The Blue Mug

The blue mug - http://www.thebluemugplay.com/

It is play directed by Atul Kumar based on Oliver Sacks book - The man who mistook his wife for a hat. It stars Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Konkona sen Sharma and one more person who is not famous enough now for me to remember his name but he is a great actor.

The book, which i have not read, is based on the author's experience of Schizophrenia patients. He is a psychologist with patients who have lost their memories either completely or partially. The play is an adaptation.

There are 5 characters, no one knows each other, each come and tell their stores, stories which are memories in their mind. Each story is a memory, the ones that they remember, often not the ones that they would like to remember. The blue mug is just one such story narrated by Rajat Kapoor and there is no reason why the play is titled such other than why not?

I loved the play! Like one of the best plays of my life. I watched it with Gurshi at India Community center at Milpitas with a ticket of 25$.
Why i loved it? There are many reasons.
First and foremost - it had excellent actors. I think that is the reason i went to watch it. As i reached the hall, standing outside is Rajat and Ranbir drinking Starbucks coffee like normal people. Their simplicity was amazing. But this is not the reason why i liked the play. This cast could only bring me to the play, not to like it (liar!) But the performance was amazing.
I liked the play because of its subject - which is memories. It is so important to preserve memories, it is so important to remember, to cherish good days, to learn from mistakes, nostalgia is such a blissful feeling. Good times, childhood memories, college days, trips to grandmother's house, etc etc stories depict different parts of life, some are cheerful, some are serious, some comic and some very sad too. And the actors portray them with such amazing skill, it is too awesome. And to top it all there is Ranvir Shorey who surprised me a lot with his acting, he plays a guy who is stuck in time 20 yrs ago. The best part was that almost all stories threw a very crucial light on the character, and had a very sad meaning with them but it was all covered under the jokes, the comedy in day to day lives and it was only in the end that the sadness was revealed, life is sad with a happy face, the play was showing that to us. We were laughing one second and in the next, with just one line, the entire meaning had changed.

I do not know who Atul kumar is, i have not seen his work before but hir direction was amazing. The play used so many different techniques to convey story, each scene was choreographed differently, some i understood, some i didn't. But overall it was a very good art and tangible art at the sweet spot where you could understand and appreciate some and some mystical or abstract. Konkona could not play her part but Sheeba who replaced her was amazing.

A lot of comments were made on memories and its significance in our lives. The play ends with Rajat saying that whenever we narrate our own memory, we always think in third person, with a total detachment saying that it was not me, it was him and i have changed now. How true! My thoughts on memories are the same.
As days go by, i am forgetting my past, it is getting blurry day by day. As i experience more, i loose something too of my past. I do believe that schizophrenia is one of the worst things to happen and if it happens to me, it will be very sad, I am also of the opinion that it is likely that it will happen to me but that is just my paranoia speaking. I think that is one of the main reason why i maintain this blog, why i document my life in Life in series, to remember as much as i can about my life. If not the tiny details but atleast the bigger ones, pointers to the head nodes :) . The play resonated this back to me and it was such a good joy to just listen to memories as you are listening to grandmother's stories.

Everyone sitting in that hall enjoyed the play, i think that is the beauty of the play. Many thought that it was a comedy play, i thought that it was a very sad play. I did laugh but the message said between the lines, the silences, some acts which no one understood conveyed something that was very serious. How precious memories are? I bet very few thought about that while watching the play. I have thought about it and memories are very precious.

I would like to read that book one day.