13 roles & a stage

Rana Siddiqui Zaman

Though she was nominated for the Best Debut Filmfare award for Yahaan in 2005, Minissha Lamba barely made it to public memory, except for her innocent face and a child-like smile. Her most memorable character is from Yash Raj Films’Bachna Ae Haseeno. She also gave an impressive performance in Shyam Benegal’s National Award-winning film Well Done Abba. 

However, the 33-year-old is back and has swept the audience off their feet in her first-ever play, Mirror Mirror, wherein she plays 13 characters. The English drama was staged in New Delhi recently. The play is written and directed by Saif Hyder Hasan, known for bringing the love stories of Sahir Ludhianvi & Amrita Pritam and Geeta Dutt & Guru Dutt on stage.

The 80-minute drama is a fast-paced psychological thriller on urban angst and sibling rivalry. The story traces the relationship between identical twins Minal and Manya. When the girls turn four, the father gives Manya away to his childless brother. But the foster parents meet with a fatal accident and Manya comes back to her biological family two years later. The arrival of a sibling disturbs Minal’s space. The play captures her feelings through family members, relatives and friends till the twins reach middle age.

Two naughty kids, two teenagers, mothers, a matter-of-fact and authoritative father, a strict yet doting mother, Minal’s forever romantic lover-turned-husband Danish, a hero straight out of Mills & Boons, Jyoti mama, who Minal has a crush on, Manya’s husband Kunal, chacha-chachi, Minal’s son and friend Rehan… Minissha’s effortless transition from one character to another weaves magic. She brings in the required voice modulation, body language, cynicism, arrogance, stubbornness, hatred, jealousy, agony, angst, love, laughter and tears. Her soprano is a new-found talent. “I love listening to western classical and many pieces have touched my heart. I used Ave Maria here,” she says.

Hasan maintains his signature style of entwining euphonic ghazals when the girl is in love. His storyteller, Minal, keeps on munching, drinking, chopping vegetables, striding and strolling from one time zone to another. With crisp monologues, peppered with humour, Hasan doesn’t allow a moment of boredom. 

Veteran art director Raghav prepared the roof with beam lights of a broken house with no walls. He explained, “Instead of traditionally used fabric or ply, I used raw, unpainted metal to make windows, bar and painting of a semi-nude woman to represent the sharpness and hollowness of the ambience.” 

The play is interspersed with some of Hasan’s personal moments — the  nakhras, balling actions of his six-year-old son and a calming lullaby he wrote for him. He lost his son a couple of weeks back and it is that lullaby which concluded this play, to a standing ovation…