Review: The Play A Walk In The Woods

A Walk In The Woods

Note: This is an independent review of the play held on August 17 2012 at Chowdiah Memorial Hall.

The Play: A Walk In The Woods

The Cast: Rajit Kapur and Naseeruddin Shah

History: This play has been adapted from the original with the same name by Lee Blessing. Lee was inspired by a real incident happened in 1982 in Geneva when the two negotiators Paul H. Nitze (USA) and Yuli A. Kvitsinsky (USSR) left for an unofficial walk in the woods and came up with a breakthrough. The breakthrough was rejected pretty soon by their respective governments.

This piece of USA-USSR history draws tremendous parallels to that of India-Pakistan and the duo Faishal Rashid and Randeep Hooda do just an impeccable job there in this sub-continental adaptation of the play.

Adapted By: Faisal Rashid and Randeep Hooda

Directed By: Ratna Pathak Shah (Debutant direction)

The Prelude to the Play:

Riding on a borrowed bike and the beautiful voice riding pillion singing quietly

“Oh, whatever you do, I can't leave you

Don't ever let me go, don't ever let me go

You gotta rescue me, rescue me, rescue me

Let me have a good time”

Bangalore looked picturesque through the green campus of IISC on the way to Chowdiah Memorial Hall with the rain mellowing the pleasant temperatures further.

The Crowd:

The neckline was delicately low and beautiful; the frock just neatly cropped a little below the knee cap. Needless to say the moustache was well trimmed or clean shaved, belts and shoes were matching and the hair either well combed or well ruffled’ and even spiked.

Prologue:

As expected the usual 19:30 hours was extended to 20:00 to accommodate those who had been left behind in the busy Bangalore roads due to rain. Coincidentally they must be the VIPs!

The Plot:

Ram Chinnapa is a young Indian diplomat who “took” the challenge to get a breakthrough in the discussions that his predecessor Mr. Joshi was unable to.

Ram’s counterpart on the other side was a seasoned Pakistani diplomat Mr. Jamaal who was thought of by Ram’s predecessor as a person who “dresses well, knows how to say NO and still look good, believes in obstruction to everything as effectiveness and overall is a crab”.

Ram is formal and focussed to the goal of getting a breakthrough in the discussions this time as much for his career as for the country. Ram has never failed in any assignment yet and is therefore direct to the business. He would not give his counterpart Jamaal any room for frivolousness as he had done his homework well on him where the latter cleverly changed the topic when faced with a situation difficult to commit.

Zenaab Jamaal is indeed well dressed and cautious with his etiquettes and cheroot. His sense of humour and wit is both adorable and contemptuous at the same time. The latter feeling of contempt would evoke only if you are in Ram’s place. However Jamaal is in no way a crab as thought of by his counterpart. He rather emerges out in the end to be more realistic of the two having spent an age in the so called “peace talks”.

While Ram would strictly maintain that he prefers a formal dialogue over the table than in the woods, Jamaal prefers a much informal environment to talk to and more informal things to talk about. He wittingly and quite rightfully chips in to Ram the definition of formality = “anger with hair combed”!

The play is full of such sarcastic but introspective anecdotes.

Jamaal’s opinion of Indian sub-continent people being hypocrite braggarts is well brought out with the example of both Indian and Pakistani people living in UK on the SSN (Social Security Number) but supporting India in an England-India cricket match or Pakistan in an England-Pakistan match.

Jamaal is full of realistic sarcasm when he draws the parallel of two adolescents comparing their size to the two countries comparing their missile range!

Jamaal mentions that he is ashamed of being a Pakistani whenever he spots a poor Pakistani on the street start dancing after another successful nuclear test where he should have been more bothered about social issues like poverty and birth-control.

When Ram says that history can be rewritten if his peace proposal gets through  Jamaal retorts that till now no agreements or proposals have been respected by either of the sides and adds quite philosophically “history is nothing but geography over time”.

Jamaal for a greater part remains playful in the woods with his queries about the songs of Hemant Kumar and screwing of a Bollywood starlet.

Ram who has not seen a failure (until now) is full of optimism for a peaceful future for the two nations (as much for another glorious milestone in his career).

On the other hand Jamaal who has by now seen all the sides of the sub-continental monsoon is playful and encourages his counterpart to enjoy the time in Switzerland. It turns out in the end that Jamaal was right.

The conversations between the two diplomats not only reflect what happens in such high political peace talks but also the mindset of the powers-to-be on both sides. While common man on either side is more worried and quiet aptly of common things such as birth-control,  sanitation and education, the political powers need the disputes in geography and military to go on for them to survive in power.

