The Owl and the Pussycat by Bill Manhoff

Many plays in India are either commendable renditions of famous American Broadway shows or just plain knock-offs. This one is somewhere between the two; leaning more towards cheap knock-off side though.

The original play, and the Indian version I witnessed, are about the perennial conflicts between the sexes. A struggling (and yet to become) writer Felix (or Fink as he is called by Doris), while trying to be a responsible citizen (and apple-licking-and-boot-polishing tenant to his landlord) complains about the misdemeanors of a prostitute (Doris) living in the same building. As a result of his “responsible” act of morality, the prostitute is kicked out by the landlord, and lands up at his apartment. After a few rounds of butt-kicking, the TV-obsessed woman declares that she will stay the night at his place, as he is the reason she is homeless.

The gender war commences as the self-declared “intellectual”, high-handed Felix ridicules about the bimbo-ness quotient of Doris, whose vocabulary is limited to “enervating”, and occasional slang-usage and cursing. The walking dictionary called Felix, is simply put, AWFUL, at his work, and rather disconnected from the world outside because of his aloofness. After a passionate night brought about by Doris’s [lousy and unappealing] seduction, the love starts to blossom in their hearts (No wonder how much that cliché “Opposites attract” goes around).

Cheesy and unimaginative dialogues don’t make this play any more interesting than it can get, which is not much. Doris is hardly refreshing as a typical “wannabe actress”, and the only one who could consider Felix remotely an author is he himself (his book starts with “When the sun spat the morning into the sky” or something!). But for some good dialogues thrown in for Felix’s character, the play was pretty much a drag. Kumud Mishra makes a great Owl, but his diction leaves a lot to be desired – he must know the meaning of enunciation, but he needs to put it more into practice. Kanika Dang was decent as the Pussycat, and did a bit of justice to the role. Writing and direction were just plain weak. Passable for sure, don’t pay more than 100 rupees for this.