JAM by Harkat Studio: REview

SYNOPSIS
Harkat Studios presents their first very own play: JAM.
Premier: @Prithvi Theatre, November 6, 2018. 60 mins; 19:00-20:00 hrs
The play merges live-projection, sand art and storytelling in a way that never seen before.
Bina and Surekha are college friends who haven’t met for years. Now they have met but are stuck in a car in a terrible traffic jam. For Surekha, this is an everyday situation. She drives, swears and is not above nudging a car that is refusing to give way. But is there more to her aggression? With no way out of the jam, they revisit their days back in Darjeeling and the treachery of their current lives. Matters take a sinister turn when Surekha scratches a bigger car. Was it deliberate? Why? In a headless turn of events, past and present merge, mirror and oppose each other. One decision can change your life forever, even if you believe you have forgotten - others remember… 
Written by Annie Zaidi; Directed by Shivani Tanksale 
Cast: Shivani Tanksale, Ishita Sharma, Ajitesh Gupta
Animation + Live Design: Debjani Mukherjee; Sound: Ajitesh Gupta; Light: Amogh Phadke

REVIEW
I've a driving license but I don't drive. I'd tried my hands in Indonesia for a few months driving around in my Isuzu Panther. Once on my way all by myself from Bogor to Puncak I was stuck in a traffic jam for four hours.
You don't know what traffic jam is until you hit the Bogor Puncak toll road on a weekend.
In one of those downhill stretches I softly hit the bumper of the car in front of me. Indonesian couple in the car were accommodating and didn't bother about a small dent. However, it was a big dent to my interest to drive. 
Jam was a good enough reason for me to stop driving car from that day in 2003, and I was happy to driven around by my driver, Pak Jumhari.

This play, Jam, nicely shows how I can relate with the protagonist, Bina, played by Ishita Sharma. Like her even I don't know any technical details or names of different parts of a car. I honestly don't know :-) 

Well, all the three on-stage actors including Shivani Tanksale and Ajitesh Gupta will make you believe you are in a traffic jam. A experience that comes to live thanks to amazing use of different media - sand-art animation, sound and lights - brilliant use of these in small doses keeps audience absolutely engaged for 60 minutes. 

I see Jam as a superb experimentation of bringing together different art forms to share a simple story to make you almost 'feel' the space with the protagonists. A beautiful script by Annie Zaidi about two college friends from Mumbai going back-and-forth between their past lives and relationships, and revealing their own current relationships with each other. The use of Bollywood songs through a radio and involving Ajitesh as Radio Jockey in the background brilliantly uses the emotions of the two women protagonists - Surekha, the scientist and Bina, the 'happy' housewife from Pune exploring the idea of completing Masters degree. 

You would truly enjoy this play - I'd highly recommend to watch it when you get a chance. Every time you are in traffic jam I bet this play will be a beautiful reminder!