'sweeney todd' . harish lunch . 'kheli meli'. marathi manoos and the family

it’s a blast watching helena bonham carter and johnny depp relish the slashing of throats and gleefully sing and dance to blood splattered songs in ‘sweeney todd’. namrata and me squirmed, giggled, laughed as the barber wreaks his vengeance upon the vermin infested city of london where the blood flows like vermillion water down the cobblestreets. that was two operas in a row.

and at lunch, the vagaries of college provided us with fodder for more nasty in-jokes and self deprecating humor regarding college, student affairs and the state of architecture in the city. nothing new about that particular bitching session.

but surprisingly the marathi play in the evening ‘kheli meli’ also turned out to be pretty twisted as a group of men dying from an incurable disease joke about love, sex and death. a black humour not often seen on marathi stage which otherwise goes for the silly slapstick. i enjoyed it in spite of the tackily made but interestingly imagined set, the over extended and unnecessarily sappy end and the obligatory (in an mns world) marathi manoos joke.

speaking of marathi manoos, i was embarrassed to find my late poet uncle suresh bhats words being appropriated by the mns to justify the anti north indian tirade of the mns. words from his poem for the sanyukta maharashtra movement are displayed in huge saffron posters at strategic junctions in the city. i don’t know why it should baffle me- this completely regressive posturing by the illustrious lode star of our family. its not as if the rest of the clan is very different.