Drama Queen

Alia Bhatt has always got the leading roles in her school plays. She always took pride in getting the lead role. After all she was a good actor, was beautiful, and looked elegant on stage.
It was a time in her 10th standard that a play was to be held in the city of Lahore by her school. Her school was based in Karachi. Time was short so everything was done in haste. The selections were done within a day and the teachers who were responsible arranged everything. The students did not know their roles when the plane took off from Karachi. They had to prepare within a day and present their play tomorrow.
As soon as they landed in Lahore, they got busy. They got to the theater where their play was going to be presented and the teachers started telling everyone their role.
Alia Bhatt was given the lead female role as usual. She was very excited to do something so big, in another city.
She was going to be a daughter of a very angry and abusive father. The play was based on how a girl came over all the difficulties to succeed in her career.
First part of the play was fine in which Alia Bhatt had to receive some scolding from her father, who was against her education, and had to say some dialogues on how she will continue her education despite the obstacles.
One scene Alia thought was very embarrassing in which she was made to do uthak baithak, holding her ears by a school teacher. She felt embarrassed that she had to seize her ears and sit and stand so many times while everyone around was watching. Tomorrow it would be even more embarrassing as she will have to do it in front of a huge audience. She didn’t know more humiliation awaited her in the play.
Then came the part which shocked Alia. Alia was supposed to be beaten by her father and then her father had to punish her murga. That meant that she had to become murga on stage.
The beatings were obviously fake, it would be done with a stick made with paper so the hitting will be actual, will look painful but would not be. But becoming murga was real. Alia was shocked by this. She asked the teachers to change the scene. The teachers insisted that to make the play seem more intense they had to show some domestic violence.
Alia: I won’t become murga on stage.
Teacher: you have to dear, you agreed to do this role.
Alia: then I quit.
Teacher: look, please, I know you are a good actor, don’t ruin your reputation.
Then everyone started saying come on Alia, come on Alia. Alia had never faced so much peer pressure.
Teacher: we have no replacements right now, you have to do it.
Alia with a red face agreed to do it. As the rehearsals started Alia felt stiff with embarrassment. First the boy who was playing her father hit her with the stick made with paper. The blows were of course not painful at all. Alia had to pretend that they hurt.
Then came her father’s words,” Murga ban kambhakt.” And Alia did as she was supposed to.
This was the first time she had become murga in real. It was hell after only a minute, not to mention the humiliation. She had to wait till the curtains were drawn which ended the scene. Then she got up. She was red in the face, everyone smiled after looking at her face because it was pretty apparent that she was embarrassed down to her cores.
Teacher: you okay?
Alia: yeah.
Teacher: you look embarrassed.
Alia: why don’t you become murga in front of all these people and see for yourself how I feel.
Teacher: look it is just a play. Nobody is punishing you for real.
That made Alia feel little better. But she didn’t know how well she would be able to handle the situation in front of the audience tomorrow.
Tomorrow:
They all got dressed. Alia Bhatt had 2 dresses. One was a uniform (plain white shalwar kameez) and the other was a normal shalwar kameez. She had to do uthak baithak in the uniform, because it was in the school scene. The murga was supposed to be in the shalwar kameez as that was the home scene. But in the last moment the teacher made some changes. She changed the scene as follows:
Alia Bhatt arrives in home from school. She is still wearing her white uniform when her father gets pissed and starts beating her. And he gives Alia Bhatt murga punishment by saying,” chal ban murga, jaise school me banatay hai, ban murga.” The scene implied that her father thought she was given murga at school.
Alia: why couldn’t you just remove murga. (while making a face)
Teacher: I told you, its important to show irony. The intensity of the play will come out through this scene.
The stage was set. Play started.
When finally the scene came in which Alia was punished in school by doing uthak baithak, the girl who was playing the teacher said to her, “chalo 20 dafa uthak baithak karo.”
And Alia was on her way. When she started, the crowd started counting along with her.
“one…..two……three….”
It was very very humiliating. But Alia did not break her role. She wondered what will happen when she becomes murga.
Then finally that scene came as well. Her father screamed to become murga. And alia molded her body into the murga shape. The crowd cheered and roared. Mainly the sound was of boys. They were enjoying this spectacle.
Alia went red in the face.
At the end of play, Alia had to go to school again, which was a normal scene in which she was shown to be attending class. But her co-actors thought otherwise.
The teacher in the last scene asked her to become murga. Alia was confused. This wasn’t in the script.
Teacher:chalo murga bano.
Alia: teacher kio?
Teacher: apni teacher ki baat nhi mano gi.
Even the real teachers who had organized the play were confused, but they thought since the thing had come out of the teachers mouth, Alia had to do it to end the play properly.
So they started saying from backstage, “Alia do it.”
And Alia became again. The crowd roared again.
This was the most embarrassing moment in her life.
This news spread like wild fire in school. Everybody was amused by the news that the queen bee of the school had to do uthak baithak and become murga on stage. And how at the end of the play she was coaxed into doing it again. Alia bhatt couldn’t show up at school for a week. But when resumed again, she was made fun off. She tried to bring down the whole thing by saying that it was her professionalism.
The End