The Leading Lady

It is yet another day at the New India theatre in the suburbs of Bombay. The quiet on the street outside suggested it’s a packed house today. Maya Jaiswal, a twenty-one year old naïve yet a bold actress plays the role of the queen; she has been a theatre artist for years now, and everyone loved her for her work.

She enters the dressing room scrambling through the various curtains and quickly gets rid of her jewelry. Senior artist Mohamed Khan, whom she respects a lot and calls him Khansaab fondly; sits on a chair quietly with tears in his eyes, looking at her as she enters. He is the director in the theatre. Khan brought up Maya as she lost her parents at a very young age. Maya inquires why he looked sad ? He answers that he is not sad, but happy that she is living her mother’s dream of being a star. Her mother was a popular actress of her time though she had a terrible marriage, but Maya was the only reason she lived for.

Ram a good-looking man in his mid twenties walks into the room. “Khansaab the play is on!’ he says.

Ram is Maya’s fellow artist, and has been in love with her since childhood, but never dared to propose to her. Ram was also an orphan. Around twenty-five years ago, one sunny afternoon Khan found a newborn baby lay on the ground on a piece of dirty cloth in the theatre’s compound. He was soon the hero of their plays. Maya loved them both. Khan was more than a father or a mother to her, and Ram was more than any elder brother.

Ram is very significant in Maya’s life on both professional and personal fronts. He would go to any extent in protecting Maya. One day he gave feisty blows to a middle-aged wealthy businessman who tried to misbehave with Maya by holding her arms as she rushed back towards the dressing room after performing.

One evening, Ravi Varma, the son of a prominent industrialist, Mr. Vishwanath Varma is here to watch the play. His company Varma Trading is also one of the sponsors of the plays organized by the theatre. He gets impressed watching Maya play a princess.

“She is a wonderful actress. Isn’t she?” Ravi says to his friend who has joined him in the play.

Ravi continues to visit the theatre quite often to watch Maya perform. Maya notices his presence in the front rows as well, and she cannot hide away from feeling happy with the attention she gets, smiling when they have an eye contact.

As days pass Ravi seems to have fallen in love with Maya indeed, and decides to marry her. At the end of that season, as a sponsor, Ravi decides to present them with tokens of esteem, and appreciation with a medal, and a cashmere shawl to all the artists, with Khansaab felicitated at the beginning. Ravi proposes to Maya with a small letter, and a ring along with the shawl expressing his interest in marrying her.

When Khan understands this, he tries to convince Ravi that he should not marry someone whom he has seen only under the bright lights of the theatre as the reality is much different; she has no family background, but Ravi decides to marry her stating that Khan was saying so as he dint want to lose a fine artist like Maya who makes a loyal audience to the theatre, but Khan denies it.

“Please don’t say so, if she decides to marry you, and is happy with you, I am none to stop her after all I am her foster-father am I?” he says.

Ravi’s father is not happy with his son’s decision.

“This is my last word, if you marry her, I won’t give you even a Penny of my assets to you, and you are dead for me!” says Mr. Varma in a very harsh tone.

“Father it’s your choice, but I will only marry her,” Ravi replies confidently.

Ravi and Maya get married soon. They leave Bombay to Pune, living in a small flat as not long ago did he walk out of his father’s property and wealth. Ravi has no job now, and it becomes hard for them to earn their bread and butter. Maya, with still the hunger to act in her belly, suggests she could join a local playhouse to make some money.

One afternoon Maya ends up taking part in a roadside play towards AIDS awareness wherein she plays a teenage girl who is approached by her boyfriend to have consensual sex before marriage without protection. The crowd was a mix of college kids, and middle aged men who glued their eyes to Maya’s tempting body. The crowd catches the attention of Ravi as he is passing by; he is embarrassed watching his wife play on the streets.

“Maya I know you were a part of the theatre, but now you are my wife. You hold the hand of another man and talk about sex in front of strangers on the streets of the town, that is the last thing I would want you to do,” says Ravi.

