Life’s like that

“It’s such a small world,and an even smaller life,we might as well spread a lot of laughter amongst people to quell the unhappiness all around,” says Bedi in his trademark tongue-in-cheek style humour. In the city to perform the two-act monologue,titled Massage at Bougainvillea,in Camp,Bedi,who was at his candid best,spoke about his long journey through his (Film and Television Institute of India) FTII days to television,theater and films,and about life having come full circle for him.

“Its hard to put down this feeling of performing a play in words. On the one hand it is immensely exciting as you get only one take in which you have to keep the audience glued to the stage for two hours,and on the other hand you are also apprehensive about any unforeseen error that might occur on the stage. This whole unpredictability about the same gives me an immense high while performing plays,” he says.

The play Massage tells the story of ‘Happy Kumar’ a common man who comes to Mumbai,with empty pockets and a sackful of dreams of being a hero. Passing through a series of ups and downs,successes and failures Happy ends up becoming a loser,albeit a Happy successful loser in the words of Bedi. “While the play is a humourous take on our own petty guidelines of defining success and failures it does ask a very important question about can we measure success in terms of happiness,and if we are immensely happy and yet haven’t achieved a significant amount in life are we successful?” he says.

Moving on to serious issues Bedi feels that art and culture have since time eternal been a mirror for society to showcase the actual happenings and hollowness of the same. “In many ways it is a sad thing. The kind of censorship that artistes face,not from the government but from various elements is saddening rather than appalling because as an artiste I feel the freedom of speech is an imperative right for me and for anyone. I cannot understand these self dictated censorship rules of a certain faction of society,” he says.

The versatile comedian however also adds that change in the medium of expression be it cinema or television or theatre is important and it needs to be respected,in its own right. “As far as coming full circle goes,I still get goose bumps when I step back into my FTII classroom to teach the students those very same things that I learnt as an actor. It is thrilling,exhilarating,calming and a range of other exploding emotions all at the same time when I am there. Akin to performing a play live in front of an audience,really,” he says on a concluding note.