Play review/ Those Were The Days

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR 

Those Were The Days/ English play

Directors: Vishaal Asrani & Sarosh Nanavaty

Cast: Mithil Patel, Sarosh Nanavaty, Sahir Mehta, Shriya Rao, Vishaal Asrani 

Theatre company: VAIPA

Rating; *** 1/2

(The play was staged at the Royal Opera House, Mumbai, on May 11. Top pic shows Shriya Rao and Sarosh Nanavaty) 

Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end. Every time one hears those lines, made famous in Mary Hopkin's 1969 song, one is overcome by nostalgia. The same happened when it was rendered at the beginning of the play Those Were The Days.

Directed by Vishaal Asrani and Sarosh Nanavaty, the play used evergreen oldies aa a motif for much of its duration, though some relatively new songs were featured in the second half. The songs were in fact used to connect the dots between the main story, which was themed around two people in love.

Flashback to 1984. Aman (played by Sahir Mehta) is working at The Tavern, a bar in the bylanes of Colaba. Sounds familiar? He is about to close for the day when a gangly stranger (Mithil Shah) walks in for a quick drink. There's another character who calls himself Music and comes for the singing sections (Vishaal).

Aman is an aspiring singer, who has had basic training but wants to take his passion to another level. While he and the stranger are discussing his future, his girlfriend Ria (Shriya Rao) also comes in and the three of them begin chatting.

The young couple is surprised when the visitor offers them Rs 30,000 just so he can stay longer and have a few more drinks. Though they accept it, they become suspicious of his intentions when they realise he knows things about them which they haven't revealed.  While the plot begins to take twists, a lady (Sarosh) enters at half-time.

What follows after intermission moves back and forth between 1984 and 2019. It so happens that the stranger and this lady were married 35 years ago, and both have had estranged relationships. One may leave it to the audience to figure out what happens.

Besides its interesting premise, the play is held together by the songs, which include Frank Sinatra's 'Fly Me To The Moon', Dean Martin's 'That's Amore', John Denver's 'Annie's Song', Abba's 'Honey Honey', Gloria Gaynor's 'I Will Survive' and Doris Day's 'Que Sera Sera' among the oldies, and Maroon 5's 'Expressions' and Adele's 'Someone Like You' among 21st Century fare.

Though the gap between songs increases in the second half, there is a good balance between the narrative and the songs, which have been rendered well by the cast. Though there is reference to 'Que Sera Sera' in the final moments, a proper earworm-inducing song was probably missing - something that everyone would go out humming. Also, keeping the 1984 setting in mind, one wished there was some stuff from the early 1980s. Among the special moments, the rewind and pause sequence just after the interval was impeccably executed.

Overall, it was a trip down melody lane, aided by a plot that had its surprises and performances that were convincing.