City theatre group to showcase adaptation of Manu Joseph’s novel

The engaging plotlines of renowned author-journalist Manu Joseph’s recent novel, Miss Laila, Armed and Dangerous (2017), will come to life on stage through an adaptation by The Madras Players. The play, titled Laila and Jamal, is based on one thread of the novel, the one surrounding the characters Laila and Jamal. Nikhila Kesavan of The Madras Players, who adapted the novel into a play, is also directing it.

“I have always been fond of Manu’s writings and have been keenly following them. I find his stories really moving and have also adapted earlier book of Manu’s titled Serious Men (2010) into a play. With Manu being a writer who is greatly committed to the plot, I feel that there is a solid story to bring alive through a play. I have kept this play as a faithful adaptation of the book — and haven’t rewritten or paraphrased any of the lines, but have only restricted my focus to highlight the value of human life in our socio-political system,” Nikhila tells us.

The story is set on a highway in Mumbai, and revolves around a young Muslim couple, Jamal and Laila, who are also terror suspects. The entire plot is in a timeframe of 12 hours, with each scene connecting dots to lead to the climax. “With the play set on a highway, it was a big challenge aiming at a correct form and structure for the play. The plot runs in four different threads, which all converge into a climax,” explains Nikhila.

It took a total of 9 months ofscripting and 3 months of production work for this stage adaptation, she informs. The cast includes a total of 11 actors, with the youngest being a 11-year-old girl, and the oldest being a 72-year-old man. “Even though the words in the play aren’t mine, I still feel that I have a lot of creative freedom as a storyteller. With the words written beautifully, I feel much more freedom,” adds Nikhila.

For The Madras Players, one of the oldest theatre groups in our country founded in 1955, Nikhila has also adapted and directed the works like Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone, Jhumpa Lahiri’s A Temporary Matter among others.

“Laila and Jamal will be a play that doesn’t spoon-feed the audience, but instead allows them to think. It is like watching a thriller or solving a puzzle. Manu Joseph is also expected tobe at the adaptation’s staging,”Nikhila adds.