A still from Kannada play Beg Borrow Aliya, which is a family comedy about parents trying to find the right boy for their daughter
BENGALURU:He’d directed several plays, but this time Hanu Ramasanjeeva wanted to deal with a subject that was a glimpse of daily life. “Something small, but significant, that happens in our daily life was what I wanted to focus on,” he says.
Which is how, he zeroed-in on the timeless subject of marriage. Beg Borrow Aliya (‘aliya’ meaning groom in Kannada) is a family comedy about parents trying to find a groom for their daughter. The story revolves around Vishwa, who is keen to get his daughter Laila married to a film star. This, to fulfill his own unfilled wish as young boy of wanting to marry a movie star. However, the girl’s mother, Vishalu, wants Laila to marry a man whose parents live separately, or preferrably, are not alive. “The parents’ characters are inspired from real-life stories I heard these issues while researching for the script,” Ramasanjeev says.
A series of confusing events ensue, with a ‘symbolic murder twist’ as the climax. Though three grooms respond to the advertisement, the parents are disappointed to find that the boys’ professions involve sticking film posters on walls, film production in-charge and guiding audience at theatres to their seats.
“These days, there’s a new criteria while looking for alliances. Earlier, they would look at honesty, values and family support. Today, it is more materialistic. If the girl has studied abroad, they want the boy to have done the same. A girl in her mid-20s wasn’t able to pursue her passion of becoming a chef because her mother thought she would not get an engineering graduate as a husband with that sort of job,” says Ramasanjeev.
The writing process, by M S Narasimhamurthy, took about 20 days. Now, he even plans to publish the 70-minute play in the form of a book.
The Kannada comedy play will be performed on May 5, from 4.30 pm to 7.30 pm, at K H Kalasoudha
Hanumanthanagara. Tickets are priced at `100 per head.
