Let’s traverse to forbidden land

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A still from The Revised Kama Sutra

The signboard says, ‘for adults only’. And as the curtain rises, Nisa Shetty, one of the actors, sets the mood by singing one of the most famous Bollywood songs, Abhi Toh Main Jawan Hoon. Though play, The Revised Kama Sutra, which was performed for four consecutive days at Akshara Theatre, Connaught Place, says director Anasuya Vaidya, is not just sexual but also a spiritual journey of the protagonist Vijay Prabhu.

“The play is based on a book by Richard Crasta by the same name. However, it is about self-discovery on various levels like personal, family, friendship, love and sexual,” says Anasuya, who worked on the adaptation of the book into the play for months along with her mother, veteran theatre personality, Jalabala Vaidya.
The play high on humour and music is a story of a boy’s journey that takes him from Mangalore to Washington D.C. Set in 60s, the protagonist Vijay is highly influenced by Bollywood and believes that romance is about dancing around the trees.
“But his journey to Washington, before coming back to India, opens up a bigger world to him. We have picked up the incidences, where he interacts with girls, has family conflicts and gets involved in misadventure along the way, from the book,” says Anasuya.
She continues, “Towards the end of the play there is a scene where Vijay says that it’s all about the crushing need of women in a man’s life.”
Performed by theatre veteran Sunit Tandon, many young Akshara theatre group actors like Nisa Shetty, Angad Thakur and Dhruv Shetty gave an energetic, entertaining and engrossing performance with sprinkling of dance and music numbers at the right places.
American dancer Michelle Agresti also joined others on the stage while Nisa Shetty performed most of the songs. About three years back, a reading session from the book was done by Anasuya’s mother Jalabala Vaidya. “But we realised that the reading could be taken to another level and decided to produce a play out of it, hoping that the story will appeal youngsters,” adds Anasuya.