Picture credit: Kyle Adler
Archana Asthana
A madcap comedy with all the trappings of mistaken identities, misspoken words, wrong assumptions, physical humor… and more, is the hallmark of the latest Naatak production of “Funny Money” playing at Cubberly Theater in Palo Alto over the next two weekends.
An average, somewhat boring accountant on his way back from work on the local train gets off at Bandra station, with his briefcase, except, that happens to not be his own briefcase, but one that is full of money, clearly not his!
How does this man, Himesh, brilliantly portrayed by veteran Harish Agastya, react to this sudden unexpected, and illegal windfall? By going to his local club’s bar, counting the money, thrice, in the privacy of the bathroom, and becoming more agitated and restless with the confirmation of the presence of 7 crores and 35 lakh rupees which are now in his possession!
Upon reaching home, he frantically proceeds to book a one-way ticket to anywhere in the world and orders a taxicab to transport him and his wife to the airport. His wife Janani (Deepal Pandya), having cooked him a birthday dinner for the evening’s celebration with some old friends, is bewildered by his antics and besides herself when the actual reason for such actions is revealed. Returning the briefcase to the lost and found property is not an option, as Himesh reasons, because this must be the result of nefarious activities and unaccounted for, and therefore is his to use with no explanations. Of course, he will need to abandon his current life and flee abroad, as returning to his job would mean the actual owner of said briefcase would know his whereabouts from the contents of his own briefcase and seek him out and demand the return of the money.
What follows is an uproarious sequence of CID inspectors investigating solicitation charges and a dead body- that of Harish, identified by his briefcase left behind at the scene of the crime; hysterical spouses and friends; concocted relatives; and confused taxi drivers. The momentum never sags with its unexpected and unfortunate twists and turns and the audience is pulled along in the absurdity of falsehoods, wordplay and situational comedy.
Mukund Marathe’s direction takes advantage of the living room set where all the drama takes place; the doors create compartments for action behind them. The play, written by Ray Coony is abbreviated from its original length, though at times, it does seem to have the same shenanigans repeated in a loop.
All the actors leave an impact with an engaging performance, no matter the size of the role. The couple friend Bharati and Vikram (Soumya Padmanabhan and Dilip Ratnam), the taxi driver (Abhay Paranjape), Inspectors (Natraj Kumar and Dinesh Rao), and Mr. Big (Shashank Divekar) ably provide the requisite level of engagement and serve a unique role to fit perfectly in this hilarious jigsaw. The small cast of eight serve up enough confusion with additional fictitious characters to create a crowd on stage!
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