KKusum Manhar Lele - A Superhit Production

Plays that convey social themes often become elitist and fail to reach out to the very masses that it is trying to inform and educate. KKusum Manhar Lele deserves tremendous credit for successfully getting its message out to the audience. Starring some of the well-known personalities from the small-screen, the play succeeded in creating a deep impact while providing quality entertainment. The play was staged at Lowell High School auditorium in Lowell, MA on Saturday April 17, 2004.

The small screen’s Kkusum, Nausheen Sardar Ali, made her theatrical debut in this play. Supporting her in the play were the producer Nikita Wadia, Hitesh Jhaveri, the US promoter for the play, Nitin Trivedi (KKusum’s Nitin), Manisha Kanojia, Rajendra Chawla and Sweety Nayak.

The play is an adaptation of book of the same name which was first staged in Marati by Vinay Apte. The story is unusual. A young woman (Sujatha), who is a victim of domestic violence meets Manhar Lele at a marriage bureau run by Mrs Kapadia (Nikita Wadia). She is taken in by the sweet talking Manhar Lele who wins her sympathy by spinning a tale about his unhappy marriage. Sujatha gets pregnant with Manhar’s child and he convinces her to move in with him until he is able to get a divorce. She delivers a baby boy. In the first half of the play Pakia Bhai aka Pankaj (Rajendra Chawla) is introduced as the lovable goon who is in search of a bride. Nitin Trivedi plays the role of Mr. Kapadia.

The play takes a sinister turn when Manhar Lele suddenly declares that the servant woman in their home is really his wife who was barren and together they throw Sujatha out of the house. Pakia Bhai and Mr. Kapadia help Sujata get her rights and the play ends on a happy note.

After the play, a slide show showing the pictures of the actual characters on whose life the play is based was presented. The slide show created a great impact on the audience. Unfortunately the real life story did not have a happy ending.

I had a chance to meet the actors after the play. It is the first time that I have seen the work of TV actors and I was very impressed with it. “It was my first time doing a play. I have really enjoyed the experience” said, Nausheen Sardar Ali (KKusum) who looked stunning on stage. Was it very different from doing TV serials? “Yes. Here the audience is right in front of you. You get an immediate reaction to your work,” said Ali. Will she be doing more plays in the future? “I would certainly consider it."

Another quality of these actors was their simple and down to earth nature. “There is always a time crunch for TV serials. We do sixteen scenes a day as opposed to the one or two that is done for films. So we really have no time to be high and mighty and throw tantrums. This keeps us rather down to earth,” said Rajendra Chawla who put in a powerful performance as Pankaj Bhai. Are small screen actors more committed to work with social themes? “I think so. We are very rooted to the ground. We are in touch with our environment and thus are better connected with those ground realities,” said Chawla. Why this new trend to glorify goons? “I think goons do have their positive side as well. When one gets frustrated with the police and legal system which can shackle you down, people do take the help of goons who have been rather kind and helpful,” said Chawla.

The event was extremely well organized. It takes a lot to pull of a show of this magnitude and congratulations are due to all the volunteers of Patidar Samaj for doing such a fabulous job.