Amar Photo Studio

Memories Are Made Of This

Amar Photo Studio, written by Manaswini Lata Ravindra and directed by Nipun Dharmadhikari, has been one of the successes on the Marathi stage in recent months. It has also won multiple awards and travelled abroad. That the cast is made up of popular television actors could be one reason, the play’s funky fantasy plot (reminiscent of Hollywood films like Back To The Future) could be another.

Apu (Suvrat Joshi) and Tanu (Sakhi Gokhale) are in love, but he is due to travel for further studies, and she suggests breaking up, because she believes long distance relationships don’t work. During the process of their bickering they arrive at an old-style Amar Photo Studio, which, strangely they have not noticed till then. The eccentric owner (Amey Wagh) explains that “you see it only when you need to see it.” The studio with sepia photographs on the walls and an ancient camera fascinates the two of them.

Apu and Tanu pose in front of period backdrops and find themselves transported to that era—Apu to a Forties film studio, where V. Shantaram (also played by Wagh) is shooting Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, so the costumes, set and even tea are black and white. Apu runs into actress Chandrika (Pooja Thombre), who speaks in the simpering way women used in films of that period, and is blasé about being exploited by the arrogant lead star (Siddhesh Purkar), because, well, the world back then hasn’t heard of the MeToo movement.

Tanu lands up, whooping with excitement in the Seventies, when the Emergency is at its peak, and so is the hippie era.

It would be a spoiler to reveal more about the characters, but it is fun to see the actors play multiple parts with ease, and also to connect the dots that lead to the clever finale, that answers the reasons for the blocks in Apu and Tanu’s love story.

The sets need a coat of paint, but the changes were quick and smooth and, despite its long running time, which makes a few longeurs inevitable, Amar Photo Studio is a very enjoyable play.