Makarand Deshpande’s Ansh Theatre Festival opened with all the love in Mumbai

It was 21 years back when the maverick but extremely warm and adorable Makarand Deshpande (lovingly called Mak) started his Ansh theatre group. Amongst his 40 original plays over these 21 years, the most acclaimed and loved one is Sir Sir Sarla that he chose to inaugurate his Ansh Theatre Festival with on Saturday evening (Ansh Theatre Festival is being held in association with Bombay Times at the Prithvi Theatre). Unlike any other artistic industry, the world of theare in India is like one big family who are not just warm to each other, but also support each other with generosity.
'Sir Sir Sarla' was originally staged in 2001 with Anurag Kashyap playing the famous character of Phanidhar and the beautiful Sonali Kulkarni playing Sarla. Both Anurag and Sonali were on stage to talk about the time they were part of the play. Anurag brought the house down with laughter when he narated how it started. “Every time Makarand would go to the hospital, he would come back writing 2-3 plays. Once Mak came back from hospital and called me and said, ‘I heard your film Paanch is stuck and you have a lot of anger in you.’ He said, ‘Kitne gusse mein hai?’ I said, ‘Bahut gusse mein hoon.’ He said, ‘Gussa nikalna hai toh I have a role for you.’” That’s how Anurag got to play Phanidhar’s character in Sir Sir Sarla. He already had his Sarla (Sonali Kulkarni). By the way, in beween he got so excited with this play that he even wrote three parts to it. Makarand interjected Anurag loudly, sitting in the audience, and said, “Ek minute. His next two films Black Friday and Gulaal had also got stuck so I wrote them” Anurag added, “Mak did all three plays on one Sunday and realised that they should not to be in three parts and what you see today is the best of the play back in one part.” Makarand along with the new cast performed the play to a full house, giving him a standing ovation and we cannot but say that his new Sarla, the beautiful and stunning actress Aahana Kumra is outstanding. We won’t be surprised if we soon see her on the big screen too.