A nukkad naatak, a street play, is divided into two halves, as the protagonist of the film Nukkad Naatak, Shivang (played by Shivang Rajpal), tells us. In the first half, a social problem is described; in the second half, a solution is proposed. Such plays are put on by impassioned students like Shivang and his best friend Molshri (played by Molshri) on campus at the Zenith Institute of Technology (ZIT), Dhanbad. Molshri is a driving force for their theatre group, and she takes the shrinking Shivang under her wing, especially after he is subjected to homophobic ragging.
The Two Halves of a Street Play
But real life is never neatly divided into two halves, problem and solution, and Molshri and Shivang learn this the hard way. The pleasure of Nukkad Naatak, written and directed by debutant director Tanmaya Shekhar, is that it both celebrates the culture of the street play and exposes it as a limited means to make a real difference. Where Shivang and Molshri come into their own through their theatre group, they also come to see that the pat solutions they tom-tom in their black-and-red outfits are far more complicated on the ground.
Indeed, Molshri’s spirited idealism is stunted by her privilege: she knows nothing of the hard work of real change. When she sees the peon in their canteen humiliated by his superiors, her knee-jerk reaction is to infiltrate the canteen with Shivang, steal drinks and chocolates, and give them to the peon. It is only when they are caught that she sees that nothing has truly changed through her actions: the peon is unlettered, has a family with several children out of school, and lives in a makeshift tent in the local basti.
Shekhar upends this two-half structure of the nukkad naatak within his film itself. Before the interval, Shivang and Molshri are facing expulsion and are told by the director of ZIT (Danish Husain) that if they manage to enrol five basti children in the local municipal school, they can keep their seats.
Eventually, by hook or by crook (including Shivang desperately raising funds by performing a striptease on a gay cam site), they seem to arrive at their ‘solution’. But after the interval, as Shivang refocuses his attention on cracking the GRE—so he can, as he says, leave India behind—Molshri feels a nagging sense of incompletion. She returns to the basti to find that the children they had sent to school have stopped going.
Confident Filmmaking and Memorable Performances
Nukkad Naatak is a showcase both of earnest, honest storytelling and indeed of earnest, committed filmmaking. Shekhar and Molshri have spent the past months promoting their film themselves, without distributors or a deep-pocketed production house (the two of them are credited as producers).
The fact that a film like this, without backing or money or big stars, has made it to theatres in several cities is already a big thing. That it is also so well made, is the icing. There is a smoothness to the way the film has been put together, a purring professionalism that lifts it above its humble background.
And it is also a triumph for its leads. Both Molshri and Rajpal turn in compelling performances. Molshri’s angular physicality lends itself very well to her spiky, go-getting namesake, her face as filled with determination as it is with a glowing pride in a job well done. Meanwhile, Rajpal has arguably the tougher role, and he really understands Shivang’s struggle and his gradual emergence into himself. The exploration of his inner life as a young gay man is unusual and touching for a film that isn’t primarily about gay people. The point made is true: it isn’t possible to feel motivated to reach out and help others if you haven’t even been able to reach yourself yet.
And I must specially mention Nirmala Hajra, the young first-time actress who plays Chhoti, the girl from the basti whom Molshri comes to see as a personal project. Hajra is incredibly assured in front of the camera, a revelation.
Nukkad Naatak finds its own ‘solution’—or perhaps just its closure—by returning to the format of the street play. It ends on a hopeful, sentimental, and simplistic note—but what better way to illustrate both the hopeful striving of youth and the methods of student activism? This is an encouraging debut for everyone involved and a welcome reminder of ordinary people’s filmmaking dreams.
Nukkad Nataak releases in theatre on 27 February.
(Sahir Avik D'souza is a writer based in Mumbai. His work has been published by Film Companion, TimeOut, The Indian Express and EPW. He is an editorial assistant at Marg magazine.)