Set on a Muslim family background, the play revolves around a useless huge machine that a financially feeble kabaadi wala, Ali, buys from an invention-loving Professor. He invests his entire day trying his tool skills to make it useful as he knows that the machine once had the capacity to transform a big item into small, an aging article into ageless and so on. He hides this fact from his aged and peevish wife ‘Husna’ and daughter ‘Kulsum.’ His involvement with the machine leads to constant quarrel at home while he has to face a regular nagging from `Lala’ whom he owes a lot of borrowings. He promises him that he will return his money with interest once the machine starts working.

An unbelieving Lala asks him the secret of the machine, which Ali refuses to share with him. Azeem, a neighbourhood, illiterate boy, inclined towards the films, keeps dropping at Ali’s place to steal a few moments with his daughter, a gesture that Husna takes gross objections and Ali does not mind as he intends their marriage in future. Azeem also tries to extract the machine’s secret out of Ali but in vain. But, as the luck would have it, once, in Ali’s absence, Husna decides to find its secret and destroy the machine for it is eating into her peaceful, domestic life. She enters into it to look for eggs she had kept inside and gets locked inside.

The machine starts working. Smoke rises from it, ear-deafening sounds emit and its lights start blinking. The crying daughter unsuccessful tries to unlock the machine to pull her mother out. She calls for her father who too finds himself unable to take her out. After some time, the machine opens automatically and Husna comes out of it — young — half her age, beautiful and throwing weight around. A shell-shocked Ali does not want his wife young and apprehends neighbours’ adverse reaction. A narcissist wife now forgets her household chores and remains lost in grooming herself up. She even starts flirting with Azeem and vice versa. Soon Lala gets to know of the secret of the machine and wants to buy it for 2 lakh and gets ready to forgo all credit he lends to Ali. He wants to grow young, look like Hritik Roshan for he feels hurt when young girls call him as ‘Tau’ (paternal uncle). Azeem promises him customers for a commission, even the aged Professor whom Ali buys machine from, comes to ‘have a look’ at it. Soon, the entire city gets to know of it. So do presspersons and ministers.

The minister promises them a factory in return of his ‘once free service.’ Worried from his wife’s infidelity and neighbourhood's young crowd peeping at his place in his absence, Ali refuses to sell the machine that could ultimately land him into trouble. But destiny plays its role timely. Azeem brings make up items for Husna, which she hides in the machine to dodge Ali.

In his absence she goes inside the machine to take them back and comes out as she was — old and nagging. A happy Ali decides to dispose off the machine as he understands that he has no rights to interfere in the natural course of life else the results will be unruly situations. We must be happy the way God makes us lead our lives.

“This play was written some 40 years back under the title Aik machine jawani ki, which I found a little immodest. Hence, I changed the tittle and also contemporaried it by adding that we should not try to meddle into ways that God deems fit for us. Same goes for making clones. It is an interference in God’s realm,” says the director and founder of ‘Rupanter Theatre Group’, Dinesh Ahlawat, who played boisterously entertaining ‘Lala’ in the play. This group of 15—20 budding talents has already staged eight successful shows of the same play in Delhi within last two months.

“We are planning to spread our wings in smaller places like Gurgaon, Haryana and Faridabad, where we plan to stage this and our other shows that includes Vijay Tendulkar’s unpublished play ‘Kaag Vidyalaya’ and ‘School of Wives,’ both hilarious comedies with message,” informs Pushp Sharma, an actor from the group, who has worked with several eminent directors and theatre groups in Mumbai.

The play’s asset Nupur Shankar Chauhan, who played Husna is a classical singer, who has come to India after a four-year stay abroad. “This is my first show after four years,” says the singer. While Ali (Virendra Verma) and a young Sagar Shauri (Azeem) provoked audience’s horse laugh with their natural acting, Shivangi’s (Kulsum) unchaste Urdu proved to be a flip side.

All in all, the play successfully conveyed the message in lighter vein.

Rana A Siddiqui