A young, successful woman living in Mumbai doesn’t want to get married, but her grandmother has a plan up her sleeve. We’ve all heard this story, but what makes this one different is that apart from drama, it has elements of magic and mentalism. This is what mentalist Suhani Shah and storyteller Mehak Mirza Prabhu’s new online play, Suhani Ki Shaadi, is all about. The show, which has had three sold-out runs on Zoom, features Shah playing herself, while Mirza Prabhu essays five characters — the former’s grandmother, best friend, manager, a crazy fan and niece. Speaking about this unusual collaboration, Mirza Prabhu says, “We met a year ago, and toyed with the idea of combining magic, storytelling and mentalism together. When the lockdown started, Shah and I were talking of IGTV videos and bouncing off silly ideas, when this one clicked.”
Shah shares that they wanted to address the issue of a woman navigating the pressures of marriage. “Suhani is a modern woman who believes that things happen at the right time. We wanted to speak about this without being preachy, and add a humorous touch which is where Mirza Prabhu comes in. As the grandmother, she sets up the narrative of trying to get me married. Throughout the 1.15-hour long play, she switches between five characters to interact with me and the audience,” explains Shah. Mirza Prabhu adds that the switches are facilitated by an unseen narrator, Swaraj Singh. “Singh blends instructions for the audience with fun. He not only directs them on where to focus on the screen, but also holds the story together,” she says, adding that with each character, her costume and the set changes.
A scene from the play
During the play, Shah slips in mentalism games and magic tricks to further the story. For instance, she says, “There’s a conversation between the best friend, Sonam, and I about what qualities I’d want in a husband. I say that I had written it in a letter and go to find it, during which Sonam asks the audience what qualities they think I will like. We open up the comments section for the audience while I’m not in the scene. When I come back, I find the letter, which had been at my desk all along. The letter has the exact qualities that the audience recommended, although I never see the comments.”
The format is tricky, they admit. “I think the blend of the art forms is seamless as they needed each other. The moment you weave magic into a storytelling format, it changes it into an experience for the audience,” elaborates Mirza Prabhu, who brought her expertise at doing online storytelling shows to the table. Is doing mentalism in a digital space difficult, we ask. “Of course, it took me three to four digital shows to find out what was working. As mentalists, we rely so much on the body language of the participant, and now, they are miles away. The trick is to modify the performances to cater to the digital audience,” Shah asserts.
Mehak Mirza Prabhu and Suhani Shah
The feedback has been great so far, they tell us. This is possibly because they were very clear from the start that this wasn’t going to be just another performance that people “watch”. “They can watch a high-definition video on YouTube. The audience had to be a part of Suhani’s story,” they tell us. That’s the magic.
On June 20, 5 pm
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Cost Rs 499
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