There is a race for showing the world that it was “my” country who actually proposed a successful peace agreement. So either side cleverly rejects the other’s proposal to avoid sharing of the honours.

Jamaal knows this well and quotes incidents from the past such as the Bangladesh war or the infamous comment from Mr. Bhutto saying “Ghaas ki roti khayenge lekin bum banayenge” (We’ll eat bread made of grass but will make the N-bomb) to bring to light that neither party is serious.

However Jamaal is impressed by the sincerity and discipline of his counterpart Ram. And on much beseeching of Ram the former agrees to give one last push for the new peace proposal. Jamaal also makes it clear that it was a great risk he was taking as the political establishment in Pakistan had started showing discomfort and opined that the Pakistani diplomat was doing more than what was expected out of his duty and office.

Ram meanwhile has to ensure that his PM in New Delhi does not make the peace proposal public for an electorate favour as the parliamentary elections were only weeks away.

Needless to mention Ram fails here.

Ram is dejected and so is Jamaal.

Ram clearly mentions his unhappiness with Jamaal for delaying things too long in the peace proposal.

Jamaal thunders back that why did the Indian PM go public with the peace proposal when it was clearly agreed between the two diplomats that it would be kept a secret.

Ram again wants to discuss on the peace proposal "formally" to Jamaal who is tired and quips "When two men are dying of cancer should they only discuss cancer?"

Ram prepares a new draft on the same proposal with some changes here and there. Jamaal reviews it and refines it. 

The wit and humour in this scene is the show-stopper of the play. It says that there are honest attempts from a few honest and upright men on both sides but the political powers-to-be have designs otherwise.

It is clearly understood in the final act and scene of the play how both sides have been in want of doing what ideally should have been done in the greater interest of peace of the subcontinent.

Jamaal has been told by his establishment for the new proposal as to "Not try too hard.." and which Jamaal correctly interprets as "Don't try at all!".

Jamaal is a little unhealthy in this meeting and Ram shaken because he had just managed to avoid an arrest by the local Swiss police in the morning.

In morning while on a walk Ram refuses to pick up his chewing gum wrapper thrown onto the street as he is a diplomat. Ram is a person of high etiquettes and it is his frustration with the political establishment on both sides that had eclipsed his hygiene sense that morning.

Again an irony, which cleverly draws parallel on the “public” hygiene practices of the Indian sub-continental people.

Jamaal asks Ram what is his favourite colour? Ram ignores the question. Jamaal repeats that he wants to gift Ram something and therefore the colour.

Ram reluctantly mentions “Orange”!

Jamaal replies that he’ll gift Ram an orange then. The theatre is filled with a roar of laughter and then Jamaal refines that still better an orange tie.

The roar of laughter in the audience is stoned to silence by Ram as he shrieks that “I am gonna put that f**king tie down your throat......”.

A language unbecoming of a diplomat and more importantly unbecoming of a balanced person like Ram, he immediately apologises to Jamaal. The latter has already gone through such frustrations and is unhurt by the outburst of his “friend”.

Jamaal reveals that he has been asked to move out of his office and is going back to his city of Lahore and sums up the mood with another of his famous lines "We are dogs in Uncle Sam's farm"!

Ram is shocked with this news! Ram had had by then realized that it was only through realists like Jamaal that the peace initiatives could have been given some chance.

The writing is on the wall now.

All of a sudden the formal Ram decides to be a bit playful and frivolous as the realism of Jamaal descends upon him as well.

Critical Comments

The wardrobe of the diplomats was impeccable and subtly represented the energy level of the discussions in the woods.

Referral to current events like Ajmal Kasab and Pakistan’s continuous denial of him though proved by own Pakistani media makes the play only look real.

The two actors on the stage make the perfect use of the props as is evident when Jamaal prefers to light a cheroot or clean his and Ram’s coffee cup before putting them back into the basket.

If ever anybody asks Naseeruddin Shah that “What would you have been if you had not been an actor?” it would not be difficult to imagine the answer: “I may not have lived at all!”.

Rajit Kapur aka Byomkesh Bakshi keeps you spellbound all through the play. One wonders if his talent was properly tapped in the Bollywood industry. Maybe it would now be with the likes of the new genre realist directors like Prakash Jha and Anurag Kashyap.

What could have been better?

The last scene could have ended with a fresh young Pakistani diplomat entering and Ram the seasoned diplomat from India being frivolous and too friendly.