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In line with the usage of clowns as a motif across some of his movies and other plays (C for Clowns, Nothing like Lear), Rajat Kapoor presents his own unique clown-ish take on the Shakespearean tragedy. A clown company that is bored of the regular stuff decides to perform Hamlet and perform it they do, in their own style, with a lot of gibberish (the official language of the play incidentally) and their own sidetracks, each more uproariously funny than the other.
The ensemble cast for this play is like none other too. Rajat Kapoor manages quite a coup by getting some of the finest actors play roles that seem to be written for them, the number of years the play has been running being a lot of help doubtlessly. The actors manage to bring out not only the laughs with some very good comic timing but also get into the serious and Hamlet-esque pathos in the very next sequence with amazing ease and brilliant effect. Some well thought of interactions with the audience (specifically the scene where Ophelia is about to die) make the cast stand out even more, making the audience remember them even much after the show is over.
The shows being screened in Delhi in November have Neil Bhoopalam playing Fido (who goes on to play the Ghost, King Claudius, and Horatio in the Hamlet staging that the clown company does), Namit Das playing Nemo (who initially fights with Soso over playing Hamlet but finally settles for Polonius), Sujay Saple playing Popo (the Bossy at the clown company who briefly appears as Laertes, Ophelia's brother in the play-within-the-play), and Puja Sarup playing Buzo (Queen Gertrude of Hamlet). Kalki Koechlin and Rachel D'souza take turns at different show screenings to play Phi-phi (who plays Ophelia in Hamlet) while Vinay Pathak and Atul Kumar take turns at playing the clown Soso (who plays the central character of Hamlet).
Rajat Kapoor's concept and direction is top-notch and the take on Shakespeare that he presents is, though all messed up, quite representative of the original. While the clowns on the stage do away with complete sequences of the play and shuttle from one part to the other without much heed to chronology or logic, you still do get to see Hamlet the story that Shakespeare once told. The bonus is that you also get a peek into the lives of Sarup's Buzo, the alcoholic, sex-starved flirt, Bhoopalam's dance loving Fido who has a mind of his own, Das's Nemo who wants to be the hero but is shunned once too often, and of course Pathak/Kumar's Soso who is as morose and sulky as Hamlet was in the play.
There are several sequences that make the audience hold their sides while laughing their lungs out. Especially noteworthy are the dumb charades scene enacted by Fido the Ghost, as also Fido's frequent breaking away into dance the moment he gets a chance. Nemo's gagging and moments just after his Polonius gets killed are hilarious and so are Buzo and Soso's interactions with the audience. At the same time, this being a staging of Hamlet, you also get to shed a tear or two at Ophelia's death, Hamlet's confession of his love for her and his inability to act, whether to take revenge or take his own life (to be or not to be).
The only negative, if it may be called that, is the length of the screening and considering that there is no interval, things do get a little stretched towards the end and the audience starts getting visibly fidgety. While the play does not bore you at any point, some of the sequences do come out as possibly self-indulgent and can either be shortened or the play can at the least do with an interval.
In a nutshell, this is one play that deserves all the accolades and the long stay at the theater scene that is is getting. With some brilliant production values and very smooth and seamless management of the venue, stage, sound and effects (at least in Delhi), this is an experience that is perfect not just for the avid theater enthusiast but even for a first-timer.