Maya tries to defend herself saying that she was just playing a part in an awareness campaign. The argument leads to nowhere, but Maya understands that Ravi isn’t all that happy with her acting again.

In a couple of month’s time Ravi’s father is sick, and lay on death-bed. He wished to see his son for one last moment. Ravi rushes to Bombay. Maya receives a letter from Ravi stating that Mr.Varma had expired; he has inherited all his wealth. They were now moving into a plush bungalow in Pune, one of his father’s prime properties.

In a year’s time they bear a son. They name him Mayur. Maya is happy with her family now, but she continues to miss the theatre though. One afternoon as she reads the Times of India, she comes across an ad of the New India theatre group performing their latest production in town. She is surprised and overjoyed. She takes Mayur with her to the theatre without wasting any more time. Maya is so happy to see Khan and Ram after such a long time. They hug and embrace each other. Khan says they had no more sponsors in Bombay, and couldn’t pay the rents so had to look for smaller cities to perform at, hence landed up in Pune. She complains about why they never kept in touch, only to realize later that the letters which Ram wrote to her were all addressed to the small house where they lived earlier. Khan is happy to hold Mayur in his arms, play with him for a while.

The next morning, Maya does not find her husband in his room. She learns from her maid that Ravi left for Bombay early in the morning, and he is going to take a flight to Delhi in the afternoon for some official work. Maya decides to take her son to the theatre to kill some time. At the theatre she learns that the lead actress; who has an ego issue and a drug addict, for their evening plays has walked away with her lover which puts the troupe in an embarrassment. Khan decides to stop the play and refund the ticket monies; but Maya decides to act herself to avoid humiliation to the ensemble.

Ravi misses his flight to Delhi. After he returns home he learns from the maid, that his wife and son are at the theatre. He turns up there to an astonished Maya. The moment he sees his wife performing on the stage he grabs his child and rushes home in annoyance. Maya learns her husband’s anger, and rushes home without getting rid of her queen’s robe, frills and accessories. Little does she apprehend that her husband would never want to see her that way at their home at least?

“So you have even come home with the get-up?” Ravi asks as she enters the bedroom, “I set out to turn a famed actress into a model wife; I must curse my stupidity! You pick up a mongrel dog, and put it on a palanquin, won’t it lick filth when it sees some?” he adds.

Maya tries to elucidate why she chose to act that evening. “Acting is a god given gift to me by birth, if you speak about it with such heinous contempt, then…,” she cries out.

“I shall speak this way, what you’ll do?” says Ravi.

“I shall never forgive you,” she said. “Please don’t humiliate me,” she pleads. “Don’t treat me like a caged bird,” she requests him for some freedom with tears in her eyes and feeling dejected.

Next morning as Maya wakes up she finds a note from Ravi which read, “Maya, you asked for freedom and I am giving it to you, but I am taking my son far away from you. If you wish both of us to live in peace, please don’t try to come back to us or find us as it won’t heal our broken marriage. Don’t think I have abandoned you after our marriage. I am leaving you this house and you shall soon receive the papers. You are free to live in your kingdom of art.”

Maya decides to get back to acting as she believed that the grief and sadness that ordinary people can’t even bear are endured by an artist with a smile. Within a few days time the theatre churns out some magnificent productions, shows loved by one and all. One evening Maya gets witnessed by Karan Kapoor a very famous Bollywood producer. Kapoor and his secretary try to talk to Khan about Maya being given a chance in movies.

“The stage mustn’t limit this talent; let it come to the films,” urges Kapoor.  Maya agrees to move on and be a part of the film industry with a shy “Yes.”

Festive mood sets in the camp but Ram isn’t very pleased about losing Maya yet again to an entity as big as Bollywood.

