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iView Author:
Kumar Gautam
(Bombay, India)

EMAIL:
writerdirectorgautam [at] gmail.com

“Padhoge Likhoge banoge Nawab

Kheloge kudoge hoge kharab” – Anonymous

(If you study and educate, you will become a ruler

If you jump and play, then you will be a looser)

Our grandparents hymned this to discourage us from participating in any sporting activities. For them, a good grandchild was one who religiously went to school, completed homework just after returning from the school, went early to bed after watching 9’o clock news on television (watching anything else on TV was taboo), preferably read (if newspaper, then its best) during leisure hour and yes, accompanied them for morning walks (after all that is the only way to remain healthy). Once in a while playing Khusti (wrestling) or Kabaddi was also not bad as it was not sports but culture. Hockey and Football was bad because there were chances of injuring or breaking body parts. Cricket was ominous because it took an entire day to finish and most importantly Americans and Japanese didn’t waste time playing cricket.

Parents also had their preset rules testified since generations. They were in no way less. CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) gave whopping marks in board exams and suddenly 90% culture started prevailing in society. So, if you are good you better score 90%, a percent more is good but a percent less is just not tolerable. This 90% culture and expectations of grandparents stole the childhood of children. Many children steered through as parents not only preached but also worked hard with kids. Many children succumbed and faired extremely bad. Their parents gave up cursing bad fate and God’s will. Some children argued, talked, in a way fought for their desires and freedom. The play “Mummy Please” by Om Katare successfully attempts to identify these situations and shows the way of bringing amnesty in between parent and children with the help of a comical messenger ‘Piloo’.

“Mummy Please” is the story of ‘Aayush’, a school going boy. Aayush is multi-talented kid and is equally interested in studies and co-curricular activities. Like any other kid of present genearation, he is more in awe with computer games and Gizmos. But his mother wants him to concentrate more on studies and score exceedingly well in exams. At the same time, mother is not that much concerned about ‘Anjana’ her daughter because she thinks of her as mature girl who can adjust with time. Mummy curbs the freedom of Aayush and expects him to score nothing less than 90% like other highly scoring guys in his class. Aayush is stopped from going out, meeting friends, playing on computer. Aayush studies hard in order to please Mummy. Meanwhile, Mummy on the influence of her over-smart neighbour keeps on tightening the disciplinarian acts. This leads to an atmosphere of misunderstanding, tension, stress and confrontation in between Aayush and Mummy. It goes on to such a height that they start talking in mono-syllables. Aayush stops eating food and keeps on studying adamantly in order to impress mother.

‘Piloo’, the cartoon character stick on his computer monitor comes as relief in Aayush’s life. The cartoon character turns real and develops friendship with Aayush. While fun factor returns back in life of Aayush, Mummy gets frenzy seeing Aayush talking to no one around as piloo was only visible to Aayush. Mummy and Anjana think of relieving Aayush from burden of studies before he turns psycho. Meanwhile, Aayush is on a different trance and his happiness quotient is not hidden with Anjana for long. Piloo becomes visible to both Aayush and Anjana, and this adds more to tension of unaware Mummy. She consults her Bengali typical “mom kind” friend. Friend comes with suggestion that kids keep on doing this kind of non-sense to skip studies and develop sympathy factor for themselves. Mummy turns into ‘kali’. She unnotices the special efforts of kids to keep her happy. “Piloo” feels sad seeing the cracking developments in between kid and parents. He then seeps in sweetness in their relation with the help of his magic after consulting his peers from alien land. Mummy is so excited with the developments that she wishes to see piloo and they all dance together. Mummy promises not to over-stress kids and expand the burden of expectation whereas Aayush promises to deliver his best and create a balance in between his studies and interests in future.

“Mummy Please” is a play for kids in the age group of 5 to 55. With its excellent production value, light and sound designing it comes out as one of the must watch play for children. The character “Piloo” has so much of dramatic and emotional variation that it would not be an exaggeration to say that at places it stands out more than “Jadoo” of Koi Mil Gaya. Sometimes it makes you remember of Raj Kapoor from Mera Naam Joker but the unintentional attempt of actor to copy vocal chords of actor Govinda spoils the magic in between. But the way character of Piloo was winning adulation and friendship of kids in theater it simply explains that Piloo of Om katare is a winner.

“Mummy Please” is a must watch play as it bridges in so called “Generation Gap” and communication jerks in between Kids and parents. At the same platform it objectively finds the faults in kids and parents and helps them in finding a solution to it. In a subtle way, through various comical crests and troughs it somewhere jolts our conscience which results in making us thoughtful, smarter and better human irrespective of the fact that we are kids or parents.