For all those who have enjoyed those unforgettable college years and really value your friendships, this play is for you and if you’re a Bomayite, then the play’s definitely for you (I guess that should cover just about everyone :P). Me, Kash and Cruise follows the lives and times of 3 friends- Puja Thomas, Rajesh Kashyap & Pervez Bin Khan, right from their years in St.Xaviers in 1984 to present day Mumbai. Through their journey, Rahul DaCunha’s play tells the story of Mumbai through the last 25 years: the riots, the blasts, the Ganapati Visarjans, the commercialization of just about everything, the self proclaimed censorship brigade, the 11o’clock music deadline and the ever so reliable traffic jams.
Puja, the ‘Me’ of the trio, plays the sutradhar weaving the story together: Tom-boyish, Bombay lover (read Bombay-lover not Mumbai-lover), she expresses her anguish at people talking about the ‘strength and spirit’ of Mumbai. She questions, she ponders, she laughs and she cries, guiding the audience through the story. Kash plays the loner, the person who tries to find the real meaning to life by going on those self-discovery journeys when things don’t seem right, a person with little patience and with no time for social niceties, a person afraid, in his own words, to jump across the fence because he is worried about the consequences; Whether he does manage to jump across that fence is for the audience to see. Talking about Kash in his college days, Puja jokes ‘Guys do different things to impress girls; some get 6 packs, some grow their hair, Kash does intense, philosophical theatre’.
While both Yamini (Puja) and Neil (Kash) do a fine job, Amit as Cruise definitely has the most dynamic role of the three. Pervaz, rechristens himself Cruise for obvious reasons (read Tom Cruise..for the uninitiated), plays a happy-go-lucky guy who was born a crowd pleaser, a complete opposite to Kash. While he pokes fun at his inability to make a career in movies (Being typecast as a ‘Brother’) and dances to the Macarena in Bhangda Style, he, for a very brief moment, showcases the life of a middle-class Mumbaikar (K..He is a Delhiyite who moved to Mumbai..but having stayed in Mumbai for 25 years makes him one) which the other 2 characters seem to have completely forgotten, engrossed with their personal lives.
Rajit Kapur, as the 4th actor on stage, covers a gamut of Mumbaiya/Bombayite characters and his each performance leaves an indelible mark, whether it is the smart-ass street-hawker mockingly questioning Kash’s problem with life ( Tumhari ma/been mar gaayi? Ki khaney key liye paisa nahi hai?..Tu bol, tujhe kya problem hai merey bhai?) or the religious fanatic, the hilariously funny smooth talking marketing guru with his clichéd jargon (‘Talk to me’, ‘ I want it A.S.A.P and when I say A.S.A.P, I mean A.S.A.P) or the psychiatrist, the parsi bawa waiter or the Ganapati bakht engrossed in all his merriment. Through him, we see the different shades of the city.
While ‘Me, Kash & Cruise’ makes you laugh (a lot), it also makes you stop and ponder about issues while taking quite a few digs at politics (I would love to say it makes you cry- but I’m not the crying types :P ). It definitely makes one reminisce some good times and some not so good ones. Quoting Rajit Kapur’s psychiatrist character ‘Who wants the tasteless Soyabean Shanghai, give me the dal-chaval Mumbai’, ‘Me, Kash & Cruise’ is definitely full of spice and leaves a nice taste in your mouth at the end of it.
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