Wo Subah Hum Hi Se Aayegi begins with a lot of promise. It suggests that it will be a revolutionary, passionate tale of youth rising to the challenge, that it will address the transformation of both the self and the state, and how the two are often correlated.However, ten minutes into the Mahesh Bhatt play, you realise that it is instead reminiscent of a ’90s Bollywood film, where a hard-working ladka crosses paths with an effervescent ladki, and they end up falling for each other.Much like a Hindi movie, there are also the usual bygone tropes that were once a hit formula – a drunk father, a dead mother, sad music, a second, more successful male lead, and a chirpy younger brother.The stage looked bright and was well set, while the actors did what they were told. Playwright Dinesh Gautam had some interesting ideas too, but they were never fully developed.For instance, the meta-interview structure with which the play begins, when the audience is first introduced to Ajay – a UPSC aspirant from Bihar – is abandoned for the rest of the play before eventually returning to close the story.Perhaps the strongest socio-political material arrives relatively late, particularly in the discussion around reservation and caste, but it too never matures.However, not all is lost to the whims and fancies of a melodramatic cliché. There are a few isolated good moments, including the nostalgic touch of Vividh Bharti and its programme, Chhaya Geet.The handful of comic lines that do land belong to the waiter. And the drunk dad is realistic enough to immerse you in the world of Kavita, Ajay and their predictable romance.Unfortunately, it still can’t save the largely underwhelming writing.To round off the unsurprising turn of events, Wo Subah Hum Hi Se Aayegi ends on a note where Kavita’s apparent rejection of Ajay is revealed to be a lie.Therefore, the play’s most interesting – and perhaps most innovative – theatrical device, the interview format, is also ultimately sacrificed at the altar of an expected filmy happy ending.
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-Anvita Singh
