BWW Review: Naseeruddin Shah Stands Tall In Ratna Pathak Shah Co-Directed THE TRUTH

As meaningful cinema is the new buzz word in Bollywood, looks like time is just right for people to also take note of real stories being played on stage for long by Indian theatre workers.

The Truth -- is a latest example of brilliant on-stage shows raising up the bar for Indian theatre. And interestingly, its not just because The Truth has to its credit an association with stalwarts such as Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah or Florian Zeller, but its also because of the power of the story behind it.

Written by young Florian Zeller, the story has been appreciated world over. Brought on stage in India by Motley Productions, the play is being staged currently at the Prithvi Theatre Festival. The production has successfully managed to adapt the story and set in the context of its Indian audiences.

The play takes into context, marital infidelity. The characters are perfectly relatable to any urban Indian audience and hence the impact of the story becomes more potent. But the story quickly moves forward to uncover a grim truth -- two best friends, men in this case find themselves in a curious case of lies and deceit as one is having an affair with another's wife. and just when you are beginning to sympathize with the husband there is a plethora of layers that come peeling off. Eventually, the husband realizes that perhaps he was responsible in ways more than one for the situation he was finding himself in.

Naseeruddin Shah as the husband is both convincing and relatable and co-direction by Ratna Pathak Shah is worth appreciating. Avantika Averkar plays Naseer's wife. Shruti Vyas as the friends wife and Gaurav Sharma is the friend. All characters seem to slip in to their roles nicely and what strikes is also protagonist Shah's comic timing sometimes, even though the subject remains its serious tones.

Playing now at; Prithvi Theatre