Ode to the City
For those who grew up around the predominantly Catholic settlements of Bandra and Santacruz (in Mumbai), Ayeesha Menon’s Pereira’s Bakery at 76 Chapel Road is like a shot of pure nostalgia.
Over the years, the fairytale cottages and close-knit communities have given way to impersonal highrises, and even though the Pereiras and their neighbours are fighting a losing battle, you root for them. Hidayat Sami plays Pereira with a straight-backed dignity that also seems to have been lost when the landscape of these areas changed.
In Menon’s evocative play (part of the Writers’ Bloc Festival), directed by Zafar Khan Karachiwala, Vincent Pereira, his wife (Deepika Amin), daughter Annie (Ahlam Khan Karachiwala) and neighbours try to stand up to the might of the builders, who want to demolish their home to build a car park for the large shopping mall coming up on the neighbouring plot. The sounds of drilling and hammering of new constructions punctuate their day.
Menon has created her characters lovingly and without turning them into broad caricatures. The crabby, sharp-tongued Pinto (Darius Shroff is a revelation!), the deaf old Colonel (Sohrab Ardeshir), an Indian Idol aspirant (Nisha Lalvani) and her mother (Tahira Nath). They speak in the lilting tones of old Bandra and treat each other as family. All this is about to end, and there is no help forthcoming – neither from the media, nor NGOs or community groups. The bakery with its traditional recipes handed down from father to son, is also losing out to mass-produced chain food stores.
The drama of love, betrayal and breaking of bonds is played out on fabulous set of a crumbling old tenement. Many in theaudience admitted to have been moved to tears.
For those who grew up around the predominantly Catholic settlements of Bandra and Santacruz (in Mumbai), Ayeesha Menon’s Pereira’s Bakery at 76 Chapel Road is like a shot of pure nostalgia.
Over the years, the fairytale cottages and close-knit communities have given way to impersonal highrises, and even though the Pereiras and their neighbours are fighting a losing battle, you root for them. Hidayat Sami plays Pereira with a straight-backed dignity that also seems to have been lost when the landscape of these areas changed.
In Menon’s evocative play (part of the Writers’ Bloc Festival), directed by Zafar Khan Karachiwala, Vincent Pereira, his wife (Deepika Amin), daughter Annie (Ahlam Khan Karachiwala) and neighbours try to stand up to the might of the builders, who want to demolish their home to build a car park for the large shopping mall coming up on the neighbouring plot. The sounds of drilling and hammering of new constructions punctuate their day.
Menon has created her characters lovingly and without turning them into broad caricatures. The crabby, sharp-tongued Pinto (Darius Shroff is a revelation!), the deaf old Colonel (Sohrab Ardeshir), an Indian Idol aspirant (Nisha Lalvani) and her mother (Tahira Nath). They speak in the lilting tones of old Bandra and treat each other as family. All this is about to end, and there is no help forthcoming – neither from the media, nor NGOs or community groups. The bakery with its traditional recipes handed down from father to son, is also losing out to mass-produced chain food stores.
The drama of love, betrayal and breaking of bonds is played out on fabulous set of a crumbling old tenement. Many in theaudience admitted to have been moved to tears.
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