King of Spades

As the classical Bollywood number goes ,” Ae dil hai mushkil jeena yahan, zara hatke zara bach ke, yeh hai Bombay meri jaan!” While it is still the city of aspiration and dreams, majorly due to Bollywood , once you land up the problems of this metropolis hit you. Bad roads, Noise, Water/Electricity problems, Neighbours who behave like strangers etc are just a few ones that the hustle bustle of the city hides behind its glowing lights. Whether you own a house or are a tenant, the experience or rather exposure to the crumbling infrastructure of the city sucks you in. Yet ask any true blue Mumbaikar and the response will be” Mumbai jaisi koi jagah nahi hai Boss!. Mein toh yahi settle hoga. Iss city   mein kuch toh baat hai!” This is exactly the Dna of Balwinder Siddhu aka Bubbles( Rajit Kapur).  A financial executive who has poured out his life’s savings into an upper rise in Mumbai. Giving him company is his parsi wife Behruz (Shernaz Patel). In spite of living in a fa...

“Dost, chaar small dena”! In any other situation this would have sounded like an order at a bar counter but here we were finally, after braving the horrible traffic of a typical Mumbai evening, at the booking window of Prithvi Theater,Juhu. Chaar Small by T-Pot productions was playing that evening. A collection of 4 short stories centered around a bar is what one could guess, from the poster displayed outside the venue. The humour was served right on toast by the cast, with an introductory aarti asking the viewers to put their phones on silent!  Pretty innovative I thought. The lighting, set, innovative posters (one to back the above aarti), a superb live band etc just created the perfect ambience for the spirits to soar further! Once the stories/acts start spanning out one after the other, you realize that the common link in all of these is not the bar but it is the city of Mumbai. The city of aspirations and thus migrations, underlying issues and yes humanity or what is famous...