attachment,” says a firm Preetam Kumar Chopra(Anupam Kher) to Hema Roy (Neena Gupta) when he meets her after an interval of 35 years.
The ex-lovers have decided to meet because Hema wanted to ask him one question that was bothering her, knowing very well their lives have drifted apart.
“I wanted to know why you never replied to any of my letters I wrote to you from Shantiniketan? What stopped you from doing that?” As she questions in despair, Preetam stares at her in surprise. They, through a series of conversation, realise their parents played villains in their love story. The rest, like a Bollywood script, follows: Personal issues and present life and an open-ended conclusion.
The plot of recently staged play Mera Woh Matlab Nahi Tha might sound dreary, but TV actor and director Rakesh Bedi has sprinkled the script with relatable nuances, expressions and emotions and is backed by protagonists’ powerful performances that it was assured a standing ovation from the audience.
Set in Delhi’s Lodi Gardens when Preetam and Hema meet, they show no signs of bitterness. Awkward at first, but comfortable after a few hours, the two slowly open up and together, recollect, years of togetherness. The conversation that runs back and forth reveals clues about Preetam’s life: how he always cared about reputation and was indecisive – something that cost him the love of his life.
As they share their stories, they are interrupted by an irksome and poking jogger (Bedi) who is Preetam’s neighbour and would always take him to a corner and ask “I have an empty flat, take the keys.” This isn’t the only laughing moment in the play, as Bedi, true to his unmistaken sense of humour has ensured bits of humour are scattered in plenty throughout the play to ensure it doesn’t become a “melancholy saga”.
While it became clear that their personal lives would not weave into a happy story, especially for Preetam who is forced by his parents to marry a Muslim girl who is the sister of local goons and doesn’t meet his expectations. He admits, how all his life, he lived in fear of her brothers and how they weren’t compatible. It wasn’t a happy marriage. Bedi could have ended it here, but he highlights how at times, two different people learn to depend on each other, despite their differences.
On the other hand, Hema’s marriage to a jealous husband landed her in trouble. As in a fit of rage she kills him and lands up in jail. It is during these scenes, Gupta delivers the best performance when she murders her husband. The agony, distress and pain a woman would feel when she is married to someone who is an obsessive drinker was enacted brilliantly by her.
Bedi’s understanding of a man’s emotions could be fathomed when he projects Kher as a man of steel who feels “emotions and attachment” has no role to play at a mature time in their life, but he is the one, in the end, who proposes the idea of “living together without bothering about the world.”