New play Akbar Birbal is about plebeian humor applied to royal family

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What happens when Emperor Akbar, his wife Jodha, son Salim, the venerated Birbal and Anarkali are all placed in the digital era, complete with ancient traditions and ambience? This core idea for this new play is admirable as a getaway to humor, but the end-result is a mishmash of terrible (and occasionally truly witty) puns, one-liners and social comments.

Overall, perhaps, this is the right mix of plebeian humor that downscale stage presentations have to possess to imprison (!) audience that just wants a breezy time on weekends. Paritosh Painter, the writer and director, has given several comedies down more than the last 20 years, but either his humor quotient is steadily sliding down or maybe my taste in what is funny has been refined on screen by some great comedies. But either way, I found myself chortling or grinning only sporadically in a near-2.5 hours drama.

Akbar and Salim have the usual nok-jhok (squabbles), and so do Akbar and Jodha. There are hints at Akbar’s yen for Anarkali (a new angle that could have been followed up intelligently!) and yet there is hardly any Birbal witticism heard—or even a solution to any dilemma or issue. Against the canon, again, there is no conflict regarding Anarkali between Akbar and Salim, or even a full-blown romance.

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Obviously, words like ‘Instagram’ and ‘followers’ and all the state-of-the-art terms come in, but as I write this piece, I can hardly recall any writing as worth quoting. Yes, at a very basic level we have confusion between the word ‘foran’ (which means ‘instantly’) and ‘foreign’ used for a ‘funny’ exchange of words.

Get the idea?

So, this is a play that is worth watching only if you like lowbrow comedies. The stage performances do save the situation. Ali Asgar as Akbar is superb in his mercurial moods and changes. Delnaaz Irani as Jodha (we have body-shaming galore here, but all in camp stage humor!) is excellent. Nyrraa Bannerjee as the seductive Anarkali is alright, though she dances well —Oh! I forgot, this presentation is touted as a musical, but the songs are purely functional. Farzil Pardiwala as Wazir-e-azam (chief minister) and Yashkant Sharma as the darban (watchnan) shine. Pawan Singh as Salim is effective.

The major disappointment is Vishaal Kotian as Birbal, but it is basically because he is given zilch scope. Harshall Kamat doubles as a faryadi (a commoner with a grievance) and invader Afghan Pani and is amusing as the latter. But he does well even as the play’s choreographer—his triple act.

Like the script, the dialogues by Laurence John are just about serviceable. No more. And neither is the entire presentation wherein the pre-interval phase actually seems stretched. But going by audience sensibilities, I am sure that the play will work and ‘paint’ a rosy picture for Paritosh.

However, frankly, I feel that Paritosh should reinvent and ‘F5’ (Refresh!) himself and then present himself next at the court of his till-today indulgent audience.

Ideas The Entertainment Company & BMB Entertainments & Events present Akbar Birbal  Produced By Pramod Bokadia & Paritosh Painter  Written & Directed By Paritosh Painter  Dialogues: Laurence John Music: Kashyap Sompura   Cast: Ali Asgar, Vishaal Kotian, Delnaaz Irani, Nyrraa Banerjee, Pawan Singh, Farzil Pardiwala, Yashkant Sharma & Harshall Kamat

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