Family in candid mode

Shabana Azmi plays the role of a mother in an English social comedy, but she neither dominates the proceedings nor is the lead character

First of all, I assumed, as did many others, that the Sunita in Happy Birthday, Sunita - Shabana Azmi's new play written by Harvey Virdi and recently on a tour of Indian cities - would be Azmi herself. I was wrong. Second, I assumed that any play with Azmi (Tumhari Amrita springs to mind) would be dominated by her and her alone, and again I was wrong.

Happy Birthday, Sunita, directed by Pravesh Kumar and Virdi, is a light-hearted, easy-going interplay of some humourous moments and poignant ones with at least three almost equally strong performances.

The play centres on the lives of a Punjabi family settled in the United Kingdom. The head of the family, who is a father of two children, has returned to India and settled down there - ostensibly with a new wife. The son and daughter, Nav and Sunita, find this abandonment hard to come to terms with and live under the illusion that he will return. The mother, Tejpal, however, is more in tune with reality and knows that he is gone forever. She eventually finds the courage to follow her own heart. The children gradually learn to accept that they have to live their lives without their father and accept their mother's new found freedom - in thought and in action.

Goldy Notay's character Harleen - Tejpal's daughter-in-law - for the first few seconds appears a bit exaggerated (is she for real, one could ask), but as the play moves on, she plays the part of the slightly giddy, vacuous daughter-in-law to the tee. It is easy to be convinced that she is what she is portraying - a silly, fashion industry wannabe, rather intimidated by her slightly serious, introverted and demure sister-in-law. Tittering like a bit of a fool on her high heels, you can't help but like her, her timing and expressions matching her dumb belle portrayal to perfection.

Ameet Chana also does a good job of playing Tejpal's son - at the end of his tether although in love with his silly wife, fond and unable to understand his moody and unpredictable sister and the apple of his mother's eye. Chana is at his best when he challenges and then comes to terms with his mother's sudden decision to break her shackles and find what she wants instead of spending the rest of her life catering to what everyone else in her family wants - something Indian women are conditioned to do.

Sunita - played by Clara Indrani - is the slightly recalcitrant, reserved and angry daughter. Indrani plays her part well but when she reveals the true reason for her melancholy, the performance seems a trifle forced and a bit unconvincing. Is her father's absence bothering her or is it her unrequited love? It's hard to say and as the audience you don't necessarily want to know.

Azmi - as Tejpal - plays her role with a quiet elegance and you almost want to applaud - and I think people did - when she drops her bombshell on her aghast family members. Again, Harleen's hilarious reactions to the big announcement steal the moment.

A nice feature of the entire play is the frankness and lack of political correctness between the daughter-in-law and the rest of the family. Sunita especially says it like it is and makes no bones about the fact that she considers her sister-in-law an idiot - an attitude she visibly softens towards the end. Harleen may be an idiot but she is a warm, good-hearted one.