On a cold rainy night Khan breathes his last. Ram and Maya decided to bring down the curtains at the theatre for one last time, equally distributing all the earnings to the artists before they move to Bombay. As years pass by, with her hard work and sheer determination and talent, Maya is now a critically acclaimed star in the making. With her performances she is now a household name.  Ram is assisting her as a manager.

One evening as she winds up her shooting and tries to get to the car, she is mobbed by a bunch of NRI youngsters who were on a college trip from Dubai. Shekar, a good-looking boy in his early twenties tries to get an autograph, but Maya in hurry pushes his hand away unwittingly, he certainly gets insulted and is extremely embarrassed in front of his friends who now challenge him if he will be ever be able to take actress Mayaji’s autograph. He decides to end up at her home and get it no matter what he may have to face. He succeeds breaching the security which upsets Ram; he gets a few lusty blows from Ram before Maya comes to his rescue hearing the clip-claps. He apologizes for his breach of security explaining all he wanted is to get the autograph of his favorite star.

Maya offers him some soft drink, grabs the bottle of soft drink from her hands before appreciating the taste. This confidence and courage thrill Maya and is quite impressed by this young fan of hers, they have a healthy conversation. Shekar is an NRI boy who lives in Dubai and was here in Bombay with a group of friends. He has plans of never going back and joining his father’s business instead he wanted to be a film journalist.

Shekar seems to follow her every day to her tennis court, swimming pool and end up at home now and then. They get so close that on Shekar inviting her to a New Year party with his friends; she turns up in a gorgeous chiffon sari not to disappoint him. Shekar wins another bet from his friends that evening.  As the paparazzi highlights their relationship in every magazine and newspaper; Ram tries to caution Maya, stating it may have an adverse affect on her as an ageing artist to have a young male company this way in the public eye, but she hardly reacts. Maya abuses Ram one evening on learning that he asked Shekar to leave at the gate of their bungalow telling him never to return.

“Don’t misunderstand me, but when the boy comes here you must not scold or send him away,” she says.

Somehow even Maya loves his company. Losing a male company and her son at such an early age; never did she get married again nor did she have any close friends in such a time, Shekar who keeps her happy is appreciated by her.

As days pass by Maya takes a long break from film projects and decides to perform at a theatre to pay some tribute to Khansaab, which would help her financially too. Ram and she also plan to build a memorial in the fond memory of him with the funds they would make. Ram recalls the last production which he had commissioned a play called “O Lady, I love you!” based on the Roman playwright Lucius Seneca’s Hippolytus; which throws light on the Oedipus Complex theory, wherein a stepmother lusts her stepson as she is not able to find love in her old king anymore. Maya offers Shekar the role of the young son as he is good-looking and very confident too. Ram had his doubts if he would be able to perform this task though.

During the rehearsals Shekar is not all that good in playing the part of the step-son. Maya asks him he to push her away when she braces him, but he fails to do so. She requests him to deliver his dialogues with deep devotion, and not to shrug. They were after all working on the scene which was the heart of the play. As Shekar holds Mayaji tight in his arms when she is playing the part of his step-mom not pushing her away angers her, and she gives him a tight slap. Maya questions in anger about why he is not able to concentrate.

Ram drops the ball. “You don’t know how to look at me with lust, and hence I would not be able to look at you like a son! You couldn’t have slapped me. I am out of this,” says Ravi.

He leaves in anger. Maya is sad as this could have been the last thing she would have done to her best buddy.

For days Shekar does not turn up to Maya’s home for the rehearsal. She gets worried. She asks the servant to check his hotel room, but he returns saying he had checked out. They assume he may have gone back to Dubai to be with his parents. Maya is skipping meals now which have put the entire household in a worry. Ram is worried that he can’t find the whereabouts of this boy.

“What is between you, and him? Now tell me the truth. I won’t tell it to anybody,” asks Ram.

Maya does not answer, but walks away crying.

