Akvarious Productions’s play follows a man from South Mumbai in an entertaining morality tale; one that warns you of being too self-indulgent
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"I love all women so much, I am practically a feminist," is a line said by protagonist, Chaitanya Bhardwaj, also knows as CB, of Colaba Casanova. The problem is that he loves them all in a love-them-leave-them-who-cares way. The Akvarious Productions play, adapted by Akarsh Khurana from Moliere’s Don Juan, is based on the life and legend of the French seducer of men, Don Juan. "I had read many versions of Don Juan and wanted to make it work in a Mumbai setting. And, since we knew we would be performing it at places like Brewbot, we knew we would have an 18 plus audience. That’s why we haven’t held back on the sexuality and profanity," he says.
What that means is that though it’s not shown explicitly, it is for you to know that CB is having sex all over the stage and off it too! And there is enough sexual innuendo to keep the moral peacekeepers of the world foaming at the mouth. "This is a man who, sometimes, has sex with as many as three women a day," says director Vivek Madan. "He can’t keep his hands off women. He is completely hedonistic and absorbed in satisfying his carnal pleasures. It could be defined as an entertaining morality tale." It’s a morality tale because, as it always happens, inevitably – when you are having too much fun, things will and do go wrong. "He doesn’t have a conscience and justifies his treatment of women and friends, in his head. But, you always gets your just desserts, and even though he tries to change in the end, he gets what was coming to him," says Aadhar Khurana, who plays CB.
But, the makers say that the play, which is being staged as part of the Fringe Festival, resonates with the audience, and nobody ever gets offended. "The age group of 25-40 relate to it. Either they have been there, or they know people like that," says Akarsh. But, as Madan sums it, "The audience goes away realising how important empathy is – how one needs to be good to people in their life and value them."
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