Back with a bang

After nearly a decade, Sharman Joshi who has inked his profile as a versatile actor, comes back on stage, essaying four characters in the play Raju Raja Ram Aur Mein

It would perhaps be appropriate to allude to Shakespeare’s famous quote in As You Like It, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts,” when talking about Sharman Joshi. The actor makes his comeback to the stage after 10 years in the Kedar Shinde helmed laugh riot, Raju Raja Ram Aur Mein.
Joshi juggles the four characters with panache, seamlessly slipping into each one of them with effortless ease. That Joshi was traversing a familiar terrain having successfully staged the Gujarati version of the play, Ame Lai Gaya Tamhe Rahi Gaya, a decade ago, helped, considering that the actors had rehearsed for a month only. “We rehearsed quite intensely for a month, for 10 hours daily, breathing, sleeping, eating the play,” says Joshi. Since timing is of prime importance in a comedy, the team had to pay special attention to it, when Joshi, slips in and out of his characters. Although it was familiar terrain for the actor, he was a bit sceptical about doing a “semi-commerical” Hindi play. Besides, according to the actor, the preview show had garnered a lot of appreciation, which made him doubt its success. “Generally, even during my theatre days, whenever we had a preview show of my plays, the audience would come out saying that it would bomb and no good would come out of it. But everytime the play was rejected during the preview show, it would do well, so I was a bit sceptical as people loved the preview show. I was afraid, that the reverse should not happen in this case!”
In a series of comedic situations, the play underneath its jocular vein, unfolds the crass side of human behaviour that is so easily allured by the glint of money. The business tycoon, Madan Sukhnandani is murdered by his second wife and her lover, who lose no time in disposing off the body. But unbeknownst to them, the wily businessman had left three undated wills in the name of his second wife, his daughter from his first wife and an uncle. A web of deceit is woven wherein the three parties get a Sukhnandani look alike. And therein steps the three look-alike characters, Raju, the truck driver, Raja Golgole an insurance agent and Ramu, the mentally challenged nephew of the uncle. In a series of comedic situations, the three characters are lured, at first with money into impersonating the tycoon.
The energy that Joshi brings to the stage is electrifying. Not a mean task to essay four extremely diverse characters, the actor had to particularly keep in mind the timing when each character made his entry, so that bloopers did not happen with the multiple entries and exits. Joshi recalls an incident stating, “During the initial shows I had to step in as Raju the truck driver when the duplicate makes way for my entry. After that I had to move to the other part of the stage and become Ramu the mentally challenged guy. However, in my hurry, I forgot to play Raju and shoved the duplicate aside to play Ramu. When I looked back, I saw the other two characters waiting nervously for their cue. Then at another time, while saying my lines, my dentures fell off my mouth and on to the stage. I had to quickly improvise to save the situation.” But the thrill to perform before a live audience according to Joshi “inspires and charges you,” to capture that moment of glory.
From the four characters Joshi finds Raja Galgale, the insurance agent who talks to himself before performing any task as the most challenging to play. “Raja Galgale was one character that I did not seem to get it right, even while doing the Gujarati version of the play. But under Kedar’s his direction, I could get a much better hold on it. I realised that when you are at ease with the characters, then it translates into your performance as well. In fact, how the character was sketched is an interesting story in itself. Once, while Bharat was crossing a road, he happened to encounter a gentleman who kept talking to himself. ‘hang on there’s a car coming, you will be hit by it, be watchful, okay now it safe to cross the road, okay very good, you’ve reached the other end well done’! Bharat found this extremely funny, so when they made Sahi… they incorporated this character.”
Joshi, consider his father, renowned theatre actor Arvind Joshi as his role model. His father, however allowed his son to grow as an individual, walk his own path and carve his own personality. “He would quietly guide me, but he has never imposed his ideas. I wanted to sketch my own path and make my journey as original and exciting for myself,” says the actor.