One evening after an awards ceremony as Maya was to get into her car she is spotted by none other than her husband Ravi Varma who abandoned her 20 years ago. He was in Bombay for a business meeting. Maya is flabbergasted to see him standing in front of her. She soon learns that he moved his business to Dubai; got remarried, and has kids of his own. Maya thinks all the morals are made for a woman after all; a man is able to do anything he wishes to, and realizes her stupid heart couldn’t convince her to remarry though. She requests him if she could meet her son.

Ravi states he cannot afford to introduce her as Mayur’s real mother as the boy grew up believing his father’s second wife as his real mother. As Maya begs that she wished to see her son from far away at the least; Ravi agrees to do so and asks her to come to the coffee shop of the Juhu Centaur Hotel the next day.

Next morning, father hasn’t told his son what the wait is all about; for obvious reasons, as they sip their coffee before the flight to Dubai. Shekar thinks it’s enough of being upset with Mayaji. He decides to meet her before he flies.

“I must see someone urgently; I’ll be back in an hour,” he says to his father.

Ravi tries to convince him not to go as they have a flight in a couple of hours, and they need to rush to the airport, but he leaves assuring he’ll be back in time.

Hiring a cab he is at Maya’s Residence finds out that she is not at home. Maya is on her way to the hotel; she gets to the coffee shop in no time, and finds Ravi on a table at the corner next to the pool. He informs her that Mayur is away to meet a friend; urging her to sit at a different table, so that he doesn’t have to answer questions from his son. Maya requests that they hold a long conversation so that she could see her son.

Maya waits, and waits until the midday sun rises, and so does Shekar at Maya’s home; he wants to rush back to the hotel as well as they have a flight to catch, little worried he leaves for the airport directly sending a note to his father at the hotel to meet him directly at the lobby of the Sahar International Airport with their luggage. Ravi urges Maya to come to the airport as well to get a glimpse of her son. Both drive through the roads in their cars. Ravi moves ahead, but for her bad luck she gets stuck in a traffic jam. Father and son meet at the airport. Shekar is quite sad as he couldn’t see his love, and Ravi doesn’t look all that happy as he is not able to see Maya at the airport as he reaches whilst she is still stuck in the traffic. The announcement for boarding is heard as they move towards the flight; Ravi turns back several times to see if Maya is around? Has she seen her son already? He thinks. By the time Maya reaches the airport, the flight had taken off. Dejected and heartbroken, she feels she has lost her son yet again.

In the flight Shekar asks why they were flying to Dubai so soon.

“I have fixed your marriage, the girl is coming from London; you’d better see her too,” replies Ravi.

Shekar is not all that pleased; he wouldn’t have agreed to leave India if he knew this was on the cards.

“Dad you have found a girl for me, but I have already loved a woman, and have decided to marry her and lead my life with her!” replies Ravi.

Ravi is dumbstruck! He asks who that despicable woman was who has lured him. Shekar says he shouldn’t call her a vile woman as she doesn’t even know about his love for her.

“She is the famous Bollywood film star Maya Jaiswal,” Shekar says smiling.

Ravi is shattered to hear this, he falls off his seat, and Shekar pulls him up. The father embraces his son tight; in tears feeling tricked by time.

“Maya is your mother, she gave birth to you,” he says.

Shekar is shocked, grieved in disbelief. As the flight lands at the Dubai Airport he rushes to the counter, and takes a ticket back to Bombay. Ravi tries to explain to him what had happened in the waiting hall, but little does he listen to him, pushing his father into the floor.

“You are the sinner who separated the mother and son! It’s because of you; I had the filthy wish to tie my mother. I am going to her now. I’ll atone for my sin by serving her with devotion, and your son is dead to you,” he says.

Shekar lands at the Bombay airport, rushes to Maya’s home in a cab as quick he could. As soon as he arrives at her residence, he hurries inside, only to find his mother lay dead on the bed with a bottle of sleeping pills pressed in her cold hand. He shouts “O Mother” holds her feet tightly, kissing it in agony; sits there till the sun sets.

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