There are two ways of assessing 7:40 ki Ladies Special by Aawara Theatre Group (Mumbai, presented in Kolkata by Sanskriti Sagar), in terms of social inclusivity, and in terms of theatrical art. With an eye for generating awareness and empathy, the script by Sapna and Viren Basoya reveals the sordid existence of transgender Indians, and specifically the real-life metamorphosis of Pooja Sharma (alias Junior Rekha), born Palash to a lower-middle-class Bengali village family, teased and abused in childhood, escaping to Mumbai, joining itinerant trans beggars, earning respect for her dancing in ladies’ compartments on suburban trains, from where videos of her went viral and she became a cellphone sensation. Her exploitation as a boy wrenches our hearts, and the Mumbai women commuters’ warm acceptance and praise of her evoke our admiration.
The fact that Pooja performs as her adult self in the play gives it authenticity; and she does not flaunt any starry airs. Ranjay Kumar enacts young Pooja with genuine vulnerability, and Sapna Basoya portrays a compassionate Guru Ma in her Mumbai community. However, the polished cane furniture set wrecks plausibility for Pooja’s poor home in Bengal. More distressingly, director Viren Basoya invests too much in over-the-top disco lighting and high-decibel soundtrack to signal her success, perhaps meant to replicate the conditions in the telly belly dance industry, but they detonate the show aesthetically, causing viewers temporary blindness by flashing into their eyes and temporary deafness by blasting their eardrums. If these gimmicks represent Pooja’s arrival as a celebrity, they end up alienating us instead and ensure counterproductively that we don’t wish such ostentation on anyone.
30 November 2024