The play Salvaton Mein Samvaad tackles those wrinkles of life that we as a society like to brush under the rug, rather than ironing them out. Writer Mani Madhukar, through this play, tried to pull the rug off and force us to acknowledge the depths of darkness that we are capable of falling to. An old man, played by Jay Jha, is visiting his daughter at her hostel but is greeted by her friend, Nidhi Acharya, instead. The father has this idealistic picture of her daughter which is slowly broken down by her friend. While getting high in front of him, she tells him that his daughter is one of the wildest in the hostel and is hiding out in her boyfriend’s place to avoid him.
The man is not ready to believe it, but soon finds out that his daughter’s affair was the least difficult reality he had to face that day. A very dark family secret is revealed to him which makes his entire existence spin out of control to the point, that he overdoses on the drugs given by her daughter’s friend. The writing, though very powerful, was a bit off in setting the premise of the play. Why the young girl took her friend’s story so personally wasn’t made very clear.
Even though she did have her own past to deal with, it was not very relatable to the case at hand. Moreover, the unpredictable nature of the girl — to the point where she gets violent — and the man taking it all without much of a fight, did not fit with the backstory of the character too much. But all this gets overshadowed when the audience hears the crux of the entire conversation. Some on the mark acting and intelligent play of lights, made the audience forget everything else.
Debutante director Nidhi, who is also the actress, deserves some credit for picking a play with such a difficult subject and pulling it off. Jay, as an actor, has covered a Forrest Gump’s journey with his craft. Most of the characters he plays are emotionally taxing and to play them so beautifully, speaks volumes about his strength as an actor and as a person. This play is not a conversation that you would ever want to have, however, it is a Samvaad that we need to have.
