I don't take myself seriously: Konkona

The president is coming

Director: Kunal Roy Kapoor

Cast: Konkona Sen Sharma, Shernaz Patel, Namit Das, Ira Dubey, Akarsh Khurana, Vivek Gromber and Anand Tiwari

6 Hands. 2 Birds. 1 Bush!

Close on the heels of the success of Loins of Punjab Presents, writer Anuvab Pal adapts his uproarious satirical play The President is Coming. Starring some of the brightest young talent from the Mumbai theatre scene, and directed by Kunaal Roy Kapur, the play has had close to 20 shows since its opening early this year, establishing itself as the comic stage event of the year. The adaptation to film is also a comment on two issues that obsess the world today - American influence globally, and the rise of modern India.

In 2006, George Bush, President of The United States, visited India. In addition to the many diplomatic and political things on the agenda was a rather unique event - a meeting with one of the young faces responsible for shaping the New India. The US Consulate hires a PR agency that knows America to find 1 young Indian to be the face of the New India before the American president. The agency brings in 6 Young Indians who have been listed in India Today magazine (the biggest English-language weekly in the country) as the "top Indian achievers under 30". The winner is to be selected in a day through a round of bizarre tests that get progressively tougher in a room in the US Consulate. The President will shake their hand among a long line of waiting Indian luminaries, the next day. Each is desperate to win and will resort to any means to do so.

The president is Coming is a project that I have been involved with for two years now, and I have been a part of its evolution from a group of actors reading out pages at a writers workshop, to a full play that continues to run successfully on the Bombay stage, to a film. The script has the two things that I would generally look for when taking on a project, a good story and great characters. The story is farcical, the fact that six Indians would fight over a handshake with the president of the United States seems trivial and unreal, but we see stranger things in our times and people going to extremes over far less than a meeting with a world leader. This premise is merely a tool to extract humor from the bizarre world we live in. The characters are the real stars of the film, they represent the 'young india' that every one seems to be talking about. But they are quite different to the young India we are made to believe exists. Through them we have tried to essay the increasingly diverse youth that inhabit India today. They each have unique motives for meeting with the president, but all of them want to get ahead. They are part of a generation that believes that victory is in another persons defeat, but a lot of their priorities and thoughts on life change during the 24 hour contest, which will determine who gets to meet the President.

THE BUZZ
The film is based on the famous play by Anuvab Pal which premiered at the Royal Court/ Rage Theatre Festival in Mumbai in January 2006. Though the play starred all thearte artists, Konkona Sen Sharma is playing a pivotal role in the film. Whether the film fares as well as the play, is what is to be seen.